OT Goodbye Intentional Walk

[ripcityboy]

I liked baseball better when it was in the movies.

"Are you saying Jesus Christ can't hit a curveball?!"

 

[riverman]

I never liked the intentional walk in baseball or the intentional foul in basketball...I want to see a pitcher pitch to a great hitter...it's surrender for a less challenging batter...sucks. Imagine how many home runs Barry Bonds would have without the intentional walk. It's like Ali taking a dive fighting Frazier so he can fight an easier fight and win without a battle....wouldn't happen. I also want both leagues to make pitchers bat....never seemed fair to have one league's pitchers batting and the others not...has to have an impact on the world series

 

[Minstrel]

I also want both leagues to make pitchers bat....never seemed fair to have one league's pitchers batting and the others not...has to have an impact on the world series

I'd rather both leagues had the DH. Pitchers swinging futilely (except the one in a thousand pitcher who can handle a bat as well as a below average shortstop) isn't terribly exciting. Automatic outs don't make the game more fun, IMO.

 

[barfo]

I'd vote for not having either the DH or the pitcher bat, just have an 8 man batting rotation.

barfo

 

[MARIS61]

Push the pitcher's mound back 5 feet and everything else will sort itself out.

 

[rasheedfan2005]

Faster pitching wouldnt make it more watchable. Its just a shit game to watch unless its live and you're in the beer garden. Lower the price of beer and i bet theyd get more viewers than pitching time limits.

 

[Nate]

I've always thought that intentional walking was a bullshit rule.

 

[riverman]

I'd rather both leagues had the DH. Pitchers swinging futilely (except the one in a thousand pitcher who can handle a bat as well as a below average shortstop) isn't terribly exciting. Automatic outs don't make the game more fun, IMO.

I disagree....if any player should get a DH it should be a catcher...he's got more gear to deal with and less time to go from offense to defense...actually I'm surprised how many poor hitters are catchers...I'd think they'd read pitches better...pitchers who have to bat tend to go to batting practice...and there are pitchers who can really hit the ball well. To further my point...both leagues should have the same rule regardless....

 

[e_blazer]

As far as I'm concerned, they can speed up baseball the most by just eliminating it and going straight to football and NBA training camp.

 

[riverman]

As far as I'm concerned, they can speed up baseball the most by just eliminating it and going straight to football and NBA training camp.

football.....yuck....the game where you have to huddle and discuss everything or get plays in your helmet speaker....the game that for 3 secs of play takes 20 minutes to get to the next play? FUCK FOOTBALL!!!! A coaches game....refs on camera more than players...takes 3 teams on both sides to perform offense or defense.....what a stupid, beer selling sport

 

[riverman]

Baseball is sport that doesn't work on tv well...but it's a great sport in that every small town in the country has a baseball team...it's also way more popular in the world than American football or basketball. People who don't understand the chess match of baseball will always find it boring..personally I love seeing great pitchers face great hitters..I grew up listening to it on the radio or going to see the local games...great fun. It's the sport I think of when I think of American culture....Americans wear ball caps....not football helmets...never seen a football helmet with national champs written on it...

 

[Minstrel]

As a kid, I enjoyed just watching baseball as my primary activity. As I've gotten older, baseball has become more of a background activity for me--you get into the rhythm of looking at the TV for the pitch. I think that started in high school--I'd do my homework while watching baseball.

 

[e_blazer]

football.....yuck....the game where you have to huddle and discuss everything or get plays in your helmet speaker....the game that for 3 secs of play takes 20 minutes to get to the next play? FUCK FOOTBALL!!!! A coaches game....refs on camera more than players...takes 3 teams on both sides to perform offense or defense.....what a stupid, beer selling sport

I pretty much only watch college until the playoffs because of those very reasons.

Baseball isn't really all that bad. I mean it's not as boring as soccer.

 

[Denny Crane]

Baseball has been televised for many decades, and human rain delays have never really been a problem until recently.

What's great about baseball is that it's a perfect game. The distance between the bases makes it a bang bang play for infield ground outs and stolen bases and so on.

As the players get bigger/stronger/better trained, the dimensions of the field have not needed much tweaking. Only the lowering of the mound in the 60s is the only real modification ever made (that I know of).

You can argue that for football, the players are so big and fast that the field isn't wide enough. Kickers are so strong they moved the kickoff from the 40 to the 35.

You can argue that the basket be raised and the court made bigger for basketball, for similar reasons.

I'd vote to keep baseball as it is. The game has been pure (except for the DH in the minor league) and should be kept such.