A Bounty of Balks ( скачать в хорошем качестве

A Bounty of Balks (

So many interesting things to note in this clip from a Yankees-Royals regular season game in 1979. 40 year-old Jim Kaat comes in to face Darrell Porter (wearing civilian-style glasses) with the bases loaded. Kaat is working extremely quickly by today's standards. On a few of the pitches it seems Porter has to struggle just to be ready to hit. Kaat also seems to balk on every pitch, never coming to a complete stop. That rule was first enforced nine years later, resulting in chaos. As mentioned on Recondite Baseball, "Only six weeks after opening day, Rick Mahler of the Atlanta Braves committed the 357th balk of the 1988 season, breaking the MLB record for most balks in a complete season...with three quarters of the season to play." The out of the baseline call is also interesting for a number of reasons. 1) It seems like a very tight call on the part of the umpire. 2) It's mentioned by the announcers that the line drawn in on the artificial surface counts as the baseline. If so, this would raise the question of how this differs from a grass field where no such line exists. Whitey Herzog comes out to argue and the call does seem a puzzler. For more Baseball History Shorts go to   / baseballhistoryshorts   Video Copyright Major League Baseball