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The lost letter
Posted: Monday October 18, 1999 08:46 PM
A good chunk of the mailbag this week consisted of questions about my picks for the postseason awards. We'll continue with the mailbag below, but to take a look at my ballot, click here. If I can throw in a piece of old mail here (so old I forgot where it came from), a gentleman wondered how the letter K came to represent strikeouts. It turns out that no one knows for sure, but there are two theories. The most popular one is that the father of the popular method of scoring, Henry Chadwick , decided on K when he established his system in 1861 because it was the most prominent letter of strike or strikeout. Another theory is that the K is credited to M.J. Kelly of the New York Herald, presumably for the same reasoning. Perhaps S could have been confused with sacrifice. Don't forget, way back then players actually knew how to bunt. Now back to our regularly scheduled program. Bryan Helwig of Columbus, Ohio, was puzzled how the Cubs' Jim Riggleman could walk Mark McGwire in third inning with two outs and a man on third in the last weekend of the season with his team hopelessly out of contention. ``I am surprised that no one in the media (at least that I have heard), thought of this as being extremely odd. The only explanation I could think of is that Riggleman wanted to give Sammy Sosa a chance to catch Big Mac, which maybe explains why Riggleman was fired. I was curious if you had any take on this,'' he writes. I didn't see the play, but I can assure you Riggleman wasn't fired because of it; the Cubs had decided a week earlier that he was gone. The only explanation is that Riggleman was managing the game as he always would. He managed the same way whether it was May or September with nothing on the line. I don't have a problem with that. If he pitched to McGwire and McGwire hit a home run, maybe the fans would be happy. That's not a manager's job, though. You want someone to hit home runs and break records in the normal course of events. Andrew P. Mullhaupt of Hicksville, N.Y., writes, ``Most national commentators I've heard have not mentioned Edgardo Alfonzo for the Gold Glove at second base in the National League. In addition to leading the majors in fielding percentage, he's played 157 games at second base without booting any ground balls (his five errors were four throwing errors and one on a pop-up). Alfonzo has a higher ratio of double plays to assists (a good measure of difficulty and aggressiveness at second base) than Pokey Reese, Mickey Morandini or Roberto Alomar. He's got more than enough arm -- witness his excellence at third base last year, as well as plenty of range -- and he has played shortstop well at the major league level. Should he try another position next year?" Don't put too much emphasis on defensive statistics. They tell you only a little about how good a player is with the glove. You really can only go by what you see. And from what I've seen (and heard from coaches and scouts), Reese has much more range at second base than Alfonzo. I know Reese plays his home games on turf. And I have tremendous respect for how well Alfonzo plays the game. (And no, he's not moving to another position.) But I'd give a slight edge to Reese. Cardinals fan Rick Brayfield of St. Louis has an interesting question: ``What are five major differences between baseball in the '80s and '90s versus the '30s and '40s?'' I've always thought that baseball has changed much less than the other major sports over the years. But here goes (and I assume you are talking about how the game is played, and not off-the-field issues such as labor, scheduling and finances):
1. Relief pitching. (Basically, it didn't exist then.) Ricardo D. Lizasuain of Hatillo, Puerto Rico, asks, ``Who do you think are the best second baseman in baseball? My top 2 are: 1) Roberto Alomar and 2) Craig Biggio.'' Let's assume you're not talking about who had the better season this year. Pretend you have a pickup game and are choosing sides. OK, then, I'm with you. Alomar's the best, and if I can't have him, I'll take Biggio.
Sports Illustrated senior writer Tom Verducci covers baseball and appears regularly on CNN/Sports Illustrated.
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