By then Reinsdorf may have figured out a way to trick Thomas into paying rent for his clubhouse locker. It doesn't make sense. Of course, a lot of things in baseball don't make sense, like the many unenforced rules, and Youppi, but it seems like with this method of record-keeping all MLB is trying to prove is that they're different from other sports. But they're not consistent, because if they were there would be a third, separate group of records kept for games where the home team doesn't bat in the ninth. Records set in the first nine innings should fall into the same category.
Records set in the extra innings get their own category.
Identical accomplishments should be counted identically, regardless whether the D-Backs' bungling batters couldn't do the job in regulation. Or just count all innings as regulation innings, wipe Wood and Clemens off the books as well, and let Tom Cheney's 21 K's stand as the single official record. And while you're at it, give Mark McGwire an asterisk, just for fun. Since spring training ended, the Cards have been putting off sending Ankiel down to work out his problems in the minors, perhaps because they aren't sure a demotion is the right cure for this purely mental issue. However, there has to be a point at which the team realizes that repeatedly allowing Ankiel to humiliate himself publicly constitutes an even greater punishment.