Perhaps because they were going nowhere with it, maybe because they couldn't handle it, but the elaborate windup fell in popularity more than five decades ago (see Don Larsen, Bob Turley and other power pitchers who found that better balance/control meant better results). As for the coddling of pitchers along the line, it's been coming since the advent of Little League. What Spahn and Marichal went through to throw a pitch was remarkable, but they were artists who could replicate uncannily, making their monumental 16-inning, 1-0 game even that much more stunning.

how long until "livelier ball" chatter begins?

maybe haren will be put on a stras-like innings count...and at least the attention on haren will take away from what werth's worth was to rizzo

jackie was ironic in the sense that while his athletic prowess rested on speed and quickness, his impact on america was in his slowness to retaliate, despite the dehumanizing burns...he was, at the time of his signing, playing his fourth best sport, having starred at ucla in football, basketball and track...saw him play one game live...in which he stole second (of course)...and ran all the way home when the catcher's late/errant throw went into centerfield

Painstaking analysis...thanks.

insightful assessment; thanks

Incisive article. Have a fantasy partner/pal who was bitten by the umpiring bug a couple of seasons ago. This elicits in me a question: Do umps get into proper position to make calls virtually all the time, or is a lack of diligence on their part at work here? Anyway, pitching is an exacting science in some cases, i.e., Maddux had his druthers at the expense of Javy Lopez's bat. Anyway, it's doubtful the Giants aren't painfully aware of the goings on, and Boche's certainly no stranger to what happens around the plate.

Indeed, Angell has done with words what Maddox did with baseballs -- control them with poetic precision.

painstaking work...valuable and appreciated

only a tad of roberto would be welcome...if more, fine

my roto skills need boosting, and good stuff like this helps; yes, hard to phase the 'stros into the al

ballpark confusion fever: catch it

amen to the previous post from a retired sportswriter...the whole hall thing is sanctimony at its worst; how about a vote for rooms in the hall?

game calling? gimme a break; classic example of statheads in over their craniums; how about name calling? ball scratching

a heartfelt article; a plaque in the hall would be no better tribute; losing someone worthy of love and respect is the great tragedy, particularly someone leaving a wife and three daughters behind

Yep. Smetrics looks at things differently than they were observed before, but whether there is more clarity is questionable. The "science" doesn't always grasp what it reaches for, and the Trout-Miggy case exposes how the situational part of value is omitted. The "argument" that Miggy hit into multiple deepees compared to Trout's few omits the fact that the youngster led off ballgames 140 times or so, eliminating his "opportunity" to incur a DP. And when Miggy did hit into one, did he advance a runner, score one, win a game, perhaps? The game eludes assessment of categories at times. Just because some sacrosanct simpleton decrees that a DP warrants no RBI doesn't make it useless. The '62 Series was won 1-0 by NYY in that humble fashion. It's a situational game, and numbers sometimes just get in the way. When it comes to awards, we deal with opinion, sometimes going way beyond numbers.

The Miami Maudlins has a nice ring to it...

Love the every eight-second reference...actually, I think about Stanton in pinstripes at about that frequency.

a foreward by bud is a step backward

shrewd work; like guthrie's intelligence and work ethic; righting himself after colorado couldn't have been all that easy

even the sacrosanct bbwa clan won't wait...larry jones will be feeling chipper about the first ballot; a fun scan this was, though

what's said about one gm can be said about most; when they're lucky, they're good; unlucky, not so good; with all the goods and bads considered, i go back to sabean's quake of a deal at his outset with sf: dealing matt williams away was a bold, impactful stroke...and jeff kent's career lay in front of him; dealing nathan away, and tossing in liriano, wasn't sabean's greatest moment...but we can play this game with gms up and down the standings

maybe they were just cognizant of trout winning it and decided to give recognition to a couple of teammates or guys they just wanted to show respect for; two foreigners getting props isn't gonna ruin the landscape

you said wells has a full trade clause; actually, it's a fool trade clause...orson welles is more moveable at this juncture

if i read correctly, arod had homers in each of the last times he had faced the big V, and i wondered why he didn't start, though not surprised by it; at any rate, i think girardi has big ones, and think he was the victim of his recent success in the ninth, when ibanez, the savior, was in a bad matchup against coke, who would seem like the answer to arod's prayer, if ever he was going to be saved...as for nunez, he had the kind of at-bat against the almighty V that even an nyy fan has a hard time fathoming

nothing against nix, who sort of defines utility, but if nyy doubts so much the risk of playing nunez at ss, why have they kept him at that position during his minor league upbringing? they've nullified his usefulness/progress...yes, i've seen him afield; just sayin'

the disdain for contact first, power next, has caught up...shutouts in the swing and miss era are soooo easy to come by that throwers are often confused with pitchers...the rally -- once a beautiful thing -- is now a two or three singleton homer thing...no pressure on a thrower who can still wind up and find a willing swing-and-misser

it's quality over quantity, so the bbwa members who rely on accumulation of numbers to support their right to carry their know-it-all card really ought to take a look at that factor; if they can't take in context that both a koufax and kaat are deserving -- for almost opposing reasons -- they are recalcitrant...my pet peeve in this game for almost 80 years now is that the "experts" are most aware of dimaggio as an icon -- but all too few realize his worth as a player...do some mundane homework: check out his road stats vs. those of the acknowledged great hitters...of course, in my mind, your hall needn't be the same as mine, so if i admit ichiro, i really don't need anyone's affirmation

I just want to interrupt to thank Bud Selig for making this possible, and mostly for recognizing that a wildcard team should merit the first two of a five-game series on its home field against the pretender that got into this by lucking out to top its division. Personally, I'd like to invite Mr. Selig to my grandson's first birthday party -- as the pinata.

Nice piece. I'm impressed with Baker's thoughts. I've been a critic of his stance with fans/press in the past, his tantrums against any naysayers. But his view of what the job is about is succinct, complete. It's reflected in his view of Scott Rolen's value.

Clyde Callup is my new fave player

The innings counting is insipid at best, since a perfect game could be registered in 27 pitches...or hundreds, considering max counts and foul balls, etc. Silly moi, I've been following the game for years, before robotics ruled, and I thought the idea was (actually it once was) to try to win it all. One has to wonder that were Rizzo directing one of his films, whether or not John Holmes might have been pulled (so to speak), uh, too soon.

walter alston had no qualms about using "the big jew," as he referred to mr. k; whatever, the career was as magnificent as careers get; today's game is a tad different, so we may never get to know what a strasburg might achieve; the difference is in being asked what you can do rather than being told what you are wanted to do; under today's mindset, even john holmes would be pulled out, so to speak, before finishing

A wonderful article that struck a chord here. Now 79, I virtually (even before electronics) yielded my life to baseball in my unknowning youth -- age 7 as I remember. Then came a life devoted to "following" the sport, a life that took me through a newspaper career -- and one in which I was to not only see The Great DiMaggio play, but to later in life break bread with Him. All through this life I've wondered whether The Game took me away from a Real Life, or whether it gave me one. You hit it on the screws, Mr. Cohen.

were i pitching, i would treat pujols more attentively than, say, mendoza; were i ogling, i'd treat monroe more attentively than i would, say, mother theresa...more like banalysis than analysis

the best baseball stuff often rests on a provocative question, as it should be; it's a game of questions, after all; the best of wood for the hot stove, this

dravecky's courageous career was special

kenny is sharp and direct and was the best espn had, imo; i give him lots of rope on this venture; as for the sabr, it's not always razor sharp, but that's for the statheads to figure out...sometimes, as freud pointed out, a cigar is just a cigar

now maybe they can focus on the promise jesus montero offers instead of the foolishness that dooms his presence because he isn't yadier molina, or even russell martin, behind the plate; neither, famously, was mike piazza; nor is mike napoli...nor was posada fancy with the gear

I'm guessing now that it may have been 1945 or so when I met "Pinky Higgins." A bunch of us kids were gathered on the porch of the corner grocery as we always did, and it was late into the night when a tall, dark stranger in an overcoat, hat, and carrying a brown bag with a bottle in it, ducked in from the rain. In the ensueing minutes, I was in the middle of a pleasant exchange with this stranger, and in no time, he was convinced I knew baseball, which, of course, no one does. I wondered over the years whether it was Pinky or not, but he knew I could rattle off the current names such as Newsome and McCoskey, etc.....And my rear was sore for a day or so thereafter because I got it pretty good for having stayed way too late at the fair, so to speak. I'm 77 now and it doesn't matter whether it was Pinky or not, although. Either way, it's a ghost story...

The parks and ball are smaller, the muscles and injuries bigger. Are the last two connected at the overtraining bone? Should ballplayers be more loose than musclebound (the word itself connotes a too-strong muscle pulling too severely on another). I've always thought it is one thing to think Dr. Andrews is there if needed, and quite another to rely on him. I've seen nothing over 76 years to prove to me that rationing so tightly a kid's throwing of a baseball is a good thing...except, of course, for surgeons. How many Tommy John surgeries have been performed on pitchers who had thrown less than 25 percent of the pitches the threw? Use it or lose it...and you could apply that to Nolan Ryan, Bob Feller or......John Holmes or Tiger Woods.

wtf cares? follow game, make up own mind re the deserving....or not...the idea that a great needs a hall pass from self-serving hall monitors is ludicrous

it was union greed that kept arod from going to bawston, beanhead; and they didn\'t get dice-k for sushi; and their offer for the big cubano who couldn\'t grip ny was more than the yanks\'.....go fish...yhey love nyy in the villain role, hypocrites that they be

I have loved the Stadium since my youth, when I took a 1949 train trip from California to see \"The Great DiMaggio,\" as Hemingway called him in \"The Old Man and the Sea.\" While the place allowed JD to parade his outfield skills, it took so much away from him, too. Ruth didn\'t build the House for him, of course, and the memories will resonate. Thanks for the memory...