The Passing of The Intentional Walk

Today marked the noteworthy passage in the history of Major League Baseball.

Pitchers will no longer be permitted to throw four pitches to issue an intentional walk. The signal will now be issued by the pitcher's manager subject to the approval of the home plate umpire.

All of this is supposed to quicken the pace of the game.

If MLB wants to quicken the pace of the game they would intentionally remove the number of commercials in between innings.

I think baseball loses something by taking the intentional walk out of the pitcher's hand.

Never again will we see Rollie Fingers and Gene Tenace trick Johnny Bench into striking out in the World Series.

Nor will we see Miguel Cabrera hitting a pitch that got a little too close to the plate for a go-ahead base hit.

For these reasons I shall not give the new intentional walk a free pass.