Intentional base on balls

The manager defers the decision to intentionally walk the pitcher to see whether the batter swings at bad pitches.

This process is repeated four times, or fewer if the decision to issue an intentional walk is made when there are already one or more balls already on the count.

Pitching an intentional ball, like a point after touchdown in football and a free throw in basketball, is designed not to be automatic.

[4] Most recently, on September 10, 2016, the Tampa Bay Rays opted to walk Gary Sanchez of the hosting New York Yankees.

The catcher could stand at a corner of this triangle to receive the four wide pitches, too far away for the batter to have any chance at hitting the ball.

As the intentional walk became more frequent following the end of the dead ball era, batters such as Babe Ruth complained about the unfairness of it.

To give the batter a better chance (and to potentially increase scoring and attendance), major league baseball team owners (at the annual rules meeting in Chicago on February 9, 1920) initially 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).

Prior to the 2017 season, as part of Major League Baseball's efforts to improve the pace of play, the rules were amended to allow a manager to order an intentional walk by simply signaling the umpire.

[7] Barry Bonds holds most of the records for intentional walks, including four in a nine-inning game (2004), 120 in a season (2004),[8] 668 in his career—more than the next two players on the all-time list, Albert Pujols (309) and Hank Aaron (293), combined[9]— and 21 in the postseason.

Hideki Matsui drew five consecutive intentional walks in a game in Japanese High School Baseball Championship at Koshien Stadium in 1992 and became a nationwide topic of conversation.

On October 5, 1929, in the first game of a Giants-Phillies doubleheader, Chuck Klein took the lead for the season home run title (box score).

This may refer to the game on July 10, in which Cleveland pitcher Joe Shaute purposely walked Ruth three times.

This reference stems from the manager's holding up four fingers to signal an intentional walk to the pitcher or catcher.