Baseball Rules question

[GoodAsGould]

My friend is telling me you can always blow on your hand or lick it even as long as your off the mound. I thought you can never lick it and can only blow when given the green light by the ump at the begining of the game. Someone clarify it please.

[Benchwarmerjim]

Im pretty sure you cant do it on the mound unless the ump says so

 

but you can go to your mouth if you are off the dirt of the mound

[WHarris1]

8.02

The pitcher shall not --

(a) (1) Bring his pitching hand in contact with his mouth or lips while in the 18 foot circle surrounding the pitching rubber. EXCEPTION: Provided it is agreed to by both managers, the umpire prior to the start of a game played in cold weather, may permit the pitcher to blow on his hand.

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/official_info/offic...s/pitcher_8.jsp

[Wanne]

My friend is telling me you can always blow on your hand or lick it even as long as your off the mound. I thought you can never lick it and can only blow when given the green light by the ump at the begining of the game. Someone clarify it please.

 

My understanding is you can lick your fingers...but off the mound. I thought you could always blow in your hand, on the mound or not. Not sure if there are different interpretations for different levels of ball. But that's what I always had to follow.

[witesoxfan]

My understanding is you can lick your fingers...but off the mound. I thought you could always blow in your hand, on the mound or not. Not sure if there are different interpretations for different levels of ball. But that's what I always had to follow.

 

The agreement is understandable. If it's 100 degrees out, you're not going to be blowing on your hand because you're cold.

[IlliniKrush]

Federation rules actually say that you don't have to be all the way off the mound to go to your mouth; however you must wipe your hand off somewhere on your jersey/pants before going to the ball. You cannot go directly to the ball, as that would be applying a foreign substance to the ball.

 

As far as blowing goes, you have to get the OK from the ump to do that, or you are liable to have a balk called against you. The safe thing to do would be to ask, and also 'wipe' when you are done. Most umps are pretty flexible with this, like if it's 50 or below, they won't have a problem with it.

 

Of course, MLB is a different story as stated above - have to be off the mound completely to go to the mouth.

Edited April 21, 2007 by IlliniKrush