K- A By-Product of Production

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DOUGHBOYS
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Joined: Sat Feb 05, 2005 6:00 pm

K- A By-Product of Production

Post by DOUGHBOYS » Fri May 24, 2019 7:44 am

A necessary evil. Throughout baseball history, batters striking out has been a necessary evil.
In 1927, Babe Ruth set the baseball world on its ear by hitting 60 home runs. He led baseball in striking out.
'Murderers Row', the Yankees of '27 were thought to be the best team of their times. Hitters from that team finished first (the Babe), second (Gehrig), third (Lazzeri), and seventh (Meusel) in striking out.
It was still the times when striking out was considered an embarrassment. Except for Ruth, he accepted strike outs as part of his 'Sultan of Swat' game.
The Babe finished the top 10 in whiffing 12 straight years. His greatest years.

Three years after the Babe set the home run record, another record that has stood the test of baseball time was recorded.
Hack Wilson drove in 191 runs. That one year got Wilson in the Hall of Fame.
Here is Wilson's career line.....307/884/244//1062/52. Standard stuff.
Wilson's record has only been approached by Gehrig in those times and in our times, fuhgeddabout it, nobody has come close.
Wilson led baseball in strike outs that year in setting the record. Hardly ever mentioned.

In 1956, Mickey Mantle may have had the greatest Triple Crown year in baseball history.
Mantle far outpaced every other player in a lot of categories that year.
Here is his line......353/132/52/130/10
Only Ted Williams within 20 points of his batting average.
Duke Snider, the only player with more than just 40 home runs.
Al Kaline, the only player within 20 RBI.
And to boot, Mantle also led baseball in Runs and was top 15 with his stolen bases.
He was also top 10 in striking out, finishing fifth.

In 1998, fans were riveted by the McGwire-Sosa home run race.
Sosa led baseball in striking out, McGwire fourth.
It goes on and on.
Strike outs are usually ignored, while baseball greatness is achieved.

We are confused today about the strike out.
'Bad' hitters like Rob Deer and Chris Davis were allowed to stay in their lineups while Managers hoped for contact.
Hitters like these, made the strike out a felony and not a misdemeanor for other hitters.
And when the 'smart' sabr's came around, the k/bb ratio became a 'thing'.

Strike outs are still misunderstood.
Even today, writers will use the strike out as a weapon.
They'll explain that Bryce Harper is leading baseball in striking out and is having a bad year.
Yet, if Harper goes on a hot streak soon, we the reader knows, that those whiffs will be forgotten.
Joey Gallo was persecuted by writers for his strike outs. Now, striking out as much as ever, Gallo is having a good year and the strike outs, forgiven.
It's the way of our baseball world.
When Domingo Santana was hot to open the season, his many strike outs were also forgiven.
Now cold, writers blame the strike outs.

Quite simply, strike outs are here to stay.
For 14 straight years, striking out has increased in numbers.
That, is not a trend.
That, is the way of baseball life.
And even with the rising strike outs, no modern day player is approaching all-time records for striking out.
Do you know who holds the record for most strike outs?
That's ok, most don't.
It is Hall of Famer, Reggie Jackson. He struck out 2,597 times.
The only player coming close to Jackson, fellow Hall of Famer, Jim Thome with 2,548 strike outs.
Thome, now an MLB Network analyst, as far as I know, has never mentioned the second place finish or had it brought to his attention.
It shouldn't.
It should be known that those strikeouts were simply a by-product of his production.
On my tombstone-
Wait! I never had the perfect draft!

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