FAKING TO THIRD BASE AND TRYING A PICKOFF AT FIRST WILL BE A BALK.

FAKING TO THIRD BASE AND TRYING A PICKOFF AT FIRST WILL BE A BALK. Nick sent me the news that if the union consents, it will be a balk if, with runners on at first base and third base, the pitcher fakes to third and tries for a pickoff at first base. This would end a long-standing baseball tradition. The tradition I refer to is the inevitable commentary by announcers about how the play never works. In fact, it does work occasionally, and I have seen it happen. Jim Margalus in this post at the South Side Sox website has four examples from the last three years of it working—and that’s only considering White Sox games. He also has a link to a report of a game in 2000 in which Sean Lowe tried it twice with Johnny Damon on first—and succeeded the second (!) time. What the announcers should be saying is that it ought never to work.