Baseball numbers
OK, for some of us who grew up loving baseball - loving it friends - a big part of the attractions was always numbers. Maybe we should be confused by the confusion stats can create in chronicling and opining about the Corona.
Heck, stats have always ranged from the end of Twain's lament, "There are lies, damn lies and statistics" to a surefire ticket to Cooperstown.
A pitcher with 300 wins gets a ticket. Ask Phil Neikro, who won 318 games - despite making all of one MLB start before he was 28 years old - by not throwing a baseball fast enough to get a speeding ticket in a school zone.
Then there was the head-scratching careers of, say a Steve Garvey or a Don Mattingly, where the numbers or the lack of longevity either betray their actual impact on the game or diminish their stature among their peers. This is especially true of Garvey, in my opinion, who was the 3-hole hitter and the most feared part of a Dodgers lineup that was the class of the National League after the Big Red Machine got rusty.
I love the numbers of baseball. Always have. In fact, the primary reason I have 20 million baseball cards somewhere in storage in some state south of Lexington and north of Boca was always the numbers.
And this one I saw yesterday encapsulates everything that is different and less enjoyable - and frankly unfixable - about the current state of baseball.
In 1968, the year of the pitcher in which Bob Gibson had an ERA closer to Spy's blood-alcohol number on St. Patty's Day in Savannah, the overall MLB batting average with pitchers batting in both leagues was .237. And remember, pitchers were so, So, SO dominant in 1968, they lowered the mound before the 1969 season and the DH was only a few more years down the round.
So far in this truncated year - and that's with the universal DH mind you - the overall MLB average is .235.
That's staggering right? It also is quite telling.It tells us that runs scored may be hovering around similar points - the Braves averaged 5.22 runs per game in 2019; they average 5.2 so far this season - but the averages are in the cellar.That means homers are more a part of the game than we even care to admit, and while chicks may dig the long ball, the aesthetics of watching walks and Ks and waiting for some dude to find the launch angle for a 3-1 lead are painful.
Through a tenth of the games played compared to last year, the rule tweaks - fewer mound visits, pitchers throwing to at least three hitters or finishing an inning, universal DH, etc. - the average length of a nine-inning game is 3:05. The average length of a nine-inning game last year was 3:05. In 2017 wait for it it was 3:05.
Friends, it's not so much the rules and the length of games - in the late 1990s, when baseball was returning to a brief apex of popularity, games were a smidge under 3 hours, about 10 minutes short than today's average game - it's the pace of said games, and that pace is made exponentially worse by the lack of guys who hit for average.
The average on-base percentage across baseball this year is down nine points from 2019 and flat from five years ago. The batting average across the MLB this year is down 17 points from last year and 16 points from 2015.
And using that five year window, scoring is up - despite the drop in average and almost two fewer hits per game across the big leagues - by half a run per game (9 runs a game today; 8.5 in 2015) and strikeouts are up by two per game (17.44 total Ks per game this year; 15.42 per games in 2015).
It's not the rules, gang, it's the state of today's launch-and-look approach at the plate, and pitchers nibbling rather than pitching to contact because that contact more and more often leaves the yard.
Or, maybe Twain was right.
Say what, Sheriff?
In a decision more apt for a deputy - like Deputy Fife or Deputy Dog - comes news of a Florida sheriff who makes Jim Hammond look like Dr. Anthony Fauci in terms of Corona prevention.
Meet Billy Woods friends, the Sheriff in Marion County in the sunshine state - between Gainesville and Ocala - and his weird new rule.
No masks. Yep, Bill has had his fill. Somewhere the Lone Ranger weeps.
Let's rewind a bit. We talked some Wednesday - and I took that conversation and extended it on today's A2 column - about in large part how the decisions of the Big Ten and the Pac-12 to push football to the spring was the easy decision.
Not everyone agreed with that, and that's fine.
But, other than the immediate family of Woods does anyone think this is anything but the dumbest decision any elected official has made to date?
If you don't want to wear a mask, well, I think you're wrong and somewhat selfish, but hey, that's one thing.
Mandating no masks? That's lunacy.
In an email obtained by ABC News, wrote to his employees on Tuesday that some exceptions will be made, including at courthouses, jails, schools and hospitals but "masks will not be worn" by on-duty employees at any other time.
According to the email, Woods wrote: "Now, I can already hear the whining and just so you know I did not make this decision easily and I have weighed it out for the past 2 weeks. This is no longer a debate nor is it up for discussion."
He later claimed that he "can find the exact same amount of (health) professional that say why we shouldn't" wear masks. Say what?
Even for those of us who squabble about Corona stats, can anyone point to a medical expert who has said it's better NOT to wear a mask?
Sure the story about the Neck Gaiter got some traction earlier this week, and the CDC said not to wear masks with vents or values, but I have not seen a lot of opinions that maskless is better than masked.
NCAA and U.S. Senate... what could possibly go wrong
As we debate whether they should or shouldn't play football, a much-more impactful measure on college sports as we know them is getting pushed down the field.
According to this from SI, several U.S. senators have a written proposal that is self-described as "a college athletes bill of rights" that would seek guaranteed player compensation, long-term health care, lifetime educational scholarships and more.
This was the answer from some heavy-weight left-leaning Senators - presidential wannabes known as Booker, Sanders, Harris, among them - answered the NCAA's request for uniform legislation to govern the changing landscape of Names, Image and Likeness concerns.
And this is the response, and you better buckle up. Here are some of the other demands that the nine Democrats and Sanders have crafted:
> Athletes would be allowed to negotiate group licensing deals - for clothing apparel as well as something like an NCAA football video game - something the NCAA and the Power Five will fight to the end because it will take away from the money Nike and UA and others give Duke hoops, Bama football and Notre Dame in general;
> Removal of all restrictions and penalties attached to school choice and transferring, which would devalue National Letter of Intent and lift all transfer rules and create college sports free agency;
> Create an oversight panel - a de facto union - that would, according to the statement from the legislators, "level the playing field by establishing baseline rules that govern college sports;"
> Give athletes "lifetime scholarships;"
> And, demand more transparency in fiscal reporting from all athletic departments.
So, the NCAA tried to pull an NCAA go-to move and delay the NIL issue and get help from Congress - so the NCAA, you know, didn't have to actually do anything controversial or of consequence - and Congress pulled up a chair, and said, "Sure. And while we're here, we'll be taking these here Huggies and uh whatever cash you got."
And, while Corey Booker is a former NCAA football player at Stanford, the fact that these demands are simply untenable financially without overhauling Title IX will be the first salvo fired back from the NCAA.
Game on.
This and that
- And this from Kentuckysportsradio.com, has UK AD Mitch Barnhardt saying definitively that there will be college basketball and March Madness next year. So, you're saying that the NCAA has buried its head in the sand about football stances but appears to be working feverishly behind the scenes to make sure college hoops - the thing that creates 95-plus percent of the NCAA's total revenue - happens? Shocker.
- Truly enjoyed this column by one of the best pros at the TFP, as Mark Kennedy looked at the amazing life of Russell Pickett, a true American hero who stormed the beaches of Normandy 76 years ago. Rest easy Mr. Pickett, and thank you.
- Man, football and life, let's have a glass of perspective. UMass football coach Walt Bell, who had to tell his team about cancelling the season earlier this week, had this to say about it, according to The Athletic: "You know, my dad passed away in 2008, my biological mom OD'ed in 2012. And to be honest with you, this is probably a tougher day than both of those." So there's that.
- The TFP is doing away with its mug shot caller known as Right2Know. Here's more from TFP editor Alison Gerber. There will be a lot of opinion on this, and for me personally it doesn't really matter - if I get pinched, my mug shot will be in the paper friends - but I do believe no one wants to be judged on their worst day, and for a lot of folks getting arrested constitutes that. Sure, you can counter with, "Well, if you don't want that, well, don't get arrested." But lots of folks do get falsely arrested, too. It's an interesting debate for sure. One thing I noticed is that Right2Know started in September 2010, about six weeks ahead of a little sports department experiment called the 5-at-10. Hmmmmmmmm.
- Speaking of Marion County Sheriff Department, in this story at Clay Travis' Outkick website, there is dash cam footage of this fellow who is completely hammered and gets pulled over for his fourth DUI - this one on his riding lawn mower by the way - who admits he can't do a field sobriety test because, "He's been drinking too much." At least didn't have a mask on right, Sheriff?
- Here's a look at some of the happenings at ESPN 105.1 the Zone as the ESPN national radio line-up gets an overhaul. Love the LeBatard Show. Have high hopes for some of the others. That local show Press Row, well, Paschall and Wells are great. That show will really take off if they get rid of that other loud-mouth on that show. Forget his name, but man, what a gasbag.
Today's questions
True or false Thursday; to that I say true.
True or false, Steve Garvey deserves to be in the Hall. True or false, a compiler like Niekro deserves to be in Cooperstown.
True or false, and we talked about this on Press Row on Wednesday, you should smile in a mug shot. That's a tough one.
True or false, the Senate's proposed "college athletes bill of rights" will do more harm than good for college sports.True or false, there will be a March Madness next March.
As for today, Aug. 13, let's review.
Bonnie and Clyde was released on this day in 1967. Michael Phelps won three golds on this day in Beijing in 2008.
Alfred Hitchcock would have been 121 today. Ben Hogan would have been 108. Fidel Castro would have been 94. Mickey Mantles died on this day in 1995.
It's also National Left-Handers Day. So we have to ask for two Rushmores: The Best left-handed pitchers of all-time and the greatest left-handed athletes of all-time.
Go, and remember the mailbag.