According to Stephen A. Smith, for once, Major League Baseball isn’t the last one to the party.
On his The Stephen A. Smith Show, the First Take co-host praised baseball for its attempts to generate fandom and build a fanbase, whether through the advent of the pitch clock, more stolen bases, or no longer relying on the home run to manufacture runs.
But Smith wasn’t just reminiscing; he advocated for a change that could breathe new life into the game. He believes the intentional walk is a relic of a bygone era and advocates for its removal from baseball altogether.
“I only have one wish for baseball, and this is for the manager, this for the players, this for everybody,” began Smith. “Damnit, beat each other; no intentional walks. Don’t have people get stuck in traffic trying to pack 50-60,000 into a baseball stadium, looking forward to seeing some of their favorite baseball players, and then all of a sudden, you come up to bat, whether you’re an Aaron Judge or Shohei Ohtani or Mookie Betts or anybody in between. And guess what? You get to intentionally walk them — eradicate that; test their manhood.
“Say, you’re a professional, you a professional, you go up against each other; mono and mono, let’s get it on. Baseball gets rid of the intentional walk, they eradicate that, and they go about the business of going at one another and competing against one another — that would be the finishing touch to resurrecting this sport for the next generation, meaning this one right now.
“Could you imagine back in the day if you had walked up to Randy Johnson and you had said to him or Roger Clemens or someone along those lines, or (Greg) Maddux and (Tom) Glavine or one of those boys and you said, ‘You know what? We don’t want you pitching to (Mark) McGwire. We don’t want you pitching to Barry Bonds. We want you to intentionally walk them.’ They would’ve looked at you like you was an alien, like you’re an alien. They would’ve told you to get out their damn face.”
Let’s take a step back for a second here. Bonds intentionally walked eight times against Maddux in his career — the most intentional walks that the future Hall of Fame pitcher issued to any batter across his illustrious career.
“100 percent he was,” Maddux said about his infamous quote of Bonds being the easiest guy to pitch to, “because if it mattered, you just walked him. It’s not hard to throw four pitches in the right-handed batting box… He’s locked in. I mean, offensively, it was one of the most incredible years ever. You know, you learn to beat lineups and not hitters.
“I think Barry Bonds was a good example of that. I think Mark McGwire’s an example of that. Tony Gwynn was an example of that. Gary Sheffield, Mike Piazza, there’s just certain guys — you gotta get 27 outs, so you have to pick your fights accordingly. I have to get 27 outs; I don’t have to get Barry Bonds out four times. I just like keep them in the park. I think that was the main objective facing somebody like him was, ‘If I don’t give up a home run, I win.'”
It’s not exactly the same philosophy that Smith tried to embolden. It just looks a bit different now because pitchers aren’t forced to throw four-wide ones to the other batter’s box; they can just point to first and issue an intentional walk. That was done to help speed up the game, something that Smith praised above (the pace of play).
“That is what baseball needs. That kind of attitude, ‘Let’s get it on.’ No intentional walks,” Smith says. “That’s the one thing they need to fix and watch the game soar even more. I’m telling you what I know.”
Smith makes some valid points, but what’s really stopping a pitcher from simply pitching around a hitter without actually issuing an intentional walk? They could still throw everything out of the strike zone during an at-bat to someone like Judge or Bryce Harper.
We saw New York Mets closer Edwin Diaz do just that on Sunday. It backfired, but he didn’t throw a single pitch in the strike zone to the Phillies’ first baseman. In hindsight, Diaz might have been better off signaling for an intentional walk and saving himself four extra pitches.
Eliminating intentional walks might not completely solve the issue Smith is targeting. Pitchers can still avoid top hitters, whether by putting up four fingers or by carefully throwing pitches that are impossible to hit.
In reality, strategic pitching is much harder to sidestep than he makes it out to be.
