Quote:
Originally Posted by elly63
One thing that stood out for me as someone who used to be a pretty big ball player but hasn't paid attention in years was the intentional walking of Ohtani.
The new (to me) rules to speed up the game are good and I don't think they affect the integrity of the game but this walking of Ohtani wasn't right.
He was walked five times in a row thus depriving the fans of seeing a star ply his craft and him demonstrating it. What's the point of being a superior talent if you are not allowed to show it? I can see this being a detriment to the game.
Perhaps a rule like a player cannot be intentionally walked twice in a row. Unfortunately, I realize, like his last at bat, he can be fed four balls.
BTW the coverage was fantastic, those shots of the close plays and tags, like getting Ohtani off the bag at second were fantastic. They show how difficult the umpire's job is and what a good job they normally do.
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The only thing that wasn't right about walking Ohtani was waiting until after his 7th inning home run. If they had walked him then, they could have won game 3. I still think Little deserves props for pulling off the "unintentional" intentional walk against Ohtani throwing 4 unhittable balls into the dirt. That's just good strategy when a single home run can win the game.
As for changing the rules... I did see someone suggest that the first intentional walk gets to batter to 1st base, the second to 2nd base, and the third to 3rd base. Wouldn't be terrible, but teams could just try and pull off
unintentional intentional walks to not be penalized.
But for now, the rules are the rules, and intentionally walking is just part of the strategy, and really can't be faulted.
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