Intentional Walks

Intentional walks have no place in the younger youth leagues.

Smart baseball is smart baseball. LL rules state that the catcher must be in the box before the pitcher delivers the pitch. I believe that's the same basic rule through the Professional leagues. The catcher can step outside the box to receive the pitch in a "pitchout". He just can't move outside the catcher's box before the pitcher delivers the ball.

We did one intentional walk to set up a force against a tough batter. We also had a policy of pitching smart ... down and away on the outside corner, and maybe way up and in on the inside corner to get the batter out of his "comfort zone". That resulted in some "almost-intentional" walks.

I had bad umpires walk more kids than my pitchers did this year, in any case.

I understand your feeling about playing the game, versus playing games, but in competative baseball, you win any way you can .. within the rules (and no, I don't mean by being violent or immoral). I believe that teaching competition, and mental toughness is as much a part of the game as learning how to swing a bat or field a ball. The kids can learn a lot of things in baseball, and competition builds character.