(Sorry for the length of this post. Feeling a little verklempt about losing Santo today and getting lost in writing a post is good potion)
No game enjoys their numbers like baseball.
Heck, with sports in general, names ARE numbers. Mickey Mantle is 7. Marino 13, etc...
Growing up, there were numbers that we automatically connected to baseball. 2,130, 714, 60, 61*, and 56.
These numbers were sacred for generations. 2,130 straight games is still a more memorable number, for me, than 2,632. Not a knock on Ripken, I'm sure this generation will remember 2,632, as our generation revered, 2,130 by Gehrig.
Growing up, 2,130 was the record that most thought would not be broken. Afterall, it took an incurable disease, even still today, to stop the Iron Horse.
Even with that legacy, Lou had a little help.
At the time, it was up to each home team to decide whether a game should be rained out. Early one morning, well before fans would start showing up for a Yankees game and with just a few clouds in the sky, a Yankees game was postponed because of rain. Possibly, the only time a game had been called on account of rain, without a raindrop.
It was pure coincidence that Lou Gehrig was laid up in bed with 104 degree temperature.
60 and 61* are still the home run records for me. Each fan treats the home run record in their own way. Of course, Maris' 61 homers does not deserve an asterisk, but it lends a uniqueness to the lore of the record. I know in the back of my brain that Bonds hit 73 home runs. I consider it a product of the era. I do not recognize those records, as records. Bonds has a place in the official baseball records, it doesn't have to be in mine.
Just as an aside. I have a friend of mine that believes that Barry Bonds was the greatest player of all time. Of course using numbers as his weapon of choice.
In the course of making my arguments for Willie Mays, I mentioned that Mays was the ultimate five-tool player. He argued that Bonds, also, was a five tool player as well.
I retorted that Bonds was a SIX-tool player.
Even he, had to laugh.
The number 714 will always have a place in my heart. At the beginning of the tv show 'Dragnet', they showed Sergeant Joe Friday's badge. The number on the badge was 714. The first time watching the show, I blurted out to my parents that that was how many home runs Babe Ruth hit. They responded with a smiling eye roll.
Watching Aaron and Mays pile up home runs year after year, the record still seemed unbreakable. Through greatness and longevity, Aaron set a new standard at 755. I know that Bonds topped that number, but seriously, I don't know the number, nor care. Whatever the number, it'll never be revered as much as 714 or 755 was for their generations.
By the way, not a lot of folks know this, but if not for two rules at the time, Babe Ruth may still hold the record to this day.
Back then, a walkoff home run was only scored a hit for how many bases the winning run needed to score. For example, a home run hit with the winning run on first base would be ruled a triple.
The other rule took a lot of home runs from the Babe. It was called the 'When last seen' rule. From 1906 to 1930, any ball leaving the playing field fair and landing in the seats foul, was called a foul ball. Since Ruth pulled many a ball down the line at Yankee Stadium of prodigous proportions, he was hurt most by this rule. Teammates and writers estimate that he would have had 70 to 80 more home runs had this rule not been in effect.
The only number not to be bettered is 56. Some players have bettered that number at other levels. Heck, Joe himself, had a 61 game hit streak during his stay in the Pacific Coast League.
Robin Ventura had a College streak of 58 consecutive games with a hit.
During DiMaggio's streak, he hit .408 and knocked in 55 runs. Surely, not a 'soft' streak.
Nobody has really even come close to the record. Pete Rose is the only player to have had even a 40 game hitting streak since then. Rose hit in 44 straight games.
It is a record that will be tougher and tougher to break with each passing year.
Media scrutiny will make it impossible for 'alone time'.
Specialization in pitching will mean more same 'same handed' matchups.
Fielders have more range with each generation.
Outfield space has decreased.
56 may stand for a long time, maybe longer.
Again, apologies for the length....
[ December 04, 2010, 08:23 AM: Message edited by: DOUGHBOYS ]
Numbers Remembered
Numbers Remembered
On my tombstone-
Wait! I never had the perfect draft!
Wait! I never had the perfect draft!