Editing Base on balls (section)

==History==
In early baseball, there was no concept of a "ball". It was created by the [[NABBP]] in 1863, originally as a sort of unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty: "Should the pitcher repeatedly fail to deliver to the striker fair balls, for the apparent purpose of delaying the game, or for any other cause, the umpire, after warning him, shall call one ball, and if the pitcher persists in such action, two and three balls; when three balls shall have been called, the striker shall be entitled to the first base; and should any base be occupied at that time, each player occupying them shall be entitled to one base without being put out."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://protoball.org/1863_NABBP_Rules|title = 1863 NABBP Rules - Protoball}}</ref><ref>[[Henry Chadwick (writer)|Henry Chadwick]] commented, "Another and far better amendment, which was adopted at this convention, was that of calling balls on the pitcher when he failed to pitch fairly for the bat. Previously the striker alone was punished for unfair play, for “strikes” could be called on him for refusing to strike at fair balls; but the pitcher could send in unfair balls with impunity. The introduction of called balls, however, equalized matters, and the rule now works very advantageously indeed in promoting skilful play."</ref> Note that this rule in effect gave the pitcher 9 balls, since each penalty ball could only be called on a third offense. In 1869 the rule was modified so that only those baserunners forced to advance could advance. From 1871 through 1886, the batter was entitled to call "high" or "low", i.e. above or below the waist; a pitch which failed to conform was "unfair". Certain pitches were defined as automatic balls in 1872: any ball delivered over the batter's head, that hit the ground in front of home plate, was delivered to the opposite side from the batter, or came within one foot of him.<ref>If the pitch actually struck the batter, it was still just an automatic ball; awarding first base on a HBP was first instituted in 1884 in the American Association and 1887 in the National League.</ref>  In 1880, the National League changed the rules so that eight "unfair balls" instead of nine were required for a walk.  In 1884, the National League changed the rules so that six balls were required for a walk.  In 1886, the American Association changed the rules so that six balls instead of seven were required for a walk; however, the National League changed the rules so that seven balls were required for a walk instead of six.  In 1887, the National League and American Association agreed to abide by some uniform rule changes, including, for the first time, a [[strike zone]] which defined balls and strikes by rule rather than the umpire's discretion, and decreased the number of balls required for a walk to five.  In 1889, the National League and the American Association decreased the number of balls required for a walk to four.<ref>{{cite book | year = 2001 | title = 2001 Official Major League Baseball Fact Book | publisher = The Sporting News | location = St. Louis, Missouri | id = 0-89204-646-5 | pages = 276–280}}</ref> 

In 2017, Major League Baseball approved a rule change allowing for a batter to be walked intentionally by having the defending bench signal to the umpire. The move was met with some controversy.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/02/23/516878572/major-league-baseball-poised-to-change-intentional-walk-rule|title=Major League Baseball Poised To Change Intentional Walk Rule|newspaper=NPR|date=23 February 2017|last1=Kennedy|first1=Merrit}}</ref>