Ashley Landis/Associated Press
The length of MLB seasons has varied through the years amid rule changes, world wars, strikes and other factors. But the 60-game slate will be the league’s shortest since 1878.
For a sport built around statistics and milestones, that’s a problem.
If a star player such as the Los Angeles Angels’ Mike Trout manages to hit .400 for the first time since the Boston Red Sox’s Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941, it will never be seen as fully legitimate. That indifference will be multiplied if the player in question is a relative unknown who happens to get hot for a couple of months.
The same will go for any other non-counting-stat records. And what about the eventual champion? A World Series win is a World Series win.
But consider the Los Angeles Dodgers, who have built a perennial-contention machine yet haven’t hoisted a Commissioner’s Trophy since 1988. Will winning a ring in a 60-game sprint feel as sweet?
Or how about the Cleveland Indians, who haven’t won a Fall Classic since 1948, the longest active drought in baseball? Obviously, they’d be happy to change that in 2020, but it would always come with a “Yes, and yet…” qualifier.
In the end, this will be the season that stands apart from all other seasons. That’ll make it memorable, but it will also tarnish anything a player or club accomplishes.
Home>>Fashion>>MLB is about to embark on an unprecedented experiment: a 60-game season. It’s the result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the contentious negotiations over pay and safety between owners and players that followed…
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