, 1923-04-08
BASEBALL NEEDS new
SYSTEM ON STATISTICS
BY I. E. SANBORN.

Begin TO look ike another pasepdA
season without any improvement in
the brand of statistics by which to
record deeds and misdeeds of the per-
formers. asst summer some of the
dope handed out concerning pitchers
and their winning and losing records
was so ridiculous that even the fans
protested and a " movement " was start
ed to infuse some sort OF system In that
department of the statistics.
1t got about as far as movements"
usually do. The club owners-who I'M
fortunately are the rule makers-spent
all winter jockeying over the draft reg
ulations in an attempt to see who
should control the market for playing
talent, and forgot all about the dear
public and its demands. That is al
ways the way when things are pros
porous. Only when the attendance
dope begins total of and red inkb be-
gins to appear on the ledgers OF the
club owners do they take much
thought in the winter of the things
the fans want remedied.
The chief trouble Is in leaving the
playing rules in the keeping Of the
club owners. They don't belong there.
anyway, for few modern magnates are
experienced in the actual playing of
the game, inc some of them couldn't
tell an inheld fly from n triple play
without having a diagram made.
Umpires Know Rules.
The umpires today are really the
last word in interpreting the playing
rules-I mean the major league UNI
pIres. OF course, IL a brand new play
involving a technical application Of ap-
parently conflicting rules comes up.
the umpires involved consult the presi-
lent of their league before making a
ruling that will serve as a precedent.
But in ninety.nine cases out of a hun
dred the umpire's Interpretation of the
rules is not only correct because based
on precedent, out 1t is fina If you
don't believe II, protest IL.
But the umplres are not arbiter5 of
the scoring rules. and the dope that
shows the records of the pitchers de-
ponds entirely on the scorers. under
the lax system now in vogue. By that
/ mean that old fashioned stuff OF
games won and lost, by which the ma
jority OF fans still rate the ability of
slabmen. 1t is continued only as n
sop to the public. for It means nothing
in actually. and the official ranking
of pitchers now is according to eff
fe~ctiveness. irrespective of the results
OF the games in which they work.
The baseball writer's. acting with the
umpires through a joint committee
handle all r~evisions and improvements
OF the playing and scoring rules much
better than the club owners an. They
are n lot closer to the game and have
more real knowledge OF it.
D.. D.al-- CT ~. r-.1.A
Take the case Of a pitcher who goes
into the fifth or sixth inning with a
good lead of four or five runs. then
blows up completely. Hits, bases on
balls. or errors wipe out all but one
run of the lead. and a new pitcher is
rushed to the rescue with the bases
fun. one out and only one run to spare.
The new slabman works out of hat
pinch, all right, then completes tho
game without letting an opponent
score. so that his team finally wins
by the one run margin left when he
went in.
Many scorers insist such a game be-
longs in the "won" column of tho
pitcher who blew up in the fifth be-
cause his team was ahead when he
left the game. Many others insist It
is ridiculous to credit the victory to
him instead Of to the pitcher who went
in and saved the game, although his
team was ahead when he tackled the
Job. One official scorer will credit such
n game to the first pitcher. and the
very next day another scorer in a
different city will credit the same kind
of a game to the pitcher who finished
It That makes a joke out of the ofi-
clal records, of course.
Must Apply New System.
Some hard and fast system must bo
applied by all scorers alike to every
doubtful case in order to make the
won" and lost" columns worth
anything at all. They are not worth
much at best. but have been worthless
in recent years. About the only sane
way to treat the matter under the
present method of letting Tom, Dick
and Harry do the official scoring Is to
include in the won and lost columns
only games in which n pitcher goes
h full route. Then there can be no
argument or injustice about II. Ex-
ceptlons could be made to cover cases
where n pitcher was taken out to a
him after practically having won a
game. or where n slabman was hope
lessly beaten before he was relieved.
But when three or four pitchers are
used on ono side in n wild n woolly
battle Il often is impossible to give
the credit or blame with justice, and it
is absurd at best.
There ie no known reason why every
game played should be credited to or
charged against some one pitcher who
took part in 1t. Every inning a slab
man works is shown I'm his earned run
average. SO why not leave out of tho
won and lost records all except COM
plete, or nearly complete games, Just
the same as when pitching averages
originally were devised years and
years ago7
uHrUr oyrJD Dxu,o