Taking a pass on intentional walk rule

MLBPA director Clark says players don’t have strong opinions on change

SARASOTA, FLA. — Major league pitchers will no longer have to waste four pitches to deliver an intentional walk, thanks to an MLB rule change approved by the players union this week. Some people aren’t happy about it.

It’s part of an overall MLB strategy to shorten games, but alone, the new rule does little to help in that effort. It takes about a minute to throw those four pitches, and there were only 932 intentional walks in baseball’s nearly 2,500 regular-season games last year. So, on average, the new rule would save roughly 20 seconds per game.

Still, Major League Baseball Players Association executive director Tony Clark indicated that the intentional walk rule change didn’t evoke a strong enough opinion either way by the union membership to justify strong resistance.

“We had guys who f eel very strongly one way, guys who feel very strongly the other way, and a large group that was in the middle,” said Clark, who visited the Ed Smith Stadium complex Thursday to brief the Orioles players on union business. “And that’s inevitably how we got to being OK with it, that we understood both sides of the equation, but the masses were in the middle on this one, so we were able to move forward accordingly. But no, there was no doubt that the opinions ranged from ‘Yes’ to ‘Let’s stay away from it’ throughout.”

That diversity of opinion was reflected in the Orioles clubhouse.

“I don’t particularly care,” reliever and union representative Darren O’Day said. “I don’t think it’ll save that much time. But I have seen some games lost on intentional walks in the minor leagues, and actually I saw one in the big leagues, too. So, there are going to be some pitchers who are strongly in favor of it. I don’t mind doing it. I’ve had plenty of intentional walk practice, so it doesn’t bother me too much. We’re trying to Exhibition opener Lakeland, Fla. Today, 1:05 p.m.