Re: Stats Gone Wild! Plus Triple-Play Bonus

On May 15, 10:47=A0pm, "ZBicyclist" <ZBicycl...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> Richard R. Hershberger wrote:
> > On May 15, 12:22 am, "D.F. Manno" <dfma...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> >> In article <74OWj.4583$nl7.2...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
>
> >> "ZBicyclist" <ZBicycl...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> >>> Base stealing hits about the same time as expansion with Maury
> >>> Wills
> >>> stealing 104 in 1962. However, this is NOT break Ty Cobb's
> >>> record of
> >>> 96 stolen bases because the number of games in the season had
> >>> gone
> >>> from 154 to 162, and Wills' 97th stolen base occurred after the
> >>> 154th game.
>
> >> Wills didn't break Cobb's record because Cobb didn't set the
> >> record.
> >> Hugh Nicol stole 138 bases playing for the Cincinnati Red
> >> Stockings
> >> in 1887, averaging more than one per game. It's still the
> >> all-time
> >> record for stealing bases.
>
> > Good man! =A0One of my pet peeves is the parochialism of pretending
> > that
> > baseball began in 1901.
>
> > There are some areas where dividing baseball history into "modern"
> > vs.
> > "19th century" makes sense. =A0There is no obvious reason why base
> > stealing would be one of these areas, particularly from 1893, when
> > the
> > modern pitching distance was set. =A0Even if we take 1893 as being
> > Very
> > Im****tant for base stealing, Billy Hamilton in 1894 stole more
> > bases
> > than Ty Cobb ever did in a single season.
>
> I thank both of you for the information.
>
> When did they start the segregation of records into "modern era"?
> Did that start right away, as some sort of clean break with the
> past? =A0Was it something that crept in some decades later?

The latter.  You can find, for example, some baseball histories
written in the early 20th century that include without comment the
19th century World Series.  But then look at the early elections into
the Hall of Fame and there is a clear bias for 20th century stars.  I
am told that there are some non-obvious wrinkles to the early HoF
election process that in part produced this, but still...  The idea of
"official major league" records is more of a 1960s thing, by which
time the 19th century was firmly consigned to a sepia-tinged haze.
Nowadays the typical baseball history geek starts with Ty Cobb and
Christy Matthewson and that crowd.  19th century stuff is a specialty
niche.

Richard R. Hershberger