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Someday, an enterprising baseball writer will break new ground with the book, Great Moments in Intentional Walk History. It will be a relatively short work, in the mode of Yordano Venturas Guide to Baseball Etiquette or Great Icelandic Baseball Heroes.People who enjoy their baseball at a quicker pace regard the busywork entailed in an intentional walk as perhaps the most worthless interlude in the game. To them, its duller than a visit to the Department of Motor Vehicles, and the brief time that the pitcher and catcher spend playing catch isnt long enough to accommodate a restroom break or concession stand visit. So whats the point in continuing it?That thinking helps explain why Major League Baseball might be on the verge of eliminating the routine. As ESPN.coms Jayson Stark recently reported, MLBs competition committee has discussed a package of changes to reduce dead time and help speed the pace of play. One proposed change calls for a batter to take first base on an intentional walk without the formality of the pitcher having to throw four wide.Frankly, Im in favor of the auto walk, Mariners general manager Jerry Dipoto said in an email. Im a baseball history junkie and as a result tend to lean toward tradition. That said, as an industry we really do need to find subtle ways to create a quicker pace if we intend to remain relevant with the next generation of fans.Long-time MLB manager Jim Leyland, now a special assistant with the Detroit Tigers, agrees.Im all for it, Leyland said. Put up four [fingers] and tell the guy to go to first. Every blue moon one gets by the catcher, but Id like to see us put this through. Keep the pace of the game going. To me, its a no-brainer.Some basic math helps frame the debate. The average intentional walk takes 45 seconds to a minute to complete. MLB teams issue 900 to 1,000 intentional walks a season, which means 16 to 17 hours are invested in batteries playing catch. The average MLB season includes about 7,300 hours of game time, so MLB would shorten the season by about 0.2 percent with a change in the rules.Are baseballs decision-makers so intent on squeezing precious minutes and seconds that they make quirkiness obsolete?Theater of the absurdForget about cycles and no-hitters -- celebrated achievements that have occurred 250-300 times each since the start of the modern era in 1900. During that same 116-year span, the intentional walk-turned-hit is only slightly more commonplace than Randy Johnson vaporizing a bird with a pitch, or Adam Wainwright almost hitting a bird with a pitch.?I dont want to lose those moments where you can say, Ive never seen that before, said Phillies broadcaster and former big league pitcher Larry Andersen. If you eliminate the intentional walk, theres a chance youll lose one of those Ive-never-seen-this-before episodes. Those are part of what makes baseball great. Granted, theyre few and far between. But they keep the game a little more entertaining.In a 2011 Society for American Baseball Research article, historian Bill Deane recounted 11 instances in which a hitter swung at a pitch during an intentional walk and put the ball in play. Ty Cobb, Willie Mays and Pete Rose are among the members of this exclusive club.?Like squirrels cavorting on the field, botched IBBs appear every now and then to add a touch of intrigue or hilarity to the regularly scheduled proceedings.? In Game 3 of the 1972 World Series, with the count full on Johnny Bench, Oakland manager Dick Williams visited the mound and made a show of telling reliever Rollie Fingers to go ahead with the intentional walk. Bench, lulled into a false sense of security, stood motionless as As catcher Gene Tenace jumped back behind home plate and caught a fastball on the outer edge for strike three. Years later, Bench told Fingers the incident was the most embarrassing moment of his life.? Catcher Tony Pena, a veteran of 18 big-league seasons, was adept at faking out hitters by stepping outside the box, then hopping back into his crouch and catching strike three before the unsuspecting hitter knew what hit him. San Francisco Giants catcher Brian Johnson was victimized by the ruse during the 1997 season with Houston reliever John Hudek on the mound.?What a dummy I was, Johnson, now a scout with the Giants, said in a text message. Oh well. I guess I fell for the banana in the tailpipe. Johnson took the lapse less personally when informed that Pena also victimized Chili Davis and John Olerud with the ploy.?Perfect! he said. I feel better already.? Terry Francona achieved a distinction as one of the few (if not the only) players to be ejected from a game while receiving an intentional pass.Francona was playing for the Brewers in 1989 when he hit a line drive that Angels outfielder Dante Bichette clearly trapped, but umpire Ken Kaiser mistakenly ruled the play a catch.The atmosphere was still tense several weeks later when Kaiser was working home plate during a Milwaukee-Baltimore game. As pitcher Bob Milacki issued an intentional walk to Francona, Kaiser reportedly cracked, Can you believe theyre intentionally walking you?Replied Francona: If you werent so fat and hustled, you wouldnt have blown that call.Needless to say, Francona never got a chance to take first base.? Miguel Cabrera has made 10 All-Star teams and won two MVP awards, but the most novel sequence in his Hall of Fame-worthy career will never merit a mention on his plaque in Cooperstown.Cabrera was playing for the Marlins in 2006 when he reached out on a careless intentional walk offering from Baltimores Todd Williams and slapped it to center field for a run-scoring single.Upstairs in the booth, Orioles broadcaster Jim Palmer sputtered in exasperation and called it the type of play that happens in Little League.?? In 2004, Barry Bonds drew an astounding 120 intentional walks. The Giants responded by selling a rubber chicken named Walker in the team gift shop, and frustrated fans stood and twirled the chickens whenever opponents refused to challenge Bonds.This is another long-held baseball tradition: Regardless of the circumstances, if a home player is being walked, the home crowd responds with a torrent of boos.I guess its a sign of cowardice, Chicago Cubs broadcaster Jim Deshaies said. Youre not challenging our guy and giving him a chance to perform. Theres kind of a coliseum mindset. Youre half-waiting for them to drag the pitcher off and throw him to the lions because he intentionally walked a guy.For some, a four-pitch nightmareA 2-minute, 47-second YouTube compilation features assorted intentional walk disasters. John Axford, Lance McCullers Jr., Chris Withrow, Steve Cishek and Kevin Jepsen are among the pitchers who had to stew in their embarrassment after a failure to execute the most rudimentary task.?During the second half of Larry Andersens career, this was his reality.Andersen, remembered by many as the guy who was traded for Jeff Bagwell in 1990, made 699 appearances in a productive 17-year career. But as his time in the majors wound down, Andersen suffered from a bad case of the yips when throwing to first base and issuing intentional walks.In hindsight, Andersen says he thinks his problems began with a seemingly innocuous throw when he was pitching for Houston in 1986. In an attempt to pick off Pittsburghs Johnny Ray at first base, Andersen made a wild toss and nearly drilled Pirates first base coach (and his good friend) Tommy Sandt.Doubts began to creep into Andersens mind, and intentional walks elicited a sense of dread. Late in his career, Andersen threw about 90 percent sliders, and he felt off-kilter lobbing the ball home.I dont know of anybody else who threw breaking balls on intentional walks, but I would have been better off if I had done that, he said.Andersen hit rock bottom in a game with a young Craig Biggio behind the plate. As Andersen recalls, he threw the ball to home plate with a slow-pitch softball arc, and Biggio lost it in the lights and was tagged with a passed ball.My catchers had to be in full-on goalie mode, Andersen said. There was no telling where the ball was gonna go.Decades later, Andersen has conceived what he considers a fair compromise in the intentional walk debate.You know how they have a no-fly list for people who cant fly? Andersen said. They should have a no-free pass list for pitchers who cant throw intentional walks. Anybody whos done it five times with no problems, they dont have to make the throws. For somebody like me, they have to force them to do it.Sadistic? Perhaps. But Andersen falls squarely in the misery loves company camp in this debate.Ive gotta be honest -- I dont mind seeing other guys struggle with the same thing, he said. It makes me feel a little bit better about myself.Josh Allen Jaguars Jersey . 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General manager Jarmo Kekalainen told Aaron Portzline of The Columbus Dispatch on Friday that he wants to see Gaboriks contributions go beyond the scoresheet before considering a long-term deal for the soon-to-be unrestricted free agent. TORONTO -- The Toronto Blue Jays have always known they had the potential to break out in a big way after struggling through the first five weeks of the season. The bats have come alive over the last week and the Blue Jays are looking more and more like the team they were expected to be this year. Adam Lind and J.P. Arencibia homered as the Blue Jays crushed the San Francisco Giants 11-3 on Wednesday to extend their winning streak to a season-high four games. Ramon Ortiz worked seven solid innings for the win as Toronto (17-24) hit the double-digit scoring plateau for the third straight game. "Earlier in the year we were having a tough time scoring runs but like weve said before, theres a track record with the guys in this clubhouse," Arencibia said. "Theres too many guys that have done a lot of good things offensively for a long time to have that happen for an extended period of time." April was marked by a quiet Toronto offence, poor pitching and a freefall to the basement of the American League East. May has been more kind now that the bats are going and the quality starts are becoming more frequent. There is still plenty of work to be done and the Blue Jays remain stuck in the division basement. But the big names are starting to get the job done and it has fuelled a sense of optimism. Manager John Gibbons changed his batting order last week in Boston and it has paid off with big results. Melky Cabrera, Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion have all posted impressive numbers since forming a 1-2-3 punch at the top of the order. "We are really swinging the bats now," Gibbons said. "Were on a nice little roll." Toronto had a big first inning for the second straight night against the National League West leaders. The Blue Jays took advantage of some ugly San Francisco defence in a five-run first inning, added three more runs in the second and the rout was on. Giants starter Ryan Vogelsong (1-4) lasted just two innings, giving up six hits, eight runs -- three of them earned -- and two walks. San Francisco manager Bruce Bochy said it felt like "Groundhog Day" on the heels of a 10-6 loss the night before. "Probably the worst thing that could have happened for (Vogelsong) is what happened there," Bochy said. "Thats a lot of work in two innings." San Francisco (23-17) opened the scoring on a comfortable, breezy night at Rogers Centre. Angel Pagan hit a ground-rule double and later scored on a Pablo Sandoval sacrifice fly. Marco Scutaro and Pagan both madee errors in the bottom half of the frame and Toronto made the Giants pay.dddddddddddd Bautista reached base when Scutaro dropped a pop-up in shallow right field. Encarnacion walked and Arencibia hit a sinking liner that Pagan flubbed in centre field, allowing two runs to score. Lind followed with a two-run shot -- his third homer of the season -- and Emilio Bonifacio later added an RBI single. Munenori Kawasaki hit into a double play to end the threat. Cabrera doubled to lead off the second inning and Bautista drove him in with a single. Encarnacion flied out before Arencibia hit a rainbow blast for his 10th homer of the year. Ortiz (1-1) allowed one earned run and six hits to help Toronto sweep the two-game interleague set and record its first home series win of the year. Giants reliever Chad Gaudin entered in the third inning and issued one-out walks to Kawasaki and Cabrera. Bautista drove in a run with a double and Encarnacion cashed in another with a sacrifice fly. San Francisco put runners on the corners in the fourth inning but Ortiz -- who turns 40 this month -- escaped by getting Scutaro to fly out. Toronto added another run in the sixth inning when Brett Lawrie of Langley, B.C., scored from first base after Colby Rasmus doubled down the right-field line. Blue Jays reliever Mickey Storey came on in the eighth inning and gave up a pair of runs. He allowed two hits in the ninth before striking out Joaquin Arias to end it. Announced attendance was 32,863 and the game took two hours 54 minutes to play. Notes: Scutaro extended his hitting streak to 14 games with a ninth-inning single. ... The last time Toronto scored at least 10 runs in three consecutive games was nearly a decade ago (May 30-June 1, 2003). ... Cabrera had MRI exams done on both legs earlier Wednesday. Results revealed only irritation in the right quadriceps and left hamstring. ... Toronto batted around in the first inning for the second straight night. The last time the Blue Jays did that in the first inning of consecutive games was April 10-11, 1994 against the Seattle Mariners and Oakland Athletics. ... The Blue Jays have a day off Thursday and will begin a three-game series against the Yankees on Friday in New York. Torontos Mark Buehrle (1-2) is scheduled to start the opener against Hiroki Kuroda (5-2). ... Torontos odds of winning the World Series have changed significantly since their poor start to the season. In the pre-season, the Blue Jays were a 7-1 pick on the Bodog website to win the World Series. Toronto is now a 22-1 pick. ' ' '