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Article: The balk goes on in major leagues
- Article from:
- Chicago Sun-Times
- Article date:
- May 16, 1988
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright (null) Chicago Sun-Times. (Hide copyright information)
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The jackass is balky, and baseball's new crackdown on balks is
asinine.
Consider: It took only 41 days to break the season record for
balks. The 357th balk was charged to Atlanta's Rick Mahler Saturday
night with Cardinal Vince Coleman on first base in St. Louis.
All last season, National League pitchers balked 219 times and
American League pitchers were caught 137 times.
The numbers continued to build Sunday with 13 more, so the new
total is 370. But Jim Evans, an AL umpiring crew chief, has hope for
the major league fan.
"Balks are occurring less frequently," Evans said. "That's
either because pitchers are catching on or umpires are enforcing it
less. I can assure you umpires ...