In 1971, the ambitious and erratic owner of the Oakland A’s went all-in to change the number of balls for a walk from four to three.

Highlights

- A “wildly eccentric” owner goes to the library and gets a history of the base-on-balls

- A visiting Nippon Professional Baseball team beats the A’s at their own game

- The A’s owner puts words into the commissioner’s mouth to force the Angels to play

- Charlie Finley pivots to somebody else’s idea, the designated hitter rule, and finds what he was looking for all along

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