Un-permanent records fill baseball history

The National Pastime’s past is not as set-in-stone as one might expect, with specific details of its story often muddled. With its record-keeping, especially in its nascent decades, not as meticulous it has been in recent years, it often comes down to the work of historians and researchers to uncover the details that change long-held beliefs.

In a sport where numbers matter, understanding the vagaries in its recorded history is important.

An early example of this, involving greats Ty Cobb and Rogers Hornsby, is referenced in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum’s exhibit, One for the Books, which celebrates baseball records and the stories behind them.

For years it was thought that Cobb held the record for most consecutive years leading the league in batting average, with the Tigers star topping the Junior Circuit for nine straight seasons from 1907 to 1915. But research done in the 1970s showed a discrepancy in the 1910 statistics that proved that Cleveland’s Nap Lajoie, in fact, should have been accorded the honor of a batting title, as he topped Cobb, .384 to .383.

“I felt very bad about the matter,” said Cardinals owner Sam Breadon, “but disciplinary methods are entirely up to the manager of the team.”

After contributing to St. Louis winning National League pennants in 1926 and 1928, Alexander was traded to the Phillies in December 1929. But Father Time finally beckoned for the veteran hurler and he was released by Philadelphia in June 1930 after compiling a 0-3 won-loss record for his new squad. This proved to be the end of the line for Alexander, as his big league career was now over after 20 seasons with a 373-208 mark.

“Burt Shotton, the Phillies’ manager, found it a hard job to tell me I was through, and there are no hard feelings,” Alexander said to reporters. “I tried to win, but I couldn’t.”

Whether because of age or his off-the-field proclivities, Alexander didn’t win another major league game after taking over the National League lead from Mathewson. But research in the 1940s discovered a theretofore unknown 1902 triumph for “Matty,” which the major baseball publications of the day soon added to their scrolls, which again tied the two Hall of Famers with a record 373 career Senior Circuit victories.

As recently as 2010, another tie was acknowledged publicly with the news that Yankees slugger Roger Maris, through the dogged efforts of baseball researcher Ron Rakowski, had one less run batted in than his league-leading 142 during his famous 1961 season in which he clubbed a then-record 61 home runs. Maris’ reduced RBI total of 141, the result of a run that actually scored on an error, tied him with Baltimore’s Jim Gentile for the American League lead that year.

“I wish I had known that then,” said Gentile, after hearing the news. “The next winter, (general manager) Lee MacPhail said if I had led the league in RBIs, that alone would have been worth an extra $5,000.”

Gentile had the best season of his nine-year big league career in 1961, batting .302 with 46 home runs, 141 RBI, and finishing third in the AL MVP voting behind Maris and Mickey Mantle.

The Orioles would honor Gentile for his belated RBI title before a home game at Camden Yards on Aug. 6, 2010, the ceremony featuring Baltimore President Andy MacPhail, son of Lee MacPhail, presenting the former Orioles first baseman with a $5,000 check.

Unlike a miscalculation ultimately being the cause of a statistical error, sometimes elements outside a player’s control conspire against the reaching of certain lofty heights. Such was the case with Hall of Famers Jimmie Foxx and Stan Musial.

Sometimes a player’s record is changed as the result of a clarification. In 1991, Major League Baseball’s Committee for Statistical Accuracy, chaired by MLB Commissioner Fay Vincent, defined for the first time what a no-hitter was: “An official no-hit game occurs when a pitcher (or pitchers) allows no hits during the entire course of a game, which consists of at least nine innings.”

“The most exalted category should be reserved for those who pitch nine innings and win,” explained Vincent.

The definition therefore eliminated rain-shortened no-hitters, no-hitters that were broken up in extra innings and eight-inning affairs by a losing team on the road.

Thus the eight-member committee deleted 50 no-hitters from the scrolls, including one belonging to Harvey Haddix, who tossed 12 perfect innings for the Pirates against the Milwaukee Braves on May 26, 1959, but lost the game in the 13th inning when Joe Adcock hit an RBI double.