The Book of Nomo - Chapter 9 - Pitch Counts
TOKYO — Daisuke Matsuzaka’s problems were exacerbated by the changing philosophy of pitching in the U.S., with its almost religious devotion to the concept of pitch counts. Many years ago, starting pitchers often threw 140-150 pitches a game —much as they did in Japan. Pitch counts were so unimportant that the newspapers did not even report them.
On July 23, 1963, Hall of Fame pitchers Warren Spahn and Juan Marichal pitched 15 scoreless innings against each other, before Willie Mays hit a home run off Spahn in the bottom of the 16th inning to win it 1-0, in a game that lasted four hours. Spahn was 42 years old at the time and threw 201 pitches. Marichal threw 227 pitches, refusing attempts by his manager to take him out of the game. “As long as that old man is in the game,” he was quoted as saying, “I’m staying too.” During that era, both Spahn and Marichal threw 20-25 complete games a year. In 1968, at age 30, Marichal completed 30 games and threw 326 innings.
By the 21st century, things had changed. Pitch counts had become the focus of attention in every game. Accepted practice was that pitchers could not be allowed to throw beyond 100 pitches in a game (and seldom it seems did they wish to). By the sixth inning, the “setup” relief pitchers were usually in the game. Indeed, it was rare to see a starting pitcher complete more than three or four games a year and shutouts were almost unheard of. San Diego’s Jake Peavy, to cite the most glaring example, won the 2007 N.L. Cy Young award without completing even one game. Before he passed away at age 82, in 2003, the aforementioned Spahn, who pitched more complete games in his career than most entire teams did in the past 25 years, described today’s MLB pitchers as a “bunch of pussies.”
How and why did this new philosophy toward pitching arise? One reason is the explosion of offensive power, caused by a number of factors, including smaller new parks, a smaller strike zone, harder baseballs, weight lifting and in many cases, of course, steroids. Pitchers no longer faced “easy outs” in the lower part of the opposing batting order, because everyone was capable of hitting home runs. They were required to throw every pitch with 100% intensity, which, naturally meant pitchers tired earlier in the game than their counterparts of previous generations. Years ago, MLB teams carried eight pitchers. These days, it’s 12 -13.
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