Change is part of life. Summer gives way to autumn, children grow into adults, pitchers no longer have to throw four balls for an intentional walk.
Wait, what was that last one?
Major League Baseball, which is on a crusade to speed up games, has decided to do away with the four-pitch intentional walk, replacing it with a signal from the dugout. Going by last year’s total of 923 intentional walks (one every 2.6 games), that amounts to an average of about 25 seconds saved per game. The question for baseball fans is how will they use all of that extra time. Ten jumping jacks? Read two Trump tweets? Watch the bulk of a 30-second Viagra commercial?
For fans of baseball bloopers, the change is especially bad news. Plenty of pitchers have unintentionally thrown the ball over the catcher’s head, sending it all the way to the backstop. More than a few hitters have taken a hack at a ball that wasn’t thrown far enough off the outside edge of home plate. And visiting pitchers instructed to walk a hitter on purpose deserve to be mercilessly booed by the hometown fans.
Change is inevitable in baseball as in life, but it’s a lot harder to accept when it’s so unnecessary.