No, baseball, you don't need to be constantly tinkering: Why the automatic intentional walk is pointless
Scott Stinson: For the second time in as many weeks, there's a report that quirky old baseball is on the verge of a rule change
Scott Stinson
Go home, baseball, you're drunk.
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For the second time in as many weeks, there's a report that quirky old baseball is on the verge of a rule change that is intended to speed up the pokey sport. This time it's ESPN saying that the players' union and MLB have agreed to allow automatic intentional walks — the manager would be able to signal a walk from the dugout, and the actual four high-and-away pitches wouldn't have to be thrown.
As with last week's Yahoo report that baseball is ready to let the lower minor leagues experiment with starting extra innings with a runner on second, the proposed rule change is designed to improve baseball by giving fans less of it.
There's not much to say in defence of the intentional walk, a boring play that only very rarely results in anything other than the intended four-pitch pass to first base, but it feels very much like baseball is trying to address the issue of slow play by changing rules that will have very little impact on it. Intentional walks are already on the decline as skepticism has grown about the value of putting an opposing batter on base, no matter the situation. There was an intentional walk about once every 2.5 games last season, and a Wall Street Journal analysis last week found they took less than 40 seconds to complete. Allowing for the time it would still take under automatic-walk rules for the signal to come from the dugout and the batter to proceed to first base, and you're probably looking at a savings of 20 seconds or so, once in every third game, give or take.
Aside from the actual math of the time to be saved, has anyone ever watched a baseball game and complained about the time wasted during an intentional walk? They are usually issued at high-leverage moments during the game, except in National League situations when a manager would rather pitch to a weak-hitting pitcher, which means it's a moment when the crowd is into the game and cheering for a rally to be extended or snuffed out. The intentional walk is 30 seconds or so for everyone to consider the implications of the coming at-bat. People boo. People cheer. The four pitches aren't particularly frustrating in and of themselves.
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But there are all kinds of moments within a game that are frustrating to observers who wouldn't mind seeing things tick along a little more smoothly. Batters step out of the box with regularity, they fiddle with their equipment, there are mound visits from the dugout that literally serve no purpose other than to give someone in the bullpen more time to warm up, and then that pitcher comes into the game and he still gets more time to warm up off the mound. This pitching change is brought to you by Fred's Uptown Chevy Dealers, let's go to commercial. If Major League Baseball really wanted to fundamentally speed up games, there is fat to cut. As with automatic intentional walks, putting runners on base in extra frames would have a discernible impact on only a limited number of games. Fewer than 10% of games go beyond nine innings, and a tiny proportion of those drag into the several-extra-innings scenario that MLB has suggested it wants to stamp out. (Also, beginning the 10th inning with a runner on second suggests the first play will often be a bunt. Exciting!) So, why address pace-of-play issues by taking action on the outliers? Wouldn't it make more sense to change things that happen with regularity?
Sports leagues have become perpetual fiddlers, forever tinkering with the way their games are played
There's a broader issue here, and it isn't limited to baseball: Sports leagues have become perpetual fiddlers, forever tinkering with the way their games are played and officiated in pursuit of some idealized version of the contest where everything is right and proper. But sports will always be fallible, and we long ago passed the point when technology was correctly introduced to correct the obvious injustices. Now it seems like every time a procedure is changed, it creates some new unintended consequence. The NHL introduces offside challenges, and now reviews routinely happen on plays that conclude long after an offensive team has gained the zone. The NFL pushes back the distance for the extra point, and the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history almost didn't happen because the New England kicker botched a one-point conversion in the middle of it. The NBA evolves into a league of three-point bombers, and almost immediately people start talking about moving the three-point line back or introducing a further four-point line. And baseball expands the use of replays, then expands it again, and now two-minute pauses — about four intentional walks' worth of time — happen even on inconsequential plays. MLB was a late adopter to the replay cause, and it was good when they finally realized that reviews could correct game-changing plays. But at some point it becomes change because leagues think they ought to be constantly doing something. The competition committee isn't just going to meet for tea and scones, you know.
I've never been much of a traditionalist with these things, but all the messing about is starting to turn me into one.
Put a bunch of people on a field of play, and the ensuing contest is never going to be perfect, in terms of speed, or fairness, or beauty. Mistakes will be made. It's part of why we watch.
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