This is one of stupidest paragraphs I’ve read:

Vin Scully, the peerless announcer for the Los Angeles Dodgers, reckons that Sandy Koufax threw more than 200 pitches to win the last game played at the L.A. Coliseum in 1961. Koufax went on to compile three seasons of 300-plus innings, three with at least 20 complete games and three with at least 300 strikeouts, while leading the National League in ERA in each of his last five seasons.

Yeah, and then his career tragically ended at age 30 because of arm injuries. Really, this is such a terrible argument - hey remember that pitcher who’s famous for retiring in the middle of his peak, because his arm hurt so much, he couldn’t throw anymore? Now that’s how you handle a pitcher!

That’s when I stopped reading.

At least he will be without a job soon

When he started talking about Joe McGinnity’s “astonishing” 434 innings pitched in 1903 I started thinking “Why doesn’t he heap scorn on Koufax and Drysdale and Gibson for only throwing around 300?”

For that matter, there were guys who used to throw more than 500 innings in a season. Why isn’t that the standard?

There’s only a certain number of bullets in each arm; could be two seasons’ worth, could be 20 years.

So let’s just shoot them all, regardless of context. Yeeeee-haw!

/shoots six-gun up in the air several times

- Begin rant -
Just read Jenkins’ article from a few days ago. He quite possibly writes the most inane, curmudgeonly old-skool babble this side of the Mississippi. And his insipid romanticizing of the baseball of yore (read: 1900 – 1990) at the expense of baseball today is a pathetically misguided attempt to provide substance to his baseless and simplistic arguments.
As many already know, Brucie has a hardon for players who throw 200 pitches a start. Unfortunately for BJ, all of those guys are deceased or retired. Last year he wrote a goddamn 5000-word tome (undoubtedly what he considers his magnum opus) on the pussification of the sport of baseball, given we now limit our pitchers to, oh, say, 100-120 pitches a start. And today he added an addendum to his oeuvre of elephant-shit articles. To wit:
“Keep in mind the essence of my argument: There’s no way we’ll go back in time, with pitchers throwing both ends of a doubleheader or completing 30 games in a season. But the game hasn’t changed that much. It’s still the same baseball and the same human arm. There’s only a certain number of bullets in each arm; could be two seasons’ worth, could be 20 years.”
What the fuck? Only so many bullets? Hell, why stretch Lincecum out so his “bullets” last 20 years when the Giants can just abuse him and have his career end after 6? Sounds awesome!
But here’s the best part of Bruce’s recent article: he cites numerous players from the halcyon days of baseball who threw insane numbers of innings and pitches, including Sandy Koufax. Yes, the same Sandy Koufax that retired at 30. The same Sandy Koufax whose sudden retirement was (and still is) a baseball tragedy.
I posit three arguments to Bruce’s psychobabble:
1) Isn’t it quite possible that the average pitcher throws harder now than in the 1920s, or, say, the 1960s? And isn’t it quite possible that throwing harder is greater wear and tear on a shoulder? There is no solid empirical evidence to back this up (unless someone magically invented a radar gun in Christy Mathewson’s day), but I think you would be hard-pressed to find anyone who would argue that the average player today is not better than players way back when. People train their whole lives to make the majors. Companies are devoted to making the latest and greatest equipment. And the talent pool is constantly growing.
2) Pitchers are worth more money. Back in the day, owners literally owned baseball players. And they could pay them whatever they wanted. Today asshats like Carl Pavano can get 4 year/$40 million contracts. It’s not worth risking a pitcher’s health by stretching him out and praying he has the right genetic makeup.
3) Fuck you Bruce.
- End Rant -