Intentional walk

In baseball, an intentional base on balls, usually referred to as an intentional walk and denoted in baseball scorekeeping by IBB, is a walk issued to a batter by a pitcher with the intent of removing the batter's opportunity to swing at the pitched ball. A pitch that is intentionally thrown far outside the strike zone for this purpose is referred to as an intentional ball.

Informally, it is often referred to as a "four-finger salute." This reference stems from the manager's holding up four fingers to signal an intentional walk to his pitcher or catcher.

As of 2017, the four-pitch intentional walk has been eliminated in Major League Baseball, and batters are automatically awarded first base.

When a batter receives an intentional base on balls, he is entitled to take first base without being put out. Receiving an intentional base on balls does not count as an official at bat for a batter, but does count as a plate appearance and a base on balls. A ball that is thrown intentionally for the purpose of giving up an intentional base on balls is called an intentional ball. A base on balls counts as an intentional base on balls if and only if the final pitch thrown in the plate appearance is an intentional ball, even if not all the pitches are intentional balls.

Before the 1920 season, catchers typically stood far to the side of the plate to receive intentional balls. In an effort to increase scoring and attendance and end the so-called dead ball era, major league baseball team owners (at the annual rules meeting in Chicago on February 9, 1920) attempted to ban the intentional base on balls by instituting a penalty that an intentional ball be counted as a balk (which would award each runner the next base). Veteran NL umpire Hank O'Day argued successfully against the proposal and the owners succeeded only in mandating that "the catcher must stand with both feet within the lines of the catcher's box until the ball leaves the pitcher's hand", a rule still in force today.

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