Thursday, May 13, 2004
This Bonds Was Made For Walking
But the proposed changes in Jayson Stark's column won't work, as he details in much-longer-than-necessary fashion. All a team has to do to avoid the punishable intentional walk is to throw four pitches outside the strike zone while the catcher remains squatted. If we were to say, okay, a batter gets first base on his first one or two walks, and on each walk after that he gets second base, okay, fine.
But what happens after Barry Bonds retires? What next?
We wouldn't have the walk "problem" we do now, because nobody gets walked like Barry Bonds. Nobody. Don't change the rules because of one dominating player who's not long for the game, relatively speaking anyway. He'll retire in a few years, and managers will no longer be the cowards that they are now.
