High school baseball season is just beginning and I want to address a rule topic that umpires and even entire associations "struggle to define" the correct rulings. Those rulings pertain to legal or illegal "Pitcher’s Stances". The following may help explain why the confusion.
When someone reads about an action without actually seeing it, it can be difficult to obtain a clear picture. When reading about several actions that are similar but different, gaining a clear understanding becomes even more challenging. Reading about multiple similar actions that are scattered throughout several pages of a small font rule book can cause a ruling to become extremely confusing or incorrect.
The official federation baseball rule book teaches the rules of how the pitcher’s feet are either legal or a balk by using only words. It uses only language scattered on three different pages to describe six similar positions of the pitcher’s feet pertaining to two completely different pitching stances without one illustration. The worst outcome from all this is when an umpire potentially shares an incorrect interpretation with others.
There is an alternative. Baseball Rules in Black and White's chapter titled “Pitching Stances” provides six illustrations each with its own descriptive rule language which also includes the official federation rule and page number for additional easy find reference.
There is no other high school baseball rules resource that completely teaches a reader to recognize if the pitcher’s stance is legal or an illegal stance as effectively as Baseball Rules in Black and White. Being able to both see and read about a pitcher's stance on the same page enhances everyone’s ability to agree if it is a legal stance or a balk.
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