An Intentional Walk In the Park

[DOUGHBOYS]

Baseball was very different in 1927. The 'live' ball had only been around for awhile. Fans were still getting used to balls going over the fence as an offensive weapon.
And they liked it.
The new style of play fit in well with the 'Roaring 20's. The stock market was crazy good. American's were working. The economy was humming. And baseball was the sport that captured everyone's imagination.
The home run couldn't have come at a better time.

New rules in baseball were still being applied. A ball that bounced on the field before going over the fence, was now considered a ground rule double instead of a home run. A home run near foul territory was not called fair or foul upon where the ball landed, but at the time it left the park.
These rule changes were made at a later time because they were remnants from the dead ball era and made more sense for this time.

But, there was a rule change proposed during the roaring 20's that fans and baseball writers asked for, but never received. If passed, it surely would have changed the game as we know it.
Fans would pay good money to see home runs. Home runs were still relatively new to baseball. At least, in numbers compared to the dead ball era.
When a fan plunked down money to watch a baseball game, they hoped to see a home run.
On the other side of the equation were the pitchers. Pitchers had to change their technique during this time.
They knew of the hitters with power and they would do their best to avoid 'grooving' a ball for a powerful hitter.

Of course, the king of these hitters was Babe Ruth. Ruth changed the face of baseball.
He loved hitting.
The fans loved watching him hit.
Almost as much as pitchers did not want to see him hit.
And after watching him hit, pitchers did something that was relatively new to the game as well.
They pitched around him.
This hardly happened during the dead ball era.
Then, the best hitters wanted to obtain first base in any way. Ty Cobb and others were as feared on the bases as they were in the batter's box.
Worse for the pallet of fans, pitchers intentionally gave Ruth first base with four balls outside that were unhittable.
Some fans were outraged.
Sure, it would happen occasionally as a strategy, but to give a hitter four balls because of the mere presence of the hitter in the box was hard for fans to swallow.
They had paid good money to see Ruth hit and here was a pitcher giving up before the battle began.
Unthinkable.

In 1926, Ruth hit 47 home runs.
More than the next two leaders combined.
Ruth walked 144 times.
An average of almost once per game.
At the end of the 1920 season, after the 'live' ball had just started, there was a movement to ban intentional walks. Pitchers began using this as a weapon to avoid some good hitters with an open base or even a hitter who had had a good history vs. that particular pitcher.
Rule changers said that the intentional walk was unfair and that it must carry a more severe penalty for the defensive team.
The thought was to call an intentional walk, a balk.
This would still allow the batter to take his base, but all runners would advance, not just those that were forced.
The powers that be, thought that this was too severe and the rule changers were voted down.

Now in 1926, the rule changers were back.
Folks that came to Yankee Stadium paid to see Babe Ruth hit home runs and found intentional walks as not being good for the game of baseball.
They went for a rule that was more thought provoking than a mere balk.
They wanted to see their hitter hit, so they proposed the following rule change.
After the four intentional pitches were thrown, the batter would have the option of accepting the walk and going to first base, or retaining his place in the batters box with a 1-0 count.
Now, here's the kicker. If that batter receives three more balls during the same at bat, he would be awarded third base and all runners would score.

Of course this rule change was not adopted. Although baseball felt remorseful that fans did not get to see Babe Ruth hit every time he went to the plate, they felt the intentional walk was a useful weapon for pitchers.
In a time where weapons such as the dead ball, the spit ball, and darkened balls were being taken away from them.

Records were not kept as meticulously in 1926 as they are now. We have no idea how many times the Babe was intentionally walked. What we do know is that it must have been a lot for rule changers wanting the rule changed twice during his reign.
When home runs became the equvilent of yawns during the steroid era. Barry Bonds was intentionally walked 120 times during the course of one season.
No rule changes were called for.
The home run that was relatively novel in the 1920's had become passe.
And the intentional walk, a ploy used even in the 1800's, lives on.



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Just a footnote-
There have been six intentional walks with the bases loaded.
The last two were to Barry Bonds and Josh Hamilton.
The first was to Abner Dalrymple. It was 1881 and it was also the year that Dalrymple hit his first home run.
Others to receive an intentional walk with the bases loaded were Nap Lajoie, Del Bissonette, and Bill Nicholson.
Lajoie, Bonds, and Hamilton were all household names of their times.
The other three, not so much.
But, what they all have in common is that the ploy of walking a hitter with the bases loaded worked each time for the defensive team.
The defensive team won every game.
Although these six