Baseball Intentional Base on Balls

• Outline
  • Rules
  • Baseball field
  • Equipment
  • Player rosters
  • Non players
  • Distinctive elements
  • Defensive Players
    • Pitcher (P)
    • Catcher (C)
    • First Baseman (1B)
    • Second Baseman (2B)
    • Third Baseman (3B)
    • Shortstop (SS)
    • Left Fielder (LF)
    • Center Fielder (CF)
    • Right Fielder (RF)
  • Offensive Players
    • Batter
    • Runner
    • Designated Hitter
    • Pinch Hitter
    • Pinch Runner
    • Lead Off
    • Lead Off Hitter
    • Cleanup Hitter
• Gameplay
  • Defensive Play
  • Offensive Play
  • Batting order (1-9)
  • Strategy and tactics
  • Game progress
  • Batting
  • Pitching
  • Base running
  • Fielding

In baseball, an intentional base on balls, usually referred to as an intentional walk and denoted in baseball scorekeeping by IBB, is a walk issued to a batter by a pitcher with the intent of removing the batter's opportunity to swing at the pitched ball. A pitch that is intentionally thrown far outside the strike zone for this purpose is referred to as an intentional ball.

Informally, it is often referred to as a "four-finger salute". This reference stems from the manager's holding up four fingers to signal an intentional walk to his pitcher or catcher.

Rules and scoring

When a batter receives an intentional base on balls, he is entitled to take first base without being put out. Receiving an intentional base on balls does not count as an official at bat for a batter, but does count as a plate appearance and a base on balls. A ball that is thrown intentionally for the purpose of giving up an intentional base on balls is called an intentional ball. A base on balls counts as an intentional base on balls if and only if the final pitch thrown in the plate appearance is an intentional ball, even if not all the pitches are intentional balls.

Before the 1920 season, catchers typically stood far to the side of the plate to receive intentional balls. In an effort to increase scoring and attendance and end the so-called dead ball era, major league baseball team owners (at the annual rules meeting in Chicago on February 9, 1920) attempted to ban the intentional base on balls by instituting a penalty that an intentional ball be counted as a balk (which would award each runner the next base). Veteran NL umpire Hank O'Day argued successfully against the proposal and the owners succeeded only in mandating that "the catcher must stand with both feet within the lines of the catcher’s box until the ball leaves the pitcher’s hand", a rule still in force today.

Technique and usage

When pitching an intentional ball, the pitcher will generally throw to an area several feet outside the plate, where it would be physically impossible for the batter to hit the ball. The pitcher still has to be careful that he doesn't allow runners to advance via a balk or a wild pitch. In addition, the batter can choose to swing at an intentional ball, although this almost never occurs since it is rarely to the batter's advantage. However, in the modern era of baseball (1900 and later), eleven times in Major League history, a batter has swung at a pitch thrown outside for the purpose of intentionally walking the batter and put the ball in play. In 9 of those 11 times the batter reached first base safely (six by hits, one by fielder's choice and two by errors). The batter's team won in all nine of those instances. The most recent such occurrence happened during a June 22, 2006 game between the Florida Marlins and the Baltimore Orioles. The Marlins' Miguel Cabrera hit an intentional ball thrown by Todd Williams during the 10th inning resulting in a run scored for the Marlins that proved to be the game winning run.

Outside the professional leagues however, such as in high school or college baseball but not Little League Baseball, the manager may simply ask the plate umpire to let the batter go to first instead of having the pitcher waste four outside pitches.

Strategy

The purpose of an intentional walk is to bypass the current hitter in order to face the following batter whom the defensive team expects a better chance of getting out, to set up a double play ball by putting a runner on first base, or to set up a force play at any base in situations where the batter's run cannot affect the outcome of the game (ex: bottom of the 9th or beyond, runner on second and third, visiting team ahead by 1). In situations other than these, issuing intentional walks is typically seen as bad strategy, as the danger of them is that an extra runner is now on base for the following hitter. Practically any runner has a better chance of scoring a run from first base (as on a double or triple or two singles, among other following events) through the actions of later batters than the batter has of hitting a home run.

• Outline
  

  SPORTS WORLD

  Baseball

  Baseball is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of nine players each who take turns batting and fielding. The batting team attempts to score runs by hitting a ball that is thrown by the pitcher with a bat swung by the batter, then running counter-clockwise around a series of four bases: first, second, third, and home plate.

  Rules and gameplay: A game is played between two teams, each comprising nine players, that take turns playing offense (batting and baserunning) and defense (pitching and fielding).

  Baseball field: A baseball field, also called a ball field or a baseball diamond, is the field upon which the game of baseball is played.

  Equipment: A rounded, solid wooden or hollow aluminum bat. Wooden bats are traditionally made from ash wood, though maple and bamboo is also sometimes used.

  Player rosters: Roster, or squad, sizes differ between different leagues and different levels of organized play. Major League Baseball teams maintain 25-player active rosters.

  Non players: In the game of baseball, the official scorer is a person appointed by the league to record the events on the field, and to send the official scoring record of the game back to the league offices.

  Distinctive elements: Baseball has certain attributes that set it apart from the other popular team sports in the countries where it has a following, including American and Canadian football, basketball, ice hockey, and soccer.

  Defensive Play: Baseball is unlike most other competitive sports in that the defense is given control of the ball.

  Offensive Play: Batting is the act of facing the opposing pitcher and trying to produce offense for one's team. A batter or hitter is a person whose turn it is to face the pitcher.

  Batting order (1-9): The batting order or batting lineup is the sequence in which the members of the offense take their turns in batting against the pitcher.

  Strategy and tactics: Many of the pre-game and in-game strategic decisions in baseball revolve around a fundamental fact: in general, right-handed batters tend to be more successful against left-handed pitchers and, to an even greater degree, left-handed batters tend to be more successful against right-handed pitchers.

• Baseball Positions
  

  SPORTS WORLD

  Baseball Positions

  At the beginning of each half-inning, the nine players on the fielding team arrange themselves around the field. One of them, the pitcher, stands on the pitcher's mound.

  Defensive Players

  Pitcher (P): The pitcher is the player who throws the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw a walk.

  Catcher (C): When a batter takes his/her turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the (home) umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher.

  First Baseman (1B): First base, or 1B, is the first of four stations on a baseball diamond which must be touched in succession by a baserunner in order to score a run for that player's team.

  Second Baseman (2B): The second baseman often possesses quick hands and feet, needs the ability to get rid of the ball quickly, and must be able to make the pivot on a double play.

  Third Baseman (3B): The third baseman requires good reflexes in reacting to batted balls, as he or she is often the closest infielder (roughly 90–120 feet) to the batter.

  Shortstop (SS): The position is mostly filled by defensive specialists, so shortstops are generally relatively poor batters who bat later in the batting order, with some exceptions.

  Left Fielder (LF): Outfielders must cover large distances - speed, instincts, and quickness in reacting to the ball are key. They must be able to catch fly balls above their head and on the run.

  Center Fielder (CF): A center fielder, abbreviated CF, is the outfielder in baseball who plays defense in center field – the baseball fielding position between left field and right field.

  Right Fielder (RF): Right field is the area of the outfield to the right of a person standing at home plate and facing towards the pitcher's mound.

   

  Offensive Players

  Batter: A batter or hitter is a person whose turn it is to face the pitcher. The three main goals of batters are to become a baserunner, drive runners home, or advance runners along the bases for others to drive home.

  Runner: In general, base running is a tactical part of the game with the goal of eventually reaching home to score a run.

  Designated Hitter: The rule allows teams to have one player, known as the designated hitter (abbreviated DH), to bat in place of the pitcher.

  Pinch Hitter: Batters can be substituted at any time while the ball is dead (not in active play); the manager may use any player who has not yet entered the game as a substitute.

  Pinch Runner: The pinch runner may be faster or otherwise more skilled at base-running than the player for whom the pinch runner has been substituted.

  Lead Off: A lead or lead off is the short distance that a player stands away from their current base.

  Lead Off Hitter: Leadoff hitters must possess certain traits to be successful: they must reach base at a proficient on-base percentage rate and be able to steal bases.

  Cleanup Hitter: Cleanup hitters often have the most power on the team and are typically the team's best power hitter; their job is to "clean up the bases", hence the name.

RESOURCES
This article uses material from the Wikipedia articles "Baseball" and "Intentional base on balls", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.