Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/14049
AUGUST 2010 SPORTS & EDUCATION 60 TAKING BACK THE MOUND The mid-90's Baseball action saw the rise of the shortstop and the late 90's to early 00's the power first baseman. We can look further back and see where other positions had their rising star time, and in doing so be reminded of one of baseball's small secrets: the game works in cycles, self-correcting to optimize competition. It seems only fitting, then, that after almost two decades of offensive (over) production, 2010 will be remembered as the year the starting pitcher reclaimed his throne from the offensive titans of the previous two decades. In a sport dominated by statistics, these tell the story of the rise of the starting pitcher: • Four no-hitters, two of which were perfect games. • A third perfect game marred by a blown call on the final out. • A fourth near-perfect game, orchestrated by Reds rookie starter Travis Wood, lost in the ninth inning. • And seven instances of a starter taking a no-hitter into the sixth inning. Before this season, baseball had known only 18 other perfect games in its entire history and has never seen, in the modern era, four no-hitters thrown so soon into the season. Factor in that Cliff Lee, after missing more than a month, has thrown four complete games, an incredible feat if not for the fact that Roy Halladay's already got seven of them. Mix that with Stephen Strasburg's 14 strikeout major league debut, Phil Hughes' 11-2 record, and that compilation of statistics explains why Albert Pujols is struggling to hit .300 and A-Rod is on pace for a sub-30 homer season for the first time since 1997. If we travel back in time to 1968 when the mound was lowered from 15 inches to 10, we see the first in a long line of instances where baseball sided with the batsman. Lowering the mound took away some of the pitcher's leverage, giving the batter a fighting chance against his opponent who had become the more overpowering figure on the field. Imagine that today, the pitcher as the dominant physical specimen. Aside from Randy Johnson and a few other abnormally tall pitchers, how often do we pity the poor slugger standing in the shadows of the looming colossus on the mound? Bats are lighter, balls harder to fly further off the bat, and laces wound tighter to give the pitcher less of a grip, all for the purpose of offense, because that's what sells tickets. Like Big Mac said before the 1998 Home Run Derby: "Chicks dig the long ball." Despite measures taken to increase offensive production, baseball's cyclical nature is beginning to fix the offensive overcorrection. A core of young, talented, hard-throwing starting pitchers have all reached the Majors in quick succession. The way they aggressively attack the strike zone, leading with fastballs that hit the mid to upper 90's show, flashes of what hitters encountered pre-1968. • Stephen Strasburg is only the most recent among this new breed. WRITTEN BY TYLER ANDREWS ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT : RECREATION 2010 MLB MidSeason Roundup: