These days, in major league baseball, it's pretty much a given that every team has to have five starting pitchers. How that came to be seems to be a very good question, and yours truly has yet to hear a plausible explanation.
Not that long ago, four starting pitchers were the norm. Further, in those days, nobody kept track of pitch counts. The starter stayed out there until he either began serving up batting practice, or just ran out of gas -- often the same thing. Indeed, there were times when a starter could not only go a full nine innings, but even longer. A couple days ago marked the 22nd anniversary of the Minnesota Twins' Jack Morris' ten inning 1-0 shutout of the Atlanta Braves in Game 7 of the 1991 World Series. It would be 12 years, and over 50,000 major league starts later, before Roy Halladay would match Morris' one day longevity on the mound back in 2003. It hasn't been done since, and likely never will again.
That's because somewhere along the line, for reasons still unknown (as mentioned above), the powers-that-be in baseball concluded starting pitchers needed an extra day of rest between outings. When you think about it, it really doesn't make any sense. After all, they're still throwing the same baseball the same distance to home plate they always have since the game began back in the 1800's.
Yes, some things have changed in the art of pitching. Nobody throws a screwball anymore and knuckleballers are definitely on the endangered species list. Other pitches are a matter of terminology. You'll never hear an announcer talk about a "slider" these days. It's called a "cutter", but it's the same thing. A fastball with a twist. To be sure, the "split-finger" pitch is relatively new to baseball, and Jack Morris himself might have been the first to perfect it. But that pitch, along with all the others, isn't taxing the arms of modern day pitchers any more than they ever did.
These days, thanks to radar guns, we supposedly know how fast every pitch thrown travels. But yours truly is highly skeptical that modern day pitchers throw any harder than their forefathers. An "average" major league fastball is in the low 90's, and an exceptional one in the high 90's.
We'll never know, because radar guns weren't around back then, but I'm pretty sure the guys in the old days could bring the "heat" every bit as much as the modern day studs. Names like Bob Feller, Sandy Koufax, Jim Palmer, Nolan Ryan, Tom Seaver, and Roger Clemens come to mind for starters, no pun intended. There were likely many more.
Who's the hardest throwing pitcher these days? Many would say it's Cincinnati reliever Aroldis Chapman. He routinely tops the 100 MPH mark on the radar gun. Blazing stuff, not to be confused with Blazing Saddles. Don't get me started on that movie. Ahem.
But yours truly would maintain he also had a forerunner that was even more formidable. His name was Ryne Duren. He was a relief pitcher for the Yankees and LA Angels during the late 50's and early 60's. Duren was mostly known for having a blazing fastball and very poor vision. Something like 20-200 with coke bottle glasses. In other words, damn near legally blind. No batter dared "dig-in" against Duren, because they didn't know where the hell he was going to throw it either, but it was going to be really hard. He likely topped the 100 MPH as well. Here's a factoid for you I bet you didn't know -- Duren was the inspiration for the character Ricky "Wild Thing" Vaughan in the movie Major League, according to it's author and director. Plus, Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg was named in honor of him.
Regardless, pitchers seem to be way more coddled these days than they ever were in the past. Be they starters or relievers, the poor dears need their rest. Good grief, back in the old-old days, a really good pitcher would pitch both games of a doubleheader, with just a few minutes rest between games. Nowadays, on the rare occasion there even IS a doubleheader, it's one game in the early afternoon, and the second at night, with a 3-4 hour break in between. Evidently, it's not just the pitchers that have wimped out. The rest of the players now require a little nappy time too, lest they overtax their precious fragile bodies. The old-timers would scoff at such a notion. Maybe a quick shower and a change of uniforms, and they couldn't wait to go out and play the second game.
Times have changed indeed. From warriors to wimps. From players that worked real jobs in the off season to make ends meet, to the fat-cat arrogant multi-millionaires we routinely see today. From happily signing autographs for all the adoring kids to smugly signing endorsement deals for even more millions. From guys that played for the love of the game to guys that only care about a huge paycheck. From an average fan being able to take his/her family to a game and enjoy all the amenities with only a small adjustment to their budget -- to skipping a house payment to do the same thing.
And I, for one, think this whole thing spun out of control a long time ago -- and it's likely to only get worse in the foreseeable future. Enough with the overpaid wimps. I want the warriors back. And being able to afford going to see a few more games wouldn't hurt either.
Hmm. Pretty sure I started this out talking about pitching -- then got carried away with other stuff. Sorry.
But I do have a revolutionary idea on how major league pitching could undergo a radical change. And it just might someday.
Stay tuned....
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