The Death of Tradition

post from The Ghost of Babe Ruth on 20 November 2009 05:06:00 PM. © The Ghost of Babe Ruth

So maybe you've heard that this year's two Cy Young Awards have gone to guys who "won" 15 and 16 games. And a bunch of old-timers are up in arms about it.

Now, as I've mentioned before, I don't believe in tradition. To quote myself:

My very existence was against the tradition of baseball, but instead of changing my ways, I changed baseball.

So I'm all for smart guys using newfangled statistics to help them figure out who's better than who. And the first casualty in this battle between old and new should be pitcher "wins." Last I checked, it takes a full team to win a baseball game, hitters, fielders, and pitchers. So why should one guy get credit for a win when everybody's working together?

Also, why should we penalize a pitcher if he plays for a bad offensive team? Or reward a guy who pitches for a good hitting team?

Just look at my favorite team, the '27 Yanks. We had one 22-game winner, a 19-game winner, and an 18-game winner. But the 18-game winner struck out only 35 batters all year in 200 innings, or less than one per game! So how did he win 18? 'Cuz we scored a crapload of runs for him. I mean, we only got shut out once all season long.

I'm not saying the guy sucked, but he was 36 years old and it turned out to be his last year in baseball. Yet he "won" 18 games for us.

In this day and age, when pitchers rarely complete their games, the wins statistic makes even less sense. Yet tradition requires that we still pay attention to it.

I say, Enough!

And I say congratulations, BBWAA voters, for helping end the tyranny of wins in baseball.

Now get back to your typewriters and start writing about my Yankees. It's been a couple of days since you've talked about us.

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