MLB screws up baseball again

You have got to be kidding me!

I'm running out of clouds to yell at (and I'm not that old) when it comes to Major League Baseball. The commissioner and the players association keep changing rules, and the changes aren't for the better.

The announcement Tuesday that intentional walks will no longer require actual pitches being thrown is the latest miscue.

Beginning this season, hitters will be told to "Take your base" or something to that effect when they get near the batter's box. Just like that, they'll make their way to first base. It's all in the name of shaving seconds off the times of games, you know. And yes, we are talking seconds.

Some quick math shows the folly of this decision.

Last season, major league teams issued 932 intentional walks. At four pitches per walk, that's 3,728 pitches. Granted, not every intentional walk included four intentional balls: Some were thrown after the count went to, say, 2-0, 3-0 or 3-1 as teams pitched around batters. But for the sake of this argument, let's say all the wide ones were intentional, with the catcher holding out his arm and all that.

That's 3,728 pitches spread out over the 2,428 regular-season games played in 2016. That is, on average ... 1.54 pitches per game.

So they will save about 15 seconds per game. One of the reasons I am much more a baseball fan than football or basketball is precisely because there is no clock. And by no means do intentional pitch-outs always succeed:



Just play ball, people, just play ball.