Walks: a terrible rule.

From the original Radical Baseball document, June 9, 2006:

4. Walks: a terrible rule.

They should have changed the walk rule no later than 1923 after Babe Ruth walked 170 times. Who goes to the park to root for a walk? OK, my friend Eric but he’s a SABR member. The penalty is not severe enough to deter the defense from simply bypassing the offense’s best batters. The offense must be given a choice. In most cases the manager will be too wimpy to exercise the option, much like football coaches ignore the two-point conversion after a touchdown. However, for a Ruth, Bonds, Pujols, … maybe the manager would be radical.

Here are a couple of options. Decline the walk but continue the at bat. This is cool. Let’s say Barry Bonds is batting and he gets ball four on a 3-1 count. The offense may choose to let Bonds continue batting with the same count. If the count reaches 6 balls, the batter may take two bases. In other words, for each two additional pitches outside the strike zone the batter gets an additional base. There is some risk. The strike count remains the same. So if the count reaches 6-2, Bonds is at risk if he continues. However, the crowd is in a frenzy! Everyone is screaming for Bonds to continue. Ball eight: three bases. All runners move up, as they would with a one base walk. Ball ten: Bonds walks all the way around the bases! That will make the defense think twice about walking the other team’s slugger.

I prefer the option above but here is another. The batter declines. A pinch runner goes to first but is still eligible to play later. The walked batter starts a new at bat. Obviously, if a weak batter walks, he would probably simply take the walk as now happens. But a slugger might bat again.
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Starting in 1903 both the American National Leagues had the same rules for balls and strikes. From 1903 through 1923 at least 100 bases on balls (BB) was achieved 29 times:

Rk	Player	BB	OPS+	Year	Age	Tm	Lg	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	IBB	SO	HBP	SH	SF	GDP	SB	CS	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	Pos
1	Babe Ruth	170	239	1923	28	NYY	AL	152	697	522	151	205	45	13	41	130		93	4	3			17	21	.393	.545	.764	1.309	97/83
2	Babe Ruth	150	255	1920	25	NYY	AL	142	616	458	158	172	36	9	54	135		80	3	5			14	14	.376	.532	.847	1.379	*978/3H1
3	Jimmy Sheckard	147	131	1911	32	CHC	NL	156	704	539	121	149	26	11	4	50		58	3	15			32		.276	.434	.388	.822	*7
4	Babe Ruth	145	238	1921	26	NYY	AL	152	693	540	177	204	44	16	59	168		81	4	4			17	13	.378	.512	.846	1.359	*78/13
5	Jimmy Sheckard	122	103	1912	33	CHC	NL	146	660	523	85	128	22	10	3	44		81	5	10			15		.245	.392	.342	.735	*7
6	Topsy Hartsel	121	138	1905	31	PHA	AL	150	674	538	88	148	22	8	0	28		65	1	14			37		.275	.409	.346	.755	*78
7	Eddie Collins	119	165	1915	28	CHW	AL	155	681	521	118	173	22	10	4	77		27	5	35			46	30	.332	.460	.436	.896	*4
8	Donie Bush	118	90	1915	27	DET	AL	155	703	561	99	128	12	8	1	44		44	2	22			35	27	.228	.364	.283	.648	*6
9	Burt Shotton	118	134	1915	30	SLB	AL	156	683	559	93	158	18	11	1	30		62	2	6			43	32	.283	.409	.360	.769	*79/8H
10	Ty Cobb	118	185	1915	28	DET	AL	156	701	563	144	208	31	13	3	99		43	10	9			96	38	.369	.486	.487	.973	*8
11	Donie Bush	117	97	1912	24	DET	AL	144	643	511	107	118	14	8	2	38		53	3	12			37	18	.231	.377	.301	.679	*6
12	Miller Huggins	116	114	1910	32	STL	NL	151	688	547	101	145	15	6	1	36		46	6	19			34		.265	.399	.320	.719	*4
13	Donie Bush	112	99	1914	26	DET	AL	157	721	596	97	150	18	4	0	32		54	3	10			35	26	.252	.373	.295	.668	*6
14	Burt Shotton	110	127	1916	31	SLB	AL	156	727	614	97	174	23	6	1	36		65	0	4			41	28	.283	.392	.345	.738	*7
15	Johnny Evers	108	115	1910	28	CHC	NL	125	556	433	87	114	11	7	0	28		18	2	13			28		.263	.413	.321	.734	*4
16	Roy Thomas	107	117	1906	32	PHI	NL	142	620	493	81	125	10	7	0	16		44	6	14			22		.254	.393	.302	.695	*8
17	Roy Thomas	107	141	1903	29	PHI	NL	130	607	477	88	156	11	2	1	27		46	3	20			17		.327	.453	.365	.818	*8
18	Topsy Hartsel	106	144	1907	33	PHA	AL	143	624	507	93	142	23	6	3	29		66	0	11			20		.280	.405	.367	.771	*7
19	Jack Graney	105	93	1919	33	CLE	AL	128	586	461	79	108	22	8	1	30		39	3	16			7		.234	.380	.323	.703	*7/H
20	Miller Huggins	105	115	1914	36	STL	NL	148	633	509	85	134	17	4	1	24		63	7	14			32		.263	.396	.318	.714	*4/H
21	Lu Blue	103	116	1921	24	DET	AL	153	711	585	103	180	33	11	5	75		47	5	16			13	17	.308	.416	.427	.843	*3/H
22	Johnny Bates	103	129	1911	28	CIN	NL	148	646	518	89	151	24	13	1	61		59	6	19			33		.292	.415	.394	.808	*8/9
23	Miller Huggins	103	106	1905	27	CIN	NL	149	683	564	117	154	11	8	1	38		46	7	9			27		.273	.392	.326	.718	*4
24	Jack Graney	102	117	1916	30	CLE	AL	155	702	589	106	142	41	14	5	54		72	2	9			10		.241	.355	.384	.739	*7/H8
25	Bob Bescher	102	114	1911	27	CIN	NL	153	716	599	106	165	32	10	1	45		78	5	10			81		.275	.385	.367	.753	*7
Rk	Player	BB	OPS+	Year	Age	Tm	Lg	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	IBB	SO	HBP	SH	SF	GDP	SB	CS	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	Pos
26	Roy Thomas	102	137	1904	30	PHI	NL	139	610	496	92	144	6	6	3	29		61	5	7			28		.290	.416	.345	.761	*8
27	George Burns	101	100	1923	33	CIN	NL	154	724	614	99	168	27	13	3	45		46	0	9			12	14	.274	.376	.375	.751	*9/8
28	Babe Ruth	101	217	1919	24	BOS	AL	130	543	432	103	139	34	12	29	113		58	6	3			7		.322	.456	.657	1.114	*71/3H8
29	Eddie Collins	101	156	1912	25	PHA	AL	153	673	543	137	189	25	11	0	64		28	0	29			63	22	.348	.450	.435	.885	*4

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 6/4/2016.

Ruth did it four times and is the only batter to hit home runs in double figures. Ruth broke the old record of 147 set by Jimmy Sheckard in 1911, then smashed his own record of 150.


Sheckard had 704 plate appearances in 1911 at age 32. His batting average was only .276 but all those BB lifted his On Base Percentage (average) to a National League (NL) leading .434. His Slugging average was only .388. Several of those 29 season listed above had OBP higher than SLG. Not Ruth, of course. Sheckard led the NL again in 1912 with 122 BB. Those were his only seasons with at least 100 BB.

So why did Jimmy Sheckard and other less than notable batters receive 100 BB? Some of it may have been umpiring. In the AL in 1915 Hall of Famer Eddie Collins of the White Sox led with 119 BB, one more than Tigers Cobb and Bush and Brown Shotton, who is best known for managing the 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers in a business suit; Jackie Robinson was a Dodger rookie in 1947.

In 1915 AL BB per game were 3.40, highest from 1903 through 1924. See AL Batting Encyclopedia. In 1920 Ruth hit 54 home runs, more than every other AL team.

Ruth is the only home run hitter listed above. The one season for Cobb, his SLG was only one point higher than OBP.

In 2016 the only batting outcome more boring than BB are SO, which are at record highs. So how about we do something about boring old BB? In addition to the rule changes suggested back in 2006, here's another original Radical Baseball doc tenet: six man batting order. Get those big boppers up at least every other inning. They'd have 1,000 PA.