Take a walk

Today is the last day of a short month.  I will write a short post.

The baseball powers-that-be have decided to allow a team to walk a batter without throwing four balls at him.  To speed up the game, they say.  By an average game time of four minutes, apparently.  What will we do with all that time?  Probably squeeze a couple more commercials onto TV.

I don't know how this will work, but someone no doubt has thought it out.  Either the manager or the pitcher will clear his throat, point to the batter, and shout loudly, "I walk thee.  Take thee hence to First Base and trouble us no longer."  And the batter will take his base.

Lots of sports writers agree that it makes sense.  Just like throwing away the "flat iron" or the "thimble" piece in Monopoly.  Or eliminating the center jump after each basket in basketball.

Or, one might say, like hypothetically eliminating the extra point in football.  In pro ball, at least, a successful conversion became virtually automatic.  But they didn't eliminate it.  First they gave the scoring team an option to go for two points.  And now they have moved the ball back another 13 yards from the goal line if it's kicked.  They didn't eliminate a traditional part of the game; they just increased the odds against success.

I've always hoped to see a batter jump out of the batter's box, swing at a ball thrown as part of an intentional walk, and knock it out of the park.  I gather that's considered "bad form," but it shouldn't be.  (Yankee Gary Sanchez came close in September, driving in a run and coming within a hair of a three-run homer.)  I would require an intentional ball to be not only outside the batter's strike zone, but within some other measurable distance -- close enough to make a hit unlikely, but not impossible.  If the ball was outside this arbitrary range, it would result in a multi-base walk. 

Call me old-fashioned.  I just don't like seeing a special rule created for moving a man to first without a pitch being thrown.

If the object is really to shorten the game, I'd limit the number of times a pitcher can yank on the bill of his cap, or scratch under his arms, or spit tobacco, before each pitch.  Or I'd legislate a free stolen base if the pitcher threw to an occupied base twice on the same pitch, trying without success to pick off the runner.

Yeah.   That's what I'd do.