Baseball is a proud man's game, respect the game, respect the umpires, respect the opponent.

Disrespect is not tolerated - a single act of disrespect (like spiking the baseball) can get you tossed from the game, a batter taking one for the team or igniting a bench-clearing brawl.

An act of disrespect that is often overlooked is the intentional walk - the IW. In a tight situation, a manager employs strategy to intentionally walk a strong hitter in order to face a weak hitter - D-I-S-R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

You don't want to be that guy - getting to the on-deck circle looking up to see the other manager putting up four fingers. Does the IW strategy work? Or does the challenge to a player's manhood results in payback with the bat?

The tables below detail the IW by looking at how the next batter (that guy) did in three parts: games using DH, games not using DH/non-pitcher and games not using DH/pitcher.

Several interesting notes:

• National League games clearly uses this strategy more often than American League games, and in more situations than getting to a pitcher.
• When not going after a pitcher, the use increases as the game progresses.
• The surprise in the data is how often the IW was used in the first inning - for names like Bonds, Guerrero, Howard, Pujols, Fielder, Dunn, etc.
• Over the past 12 years, there were 15,627 IWs for an average of 0.536 per game.

Data: Years 2000-2011 (12 years, roughly 29,160 games)

Table 1: Games with DH

All

5700

5132

1276

.249

19.6

Table 2: Games without DH, non-pitchers

All

9006

8141

1948

.239

22.2

Table 3: Games without DH, pitchers

All

921

892

91

.102

40.6

Conclusion: For pitchers due up next, it appears to be an excellent strategy, with a .102 batting average and 40% strikeout rate.

When it comes to non-pitchers, the data suggests that it works slightly better in National League games, but in a case-by-case basis, a .239/.249 batting average with a 20% strikeout rate would be tempting for a manager to use this strategy.

While overall averages are interesting, let's look at how well the co-hosts of MLB Network's Intentional Talk program did in their careers, Kevin Millar and Chris Rose.

Challenge to Kevin Millar's Manhood

Details of Millar's plate appearances:

• 20 outs, 11 strikeouts, 1 reach on error
• 11 singles, 2 doubles, 1 homer, total hits 14
• 1 HBP, 3 IWs, 7 W

Challenge to Chris Rose's Manhood

DNP

Conclusion: Clearly 1-5 ‘rose' to the occasion. The one home run came on June 8th, 2003, hitting fifth, following Manny Ramirez in the third inning off of Milwaukee's Glendon Rusch.