Ok. I have already established that I'm done with Major League Baseball, but I am not done with all other sports. As a result, I still check out ESPN quite a bit. Today I had a minutes so I decided to check out the website to see what people were saying about the Bears and Chargers. But the first thing that I noticed was a headline that said Trea Turner (the same Trea Turner famous for the huge fan sparked turnaround a few years back) had won the national League batting Title with a .304 batting average.
I figured it had to be a misprint and he really hit .340. But nope. It was .304. It was the lowest National League batting champ of all time. It was a full 9 points lower than the previous lowest average of .313 by the great Tony Gwynn in 1988. Gwynn also walked 50 times that year while only striking out 40 times. The 40 strikeouts were the most in any season by Gwynn... which may be the most insane stat I've ever seen. It is important to note that in 1995 Gwynn only struck out 15 times in 577 plate appearances. 15 times. Wow!
Then I read further and discovered that Turner was the ONLY National League player to hit above .300 this year. That sounds like some pre WWI baseball right there. And back then they were basically playing with a lead ball covered in horsehide. One of the reasons I used to love baseball were the stats. I used to love looking at box scores and league leaders in the newspaper. As soon as I got the Sunday paper, I immediately flipped to the White Sox team stats and would count how many guys they had hitting above .300. It was routine to have 10 or 20 guys in the league above that mark. It made the game exciting as literally anything can happen on a batted ball.
Seeing this insane stat just through even more dirt on the coffin of my baseball love. It's dead and buried. I am pretty sure this lack of interest in making contact is all because of the idea that a home run is the only valuable thing in baseball now. It seems that every at bat, it is either a home run or a strikeout. Back in my day, guys used to get on base so when a home run hitter came up, the pitcher was a little more tired and nervous. When that slugger hit a dinger with a couple of guys on, it was worth three runs. Now it seems lik,e everyone's favorite play is a solo home run.
What is really weird is that with emphasis on hitting homers, the scoring has not gone up. This is not similar to basketball and teh three pointer. A three pointer is worth more than a two pointer (duh). But in baseball, a guy touching the plate on a sacrifice bunt is the same as a guy touching the plate on a solo home run. But the bunt is actually more exciting.
I looked at the numbers and compared the year 2000 to 2025. In 2000, when people were still playing actual baseball and trying for hits and walks in order to get on base, teams scored 24,971 runs. This year with the homer or nothing strategy, teams scored 21,614. And that is with the universal DH so no pitchers hit this year. And I wasn't just cherry picking. Every year from 1998 to 2008 there were more than those 21,614 runs.
Also during those same years 2000 and 2025, there were 43 FEWER homers hit this year. That number did flucuate over the past 25 years, but the point is that all of the stress placed on hitting homers does not always result in more homers. Even if it does, it is fewer runs which means less excitement.
But here's the topper. you know how many times guys struck out in 2000? 31,356. Guess how many this year...40,653. Over 9000 more strikeouts in order to score FEWER runs. Its absurd... and boring. And Again, I'm not cherry picking. from 1998 to 2011 the strikeouts were in the low 30,000s. The past 8 full seasons, they have been in the 40,000.
I'm really glad seeing this stat made me check the numbers today. It gave me solid proof that I am indeed seeing reality. Baseball is so freaking boring now.
