Intentional Walk unsportsmanlike?
Tuesday, June 19th, 2007In our Little League board meeting last night, the president of the league refused to consider a person eligible for managing a Little League “Honors” team because of what he considered “unsportsmanlike conduct”. During the regular season, the manager in question “intentionally walked” a particular player from the other team. The manager claimed that this was a strategy: In a game with two outs, and players on 2nd and 3rd, he intentionally walked this particular player to make it easier to get the next out (because all bases are a force out with bases loaded). When this happened, he noticed that the player in question was “rattled”, and didn’t pitch well when their team was on the field. He then chose to intentionally walk this player in a subsequent game. Do you think this is “unsportsmanlike conduct” as the president claims?
