I agree. One of the charms of baseball is the strategy that is involved. What's going to happen? Intentional walks will have to be more subtle. Will there be arguments about whether a walk is intentional or not?
i dont think they are eliminating the intentional walk, just the throwing of four out of the strike zone pitches to make it intentional.
One of the charms of baseball is the strategy that is involved.
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I don’t recall the names of the pitcher, batter or coach/manager. However, I do recall the game where the Oakland As were in a post season game. ...Sorry for lack of detail, but I think this was in the late ‘60s or early ‘70s.
Other team had men on base with 2 outs and dangerous hitter was at bat. The coach or manager talked to pitcher and catcher and they indicated they would intentionally walk the batter, who already had two strikes. The pitcher threw a couple of wide pitches and the batter figured the next one would walk him, so was not paying attention. ....Instead, the pitcher smoked a fast ball right across the plate and ended the inning. .....I fell off the couch laughing!