Let’s Have a Little Fun with Intentional Walks Gone Wrong

Rest in Peace to the intentional walk and everyone here at The Greedy Pinstripes sends our condolences to anyone affected by its loss. Commissioner of Major League Baseball, alongside the Major League Baseball Players Association, announced this week that the intentional walk as we know it is no longer a thing in Major League Baseball. Instead of the mostly boring four soft tosses well out of the zone before the batter subsequently takes his base opposing managers and players will now simply just wiggle four fingers to signify they want to intentionally walk a player. This must kill the purist fans of the game but for me personally I’m not too up in arms about it. Sure we may miss a blunder here or there, and we will cover just a couple of those blunders here in a moment, but overall it speeds up the game a tad and it does so without changing the face of the game that I love and adore. So without further ado let’s check out and remember a couple of those intentional walk blunders and bloopers that the purist of the fans want to hold deep in their memory. Enjoy. 

Just last season we watched as Gary Sanchez took an intended intentional walk pitch and lofted it into the Yankee Stadium outfield for a sacrifice fly. Sanchez didn’t miss the home run by much and this may go down as my favorite intentional walk blunder if it weren’t for Barry Bonds…. 

Barry Lamar Bonds was one of the most feared hitters in all of Major League Baseball during his prime and this was never more evident than the time Bonds came up to the plate in 1998 with the bases loaded only to draw four straight balls outside for an intentional walk. The Arizona Diamondbacks intentionally and willingly gave the San Francisco Giants a free run by walking Bonds rather than pitch to him with the bases loaded and potentially give up four runs. That’s respect right there. 

Remember way back when Vladimir Guerrero was still wearing a Montreal Expos uniform? Yes kids, the Montreal Expos really were a thing back in my day and yes kids, I realize I am getting old. Anyway, I digress. One time back in 2001 Guerrero actually hit a home run off an intentional walk pitch that will forever go down in the history of intentional walks as one of the absolute best moments in baseball.

The final intentional walk blunder we will cover this afternoon is infamous for all the wrong reasons. John Olerud was at the plate back in 1996 when an intentional walk pitch went awry, kind of. The intentional walk was faked and Olerud was left with the bat on his shoulder when strike three went right down the middle of the plate. Talk about insult to injury.  

I know I probably missed a few, and admittedly I tried to keep them all current and during my lifetime and during my fandom years, so if you have a few please feel free to leave them below in the comments section or by giving us a follow on Twitter @GreedyStripes. Thanks!

ICYMI: MLB Wants To Make Two Rules Changes

By Bryan Van Dusen SEEN HERE: 

During the owners' meetings, a competition committee agreed to a couple of adjustments to MLB rules.

The first change would be to the strike zone. The current strike zone calls for a strike to be called at the bottom of a hitter's kneecap, however the new rule would make it a strike at the top of a hitter's kneecap.

This change isn't exciting or life changing, but it certainly doesn't come without reason.

In 2015, on average, batters struck out 20.4% of the time. However, ten years ago, batters struck out 16.4% of the time. Furthermore, in 2015 20,647 were scored, while in 2005 a total of 22,326 runs were scored. So offense is definitely gone down in the league.

The second change would make it so pitchers would no longer have to throw four balls to intentionally walk a batter. The team could simply signal its intention to walk a batter.

I'm sure many will point out plays such as this...

But let's be honest... how often does something like that happen? More often than not, an intentional walk is the most boring thing that happens in a baseball game. You're just sitting there waiting for those four uneventful pitches before finally getting on with the game.

So while I don't believe either rule change is earth shattering, they are improvements.

NOTE: That while the competition committee has approved these rule changes, they will not be implemented until the rules committee does the same. Also, while rules changes do not need to be approved by them to be implemented, the MLB Players' Association and umpires' union will also get to review the proposed changes before they go into affect.

MLB Wants To Make Two Rules Changes

During the owners' meetings, a competition committee agreed to a couple of adjustments to MLB rules.

The first change would be to the strike zone. The current strike zone calls for a strike to be called at the bottom of a hitter's kneecap, however the new rule would make it a strike at the top of a hitter's kneecap.

This change isn't exciting or life changing, but it certainly doesn't come without reason.

In 2015, on average, batters struck out 20.4% of the time. However, ten years ago, batters struck out 16.4% of the time. Furthermore, in 2015 20,647 were scored, while in 2005 a total of 22,326 runs were scored. So offense is definitely gone down in the league.

The second change would make it so pitchers would no longer have to throw four balls to intentionally walk a batter. The team could simply signal its intention to walk a batter.

I'm sure many will point out plays such as this...

But let's be honest... how often does something like that happen? More often than not, an intentional walk  is the most boring thing that happens in a baseball game. You're just sitting there waiting for those four uneventful pitches before finally getting on with the game.

So while I don't believe either rule change is earth shattering, they are improvements.

NOTE: That while the competition committee has approved these rule changes, they will not be implemented until the rules committee does the same. Also, while rules changes do not need to be approved by them to be implemented, the MLB Players' Association and umpires' union will also get to review the proposed changes before they go into affect.

Can't Predict Baseball: Four Consecutive Double Headers Lost

In an event that I doubt will ever happen again the Boston Red Sox established an American League record for losing four consecutive doubleheaders. The Red Sox amazingly had no other games in between the eight straight losses in doubleheaders making the feat extraordinary. The streak started with four losses to the New York Yankees before the Red Sox went home to Fenway Park to lose four more to the Washington Senators. Four straight doubleheaders is brutal and losing all eight games is historic, just not the history you want to be a part of.

Also on this day in 1985 the San Diego Padres Gary Templeton tied a major league record held by the Yankees Roger Maris by being intentionally walked four times in a game. Maris set the record in 1962 and Templeton was intentionally walked in the 12th inning of this 1985 with the Pittsburgh Pirates, a game that saw Templeton score in that 12th inning before the Pirates scored three in the bottom of the inning to win the game.