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Chernow's Washington, A Life

I recently finished reading "Washington, A Life" by Ron Chernow, a Penguin Press book published last year.  As you might guess from its length of 817 pages, which is exclusive of notes, etc., this is a detailed biography. While the bulk of the time is spent on Washington's early military exploits, the Revolution and his presidency, there is considerable time given to family and his life as a planter and slave owner at Mount Vernon. It is not and shouldn't be a quick read.

Chernow's portrait is not of a white-washed Washington. In examining his strengths and weaknesses, he humanizes the man without diminishing any of his accomplishments. Washington was not one to pass on an opportunity to advance his career or fortune, yet he was very much concerned with his image and legacy. He did not wish to be thought of as too ambitious or as one currying favor. He was extremely brave in battle but not willing to risk his fortune by freeing his slaves. While many tend to think of Washington as above politics, his political skills were considerable. Ultimately, it was the political machinations of fellow Virginians Jefferson and Madison that awakened him to the seamier side of politics and destroyed his relationships with both men.

If you enjoy this book, you'll probably enjoy reading Chernow's excellent biography, "Alexander Hamilton", published in 2004.

Other good books I've read on Washington:

Robert Leckie's "George Washington's War: The Saga of the American Revolution" published in 1992.

James T. Flexner wrote a four volume  biography of George Washington. I read his 1994 one-volume bio "Washington: The Indispensable Man".

 

ERA tied to Complete Games?

I've always considered myself to be fairly knowledgeable about baseball whether it be about rules, scoring decisions, sizing up players, etc. I should be. I've been following the game since the mid 1950's. I played baseball as a kid, not that well, and softball  (baseball lite?) into my forties and coached my son in little league and beyond in summer leagues. I've always watched baseball on a regular basis and read the write-ups and checked the box scores every day during the season. Every once in a while though something comes up that really surprises me.

My son gave me a book for my 65th birthday last month, "Bullpen Diaries" by Charley Rosen. It was just published this year. The book is structured around the entire 2010 Yankee season with comments and ratings on the performances of the relief pitchers in each game. Interesting anecdotes are interspersed throughout. On pages 210 through 214, Mr. Rosen briefly reviews the history of Yankee relievers including Wilcy Moore (1927), Johnny Murphy (1934-46), Joe Page (1944-50), Ryne Duren (1958-61), Luis Arroyo (1961), Steve Hamilton (1963-70), Pedro Ramos (1964-66), Sparky Lyle (1972-78), Goose Gossage (1978-83 and 89) and more recently, John Wetteland and Mo.  In the write-up for Wilcy Moore, Mr. Rosen tells us that Moore had the lowest ERA in the league in 1927 at 2.28. Although he pitched 213 innings, he didn't qualify  for the ERA title because he only had 6 complete games. The governing rules stated that a pitcher needed 10 CG's to qualify for the ERA title.

A pitcher needed to have 10 complete games to qualify for the ERA title? To any modern baseball fan that sounds absolutely crazy. This ERA rule was not changed until 1951. The new rule, still in effect, is that "a pitcher must pitch a total of at least one inning for every scheduled game to qualify as the league leader in the categories of Earned Run Average or Fielding Average." Rule 10.23 is cited. When the rule went into effect there were 154 scheduled games. Now, of course, there are 162. I found this ERA info on www.baseballlibrary.com/chronology/rules in an article called "Baseball Rules Chronology". Part 1 covers 1845 - 1899 and Part 2, 1900 to the present.

The on-line Baseball Almanac has the year by year CG leaders for the NL back to 1876 and 1901 for the AL. 1991 was the first year a league leader in complete games failed to reach 10. Tom Glavine and Dennis Martinez tied for the NL lead in CG's that year with 9. In '93 and '96, Greg Maddux and Curt Schilling respectively led the NL with 8. The first AL leader with less than 10 complete games was the Big Unit in '94 with 9 followed by Jack McDowell with 8 in '95. Since 2000, no major league pitcher has reached double digits in complete games. The low mark was set by Brandon Webb who led the NL with 4 in '07, later matched by Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum in '09. The last pitcher to reach double figures was Randy Johnson with 12 for the D'Backs in 1999. The last NL pitcher to have 20 or more CG's was Fernando Valenzuela with 20 in 1986 and in the AL Bert Blyleven had 24 in 1985. The last with 30 was Jim "Catfish" Hunter with the Yanks in '75 and Steve Carlton with the Phils in '72. Both had exactly 30 CG's.

The significance of the relief pitcher has been growing steadily for over 40 years, but much more so in the last decade of pitch count mania resulting in a rapidly dwindling number of complete games - which also means many fewer shutouts. There were no quantitative statistics for relief pitchers until the "save" became an official stat in 1969. Now we have "Holds", a dubious stat if ever there was one. There are records of saves before 1969 that were apparently determined by going over old box scores. I am enjoying going back over these CG's, saves and other records. It brings back memories of players I haven't thought about in years.    

I could go on for pages ranting about the lack of complete games, pitch counts and other things that bother me as an old baseball fan. Right now I'm just so surprised at discovering this old ERA qualifying rule. It doesn't take much to amuse us senior citizens. One last thought. Does anyone know a source that has yearly and career records  for pickoffs? Occasionally, I've found a site that mentions the total for a specific pitcher, e.g., Andy Pettitte, but never any complete major league records. I'd like to know Whitey Ford's pickoff stats, the first pitcher I remember with a great pickoff move.