Balk or No Balk

[rusnew2]

So tonight in a High School game I was watching the pitcher was pitching from the wind up. He would come set with his throwing hand in his glove in front of him. He would start his motion by slightly stepping back with his free foot as he was adjusting his pivot foot to be parallel with the pitching rubber he would separate his hands and would bring his throwing hand down to his side and would "shake" his gloved hand in front of him (to get an idea of what this shake looked like shake your hand like you are trying to "adjust" your wrist watch into a more comfortable position). then once his pivot foot was in the place where he wanted it to be and as he was raising his leg to kick for his pitch delivery he would bring his hands back together and raise them up behind his head and would then separate them again as part of his "forward" motion delivery. 

The Offensive teams coach was calling for a balk ruling on this but it was never called. My question is, can a pitcher from the wind up separate his hands like that an put his throwing arm back to his side as and then reach back into his glove "part of his motion"? When this happened the ball remained in his glove until the second time he pulled his hand out of the glove.

According to NFHS Rules From the wind up position,

• Before delivering the pitch, he will bring both hands together in front of his body. Once brought together, the pitcher may not separate his hands except to do one of three things:
  • Deliver the pitch to the batter,
  • Step and throw to an occupied base to pick off a batter, or
  • Properly disengage the rubber by stepping backward off the rubber with the pivot foot.
• If the pitcher separates his hands other than for these three reasons, it is a balk.

From what I can tell this "should" be a balk but the rule does not specifically call this out as happening "once he has started his motion"

 

What is the ruling on this?

[maven]

[Mussgrass]

Boy you guys really complain about old threads!

[Velho]

On 4/28/2021 at 6:48 AM, Guest Mikey said:

This looks like an extreme example of what you're describing. I'd like to hear the debate. Legal or illegal?

 

https://youtube.com/shorts/SwRkb657oyo?feature=share

Curious on people's view of this...

[Replacematt]

6 minutes ago, Velho said:

Curious on people's view of this...

Legal. 

[noumpere]

12 hours ago, Velho said:

Curious on people's view of this...

Probably ineffective after the first time. 

 

(Maybe that's not what you were asking.)