Wait until next year

Over at wezen-ball there’s some interesting thoughts on the intentional walk in baseball. While some people think the intentional walk is a valid tactic and part of the game, others are of the opinion that it robs baseball of some of its excitement, as the best batters are often walked, so the fans do not see the best batters actually hit.

I guess I should qualify my thoughts here, before I start. I’m by no means a true baseball scholar, having only followed the sport for a few years now, and only really fallen for it in the past year or so. So, the following may well be ill-informed, ill-judged, or just plain factually wrong. But anyway, here goes.

I can’t see a sensible option that avoids/prevents/outlaws the intentional walk. The pitcher’s job is to limit runs, and he’ll do that no matter what. If intentional walks were no longer part of the game, other less obvious tactics to walk a batter would be used. Perhaps a (secretly intentional) wild pitch or passed ball. And once these tactics are a matter of interpretation (did he mean that or not?) we’re in trouble. At least an intentional walk, is obvious…it’s clearly, well, intended.

Also, as a novice fan, and from looking at the success of other sports, I think the simpler the rules of the game, the better. The intentional walk makes sense within the current rules. Adding too many clauses/additions to the rulebook for particular scenarios is just too confusing or alienating for the average fan. While I can see the point of it, how many fans truly understand the infield fly rule? And would anyone want a game made up of even more rules of that nature?

When it comes to armchair viewing of sport, the finest experience has to be watching the action late into the night. Generally, my regular viewing habits, from childhood onwards, would obviously be during the day and into the evening. We watch the sport that goes on in our own country, in our own time. To stay up late as a child is exciting and exotic enough. To do so and also have the added thrill of sport was a rare treat indeed.

I remember being allowed to have the television in my room to watch England versus Argentina in the 1986 World Cup. Other times I might creep downstairs to watch the overnight sport, on one of the few occasions an event was deemed important enough to be shown live. This was better than any midnight feast.

I think this is such a powerful memory that it remains a genuine pleasure in adulthood. There is that element of nostalgia, remembering how it feel to be staying up to watch something going on halfway across the world and finding the thought of it somewhat overwhelming.

Even in the age of 24-hour sports channels and internet streaming there is still something wonderful about catching the Olympics, or a baseball game or whatever it may be, live, but at such a late hour. Really you should have gone to bed hours ago, but you can’t sleep when there is a stadium full of drama out there. Just like the comfort of late-night radio voices, it is good to know life is still going on, somewhere.

And it feels good to still be that naughty child, sneaking downstairs to turn on the television…

The Chicago Cubs were this afternoon swept aside in the sixth inning when a Grand Slam home run from Willie Harris set the Washington Nationals on their path to victory. At Wrigley Field the Cubs had pressed the home advantage early on, looking dominant as they went 4-0 up in four innings, including home runs from Mark DeRosa and Derrek Lee. The Nationals were living up to their record as the worst in baseball. However, soon they would be humbling the Cubs, the strongest team in the National League. The game hinged on the sixth inning. Washington clawed back two, and a change of pitcher, from Jason Marquis to Neal Cotts could not stop their momentum, with Harris’ grand slam turning the game on its head, as the Nationals went 6-4 up. Runs were traded in the seventh innings, but soon the Nationals pulled away to win 13-5, with Harris adding a two-run homer and Aaron Boone hitting a three-run double against Chad Gaudin.