Will Major Leagues Give Up on Crackdown? NL Did in 1963

There is precedent if baseball chooses to withdraw or rewrite the tougher interpretation of the balk rule.

In 1963, Warren Giles, then president of the National League, issued a directive ordering his umpires to crack down on pitchers, making them come to a complete stop in the set position.

Chaos followed. There was a record number of balks called, in addition to arguments among the umpires themselves for being too lax or too vigilant.

By the end of May, Giles withdrew his directive.

There has been some suspicion that Bobby Brown and Bart Giamatti, the American and National league presidents, were going to take a similar course when they met with their umpire supervisors in New York Wednesday.

All that evolved, however, was a statement in which the presidents said the new rule was implemented to produce a consistent interpretation in the two leagues and not an increase in stolen bases. They said umpires were correctly enforcing it.

Will pressure mount, forcing the leagues to reconsider and withdraw or dilute the rule?

Said one AL general manager: “All I can tell you is that there is widespread concern about the possibility of a season in which hundreds of balks are called. There is a feeling that something should be done before it gets any more out of hand.”