Base Instincts
Base Instincts is a Team Blood Type Modification, first seen during the Season β8 Election as a result of the Base Instincts blessing. It is an Exclusive Modification of the Hellmouth Sunbeams.
Effects
Batters playing on a Team with the Base Instincts Modification will occasionally walk additional bases when drawing a walk. If the bases are already occupied, batters on those bases will move to the next free base. Any player(s) that walk back to home in this fashion and score a run will count as an RBI for the batter who was walked.
It is unknown whether a particularly audacious player with Base Instincts could draw a walk, then immediately walk through all available bases and immediately score a run.
History
Base Instincts was first seen during the Season β8 Election, granted from the Blessing of the same name, with the description "Succumb. Give your Team Base Blood Type.".
The Hellmouth Sunbeams won this blessing, with the following message:
- Base Instincts blessed the Hellmouth Sunbeams.
- Blood Transfusion.
- All of the Hellmouth Sunbeams' players now have Base blood type!
- The Hellmouth Sunbeams now have Base Instincts!
- The Sunbeams had 15% of the Votes. The Baltimore Crabs were the highest bidders with 32% of the votes. 527,565 votes were cast.
Leadoff batter Hahn Fox was the first to activate the modification on Season β9, Day 6, walking to second base, while Igneus Delacruz was the first to "bat in" a run on Day 10. Not long after, Nagomi Nava (the most prolific walker in Internet League Blaseball, with over 1,000 bases on balls recorded by the end of the Expansion Era) executed the fabled three-RBI walk on Day 25 by walking directly to third base with bases loaded.
A Blood Type
The Charleston Shoe Thieves gained A Blood Type in the Season β18 Elections, giving them a random Blood Type modification each game. They activated Base Instincts for the first time on Season β19, Day 31, when Esme Ramsey drew a walk and proceeded directly to second base. The Shoe Thieves scored for the first time using Base Instincts on Day 37, when Oliver Loofah walked to third base and allowed Simon Haley to advance home.
Trivia
- On Season β17 Day 91, the Sunbeams played against the Houston Spies, who possessed the Psychic modification. The Solarium's PsychoAcoustics echoed Psychic to the Sunbeams, giving them it in addition to their Base Instincts Modification. When struck out, Sunbeams batter Hendricks Richardson first used a Mind Trick to walk to first, then Base Instincts to head to second. This was the first time a player made use of two blood types simultaneously.
- While no player has managed to use Base Instincts to immediately walk home and score a run, it *is* possible to walk directly to fourth base if Fifth Base is in play. This has occurred exactly once, on Season β10 Day 97, when Sigmund Castillo walked directly to fourth base in their first plate appearance for the game.
