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opinion:
our view
Stodgy rules limit
merit
Some people have the
worst luck.
Randy Johnson,
one of baseball all-time best pitchers, has been a frequent
sufferer of scant run support from his teammates, giving him
far fewer career wins then he should have. He can now add
baseball's official scorekeepers to his list of enemies.
Johnson struck
out 20 Cincinnati Reds in a game last week, tying the major
league best for nine innings, but the score was tied after
nine innings and Johnson did not earn the decision.
The number crunchers
at the Elias Sports Bureau, the official statisticians for
Major League Baseball, have decided that Johnson's 20-strikeout
performance is not the equal of Kerry Wood and Roger Clemens,
the other hurlers who hit the magic number during a game.
Since Wood and
Clemens racked up their strikeout during complete nine inning
games and Johnson's game went into extra innings, Johnson
is ineligible, even though he only pitched through nine.
Johnson is eligible
for the extra inning record, and in fact equals the National
League mark, but that does not have the same aura of the nine-inning
record.
Since Johnson completed
the feat during the first nine innings, he should be included
in the record books under that listing.
Baseball has a
history of fudging the rules to preserve the mythical tradition
of the game.
Billy Crystal's
recent HBO film, "*61," chronicles Roger Maris'
ordeal when he challenged Babe Ruth record of 60 home runs
in a season. Commissioner Ford Frick, who was a friend of
Ruth's decided that since the season Maris played in was eight
games longer the Ruth's, the record was unofficial and required
an asterisk in the record books.
Since no concern
was raised for any other record the asterisk was only intended
to preserve the Ruth myth. The asterisk was not removed until
1991, six years after Maris' death.
More than any other
American sport, baseball has the most tradition and history
to preserve. Preserving that history should not come at the
expense of legitimate progress.
Keeping Randy Johnson
excluded from the strikeout is a capricious and arbitrary
decision that Commissioner Bud Selig should overturn.
Having three names
under that heading in the official record book will not imperil
the sanctity of the game.
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