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Message: [QUOTE="connie, post: 2732148, member: 7882"] Just a comment (and this broadly applies to just about every post I've seen here). Absent a comparison to contemporaneous performances, statistics (most HRs in a game, Ks in game, most HRs in a season, etc.) are of limited utility in telling us about the "greatest" game, greatest season, etc. Statistical comparisons should account for rule changes, changes in how the game is played, changes in technique, changes in pools of talent, etc. Case in point is statistics for shutouts in a career. Yes, it is impressive that Walter Johnson threw 113, and that Clayton Kershaw would have to pitch for another 140+ years to match that. But then, pitchers in Johnson's day did not pitch as consistently hard as they do today (because they didn't have to). Nor did they face the level of talent as exist in today's game. Johnson pitched in the dead ball era, and at a time when the same ball was used throughout a game, becoming beat up and dirty. Pitchers like Johnson also did not wreck their arms by throwing specialty pitches. And of course the game in Johnson's day did not entail middle relievers, closers, and all those in between. So, while Johnson's career shutouts are impressive, they are [I]not [/I]impressive because today pitchers only throw 1-2 Shutouts a year. It is because among the pitchers [I]of his time [/I](many of whom threw a dozen shutouts a season), he was one of the best. As for Delahanty . . . His feat is impressive, but not necessarily for the reason cited. In the year in question, he tied for the league lead in HRs that season with 13. He hit 4 of those in 1 of the Phillies' 130 games. That a player could lead the league in HRs by hitting 13, while getting [I]4 [/I]of those in one game is, itself, remarkable. But I think that tells us something about the approach players took toward hitting (among other things) in the 1890s. That two of Delahanty's four HRs were inside the park is not necessarily as impressive as might first appear. The reason is because the rules allowed fielders to chase balls beyond given barriers. One of Delahanty's HRs was hit over a lower bleacher fence, yet in front of the wall. This required the fielder to chase the ball into the bleachers. Delahanty raced around the basis and the hit was scored as an inside the park HR. The other "inside-the-park" shot actually landed on the roof of a center field clubhouse--located within the park's furthest outfield wall, and thus technically scored as an inside the park HR. Modern parks make inside the park HRs much more difficult than in the earlier part of the 20th century. This is one of the reasons why career leaders in inside the park HRs are pretty much all from the early days of baseball. [/QUOTE]

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