"In my opinion, the greatest game ever pitched was between the San Francisco Giants and Milwaukee Braves on July 2, 1963. Forty-two-year-old Warren Spahn and 25-year-old Juan Marichal each went 16 innings and the game ended 1-0 on a home run by Willie Mays. Each pitcher threw over 200 pitches. Spahn threw 201. Marichal threw 227. There were seven future Hall of Fame players in that game, including Spahn and Marichal. We will never see that again because the game won’t allow it. But both guys were prepared to go as long as it took. And this game was not a fluke, both pitchers won 20 games that season. For Spahn, it was his 13th 20-win season and for Marichal, it was his first of 6. My highest pitch count was 232 in a game against the Red Sox in 1974. I pitched 12 innings, struck out 19, walked 10, and had a no decision. My counter-part, Luis Tiant threw 180 pitches in 14 1/3 innings and took the loss 4-3. We were on a 4-man rotation and pitched on 3 day’s rest. I had 26 complete games in 1973 and 1974 and didn’t even lead the league. Gaylord Perry had 29 in 1973 and Ferguson Jenkins had 29 in 1974." Nolan Ryan. Art by Graig Kreindler.

"In my opinion, the greatest game ever pitched was between the San Francisco Giants and Milwaukee Braves on July 2, 1963. Forty-two-year-old Warren Spahn and 25-year-old Juan Marichal each went 16 innings and the game ended 1-0 on a home run by Willie Mays. Each pitcher threw over 200 pitches. Spahn threw 201. Marichal threw 227. There were seven future Hall of Fame players in that game, including Spahn and Marichal. We will never see that again because the game won’t allow it. But both guys were prepared to go as long as it took. And this game was not a fluke, both pitchers won 20 games that season. For Spahn, it was his 13th 20-win season and for Marichal, it was his first of 6. My highest pitch count was 232 in a game against the Red Sox in 1974. I pitched 12 innings, struck out 19, walked 10, and had a no decision. My counter-part, Luis Tiant threw 180 pitches in 14 1/3 innings and took the loss 4-3. We were on a 4-man rotation and pitched on 3 day’s rest. I had 26 complete games in 1973 and 1974 and didn’t even lead the league. Gaylord Perry had 29 in 1973 and Ferguson Jenkins had 29 in 1974." Nolan Ryan. Art by Graig Kreindler.

At 42 years old, Nolan Ryan struck out 301 batters in 239 innings. That is an 11.3 strikeouts per 9 innings. The league wide average that year was 5.6. He doubled the league average at 42 years old

April 7, 1984: Jack Morris threw a 120-pitch no-hitter against the Chicago White Sox, propelling the Tigers to the start of their historic 35-5 run: #DNMW #RepDetroit

Want to know how bad hitting has become? Go compare today’s batting averages to those from 20–30 years ago. Hitters back then had to cover a much bigger strike zone, especially on the outer half, where umpires routinely gave pitchers strikes off the plate. Today’s hitters have a tighter zone, technology, replay, and more information than ever. Yet the offensive product is worse. And before the velocity and spin-rate crowd jumps in, remember: TrackMan changed how velocity is measured. MLB’s own documentation acknowledges that TrackMan measures the ball out of the hand and can read 2–6 mph higher than older radar systems. The bigger problem is that over the last decade baseball tried to reinvent the swing. The result? More strikeouts. Less adjustability. Less ability to use the whole field. Fewer complete hitters. Pitching development isn’t much better. It’s become max effort, max velocity, and max spin rate. The game didn’t get smarter. In a lot of ways, it got worse.

Arguably, for any collection of propositions there is always going to be a better reason for rejecting it than for accepting it. Better at least in capturing more epistemological virtues: accuracy, consistency, simplicity, etc. Can this be turned into an argument for skepticism?

Twenty years ago today, Mike Mussina let Joe Torre know he was going to finish what he started 🤣 Mussina then got the final out to close out the last complete game of his Hall of Fame career.

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A dog failed his service dog exam, and was later seen at a train station carrying the reason why. People at the station couldn’t stop staring when the dog walked onto the train with a stuffed elephant held proudly in his mouth. At first, everyone thought it was part of his training. But his owner started laughing and explained the truth. The dog had been training to become a service dog, but during one of his final tests, he kept getting distracted by an elephant plushie nearby. Instead of staying focused, he tried to steal it like it was the only thing in the room that mattered. That was the moment he failed. But his owner said he couldn’t be mad. The dog had tried his best, and even if he wasn’t meant to be a service dog, he was still loyal, gentle, and full of love. So before they left, he bought him the elephant toy. That night, the dog didn’t pass the exam, but he still went home with the person who chose him anyway.