Bill Conlin: A massacre of baseball's records
Bill Conlin: A massacre of baseball's records
THERE IS A SCENE in "The Godfather" where Vito Corleone has just called in the favor owed him by Amerigo Bonasero, the undertaker. He is to use all his powers to make the ambushed Sonny presentable for a traditional "family" viewing. He draws back the sheet covering his son and sobs for the only time in the film.
The Godfather says, "Look how they massacred my boy . . . "
That weird and disconnected image popped into my head when the BBWAA announced yesterday that Giants contortionist and party animal Tim Lincecum has won his second straight NL Cy Young Award. Not too shabby when you consider the undersized contradiction of everything scouts look for in a righthander has now won it twice in his three big-league seasons.
This time he did it with 15 victories - 15-7 to be exact - 2 days after Kansas City righthander Zack Greinke won the AL Cy with 16 Ws. Greinke had just tied D'Backs 2006 winner Brandon Webb (more on him later) for the fewest victories in a full regular season by a Cy Young winner. Well, records were made to be broken, right? And Lincecum greased under the Webb-Greinke bottom shelf in the pantheon of pitching paucity.
I pictured Bud Selig whipping a mortician's sheet off a record book that has become as riddled as the .44 caliber corpse of Sonny Corleone. Records sundered by the move from the 154-game schedule to 162 . . . Pages mutilated by the needle-tracks of the Steroid Era, a huge spike that began with the Mark McGwire-Sammy Sosa andro-a-andro and went from the suspiciously sublime to the no-doubt-about-it ridiculous when Barry Bonds turned baseball's toughest home run park into the Pac Bell phone booth . . . And now that the postseason has been extended to a possible 19 games for the World Series survivors, Mr. October has become Mr. Octember. Those Series records set before the Pastime went the best-of-5 LCS format, to best-of-7 and, finally, to the best-of-5 division series are now stale toast.
All of it meanders over so much down time to accommodate a second-tier cable network that the Phillies actually had to play a simulated game to keep the lads sharp for the NLCS. The Yankees' 15-game march to a 27th World Series title was spread over 29 days. Hell, Joe Girardi might have been able to get away with a two-man rotation if TBS and Fox had decreed a few more lay days to prop up their sagging ratings.
So I pictured that shredded repository of all that is Scriptural about baseball, the lengthened shadow of fine print that comprises its history and greatness . . .
And I muttered, "Look at how they've massacred our record book."
The only group walking the Earth scarier than the Global-Warmingistas are the Pitch-Countniks.
They're the reason the games are an ugly, split-screen parade of pitching-coach visits, manager slow-walks, followed by pitcher-after-pitcher marching in from the bullpens. Left-right, left-right, backward-march. At the same time - and thank you Charlie for such a useful, boomerang segue - the fans are parading to the concession stands. Does anybody think there is a connection to the NFL pace baseball is forcing on its game to the frequent late-inning stoppages that have turned the eighth and ninth innings into the final 2 minutes of an NBA game? I'm waiting for the MLB Rules Committee to put in a 20-second timeout so the on-deck hitter can stroll back to the dugout for instructions.
It goes without saying that the 300-game winner will take its place with the dinosaur, auk and dodo. The 250-game winner is sure to become as endangered as the Florida panther. The next 30-game winner? Denny McLain, your 31-6 is safe.
Ponder this little bit of shrinkage:
The player walkout in 1994 that led to the scrapping of the postseason and an abridged 1995 schedule left the Atlanta Braves sitting on 114 games. Greg Maddux missed approximately 12 starts. But he won the Cy Young Award with a 16-6 record. He had 10 complete games.
The infamous walkout of 1981 that produced Dallas Green's "split-fluffing season" and foreshadowed the coming of the wild card and division series format ripped 50 games out from the heart of the schedule. Fernando Valenzuela won the Cy with a 13-7 mark. The Dodgers lefthander was deprived of 10 starts. He had 11 complete games.
Tim had a career high four complete games.
Meanwhile, you may have noticed that Brandon Webb, runnerup to Lincecum last year with 22 victories (four more than Tim managed), worked four innings last season, gave up six runs, six hits and finally had shoulder surgery about 4 months too late. The D'Backs have nervously picked up his expensive 2010 option. Two-time AL Cy Young winner Johan Santana was at the head of the Mets' massive casualty list. He had elbow surgery in August and has 5 years left on his $137.5 million contract.
Match these enormous multiyear fiascos with the probabilities of pitchers breaking down and you have the root cause of why the 20-game winner, 300-game winner and 300-inning pitcher will vanish faster than the setting sun.
Dr. James R. Andrews and Dr. Frank Jobe understand.
They are to a game controlled by Scott Boras at one end and Bud Selig at the other what Amerigo Bonasero was to Vito Corleone.
Where is Michael when baseball needs him?
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