Blog Posts For: July 2009

After Mark Buerhle became just the 18th player to throw a perfect game I began to wonder if that feat would make him a lock for the Hall of Fame. After setting the record for consecutive outs on Tuesday at 45 I asked myself the same thing. Now I am wondering who else among his peers is going to be considered in the Hall of Fame debate.

His peers do not include guys like Randy Johnson, but pitchers around the age of 30, let’s say between the ages of 28 and 32. These guys have had enough experience to dismiss any fluke seasons and have come up in the age of the 100-pitch limit, as noted by ESPN columnist Tim Kurkjian. These are the guys that are going to be competing for votes on the same Hall of Fame ballots in a decade or so.

The major league baseball season is a long one. At 162 games it dwarfs the NFL (16 games), NBA (82 games), and the NHL (82 games). Sure that gives fans plenty of chances to sit in the bleachers and enjoy a lazy summer afternoon with a hotdog and a few beers (and then subsequently spend the next month staying in on the weekends waiting for the ban account to heal), but the long season also makes pleasantly surprising statistics anomalies in the long run.

This means that all those players we looked upon with wonder as they approached some record and were putting together impressive seasons fall back to earth shattering our midseason expectations, which is fitting when you consider how many fans hopes for their team are painfully beaten down as well. The question, then, is will these players that follow be able to beat the odds and actually keep up with there midseason form.

Tuesday night the American League won the All Star game for the twelfth time in a row, defeating the National League 4-3. The best players from both leagues squared off in a rather short contest (2 hours and 30 minutes) instead of a marathon like last season (which went 15 innings).

Now that this annual contest is over and the American League again has home field advantage in the World Series the real season begins, with teams looking for a pennant and players looking for individual honors. There will be two MVPs, two Cy Young winners, and two Gold Glove first basemen. There will be two of everything because MLB, unlike the NFL and NBA do not announce an all MLB team.