The most noticeable thing about the 2024 major league baseball season so far, other than the high number of broken bats and strained hamstrings, is the absence of many teams from the races for first place. Coming into this weekend, eight of the fifteen American League teams had winning records, but four of those were in the Central Division. There,the Cleveland Guardians held a five game lead over Kansas City. Both of those clubs are considered pleasant surprises by the National Committee of Baseball Know It Alls but, as the opthalmologists say, we will see. The fifth team in that division, the Chicago White Sox, are not in contention for anything other than 122 defeats at their current rate of play. In the A.L. West, the Costa Mesa Angels are in a race with Oakland for fifth place and Seattle is the only team that has won more than it has lost. Baltimore and the New York Yankees are the only teams above .500 in the East, and they are the two teams clearly superior to the rest of the league. In the National League, the Philadelphia Phillies, Atlanta Braves, and Los Angeles Dodgers are your three good teams out of fifteen –so far, I have to add, since we are only a bit more than a third of the way through the schedule. It is no doubt fun to be a follower of those successful franchises, but success in competitive sports associations (business) is dependent on, well, competition. When the people know who is going to win most of the time, the interest in each individual game sags to a dangerous low and not even television can adequately compensate.

Back in the days of Elvis, Ed Sullivan, and ubiquitous movies about World War II, the New York Yankees and Brooklyn Dodgers dominated the post season, which consisted of the World Series only unless there was a tie for a pennant. So all of us got to be familiar with Roy Campanella, Duke Snider, Gil Hodges, Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle, and Whitey Ford. Those were very good teams but the sad sack teams like the St. Louis Browns, Pittsburgh Pirates, and any team from Philadelphia were usually not really worthy opponents. Things began to change as the sixties appeared, and the lords of the diamonds made an admirable leap toward progress, otherwise known as parity. The amateur draft was instituted in 1965. Rick Monday was drafted by the Kansas City Athletics and the team with the worst record each season would get that first “draft pick” followed in order by each of the other teams in reverse order of the standings. The goal was to help the losers catch up to the winners and, to a certain extent, it helped. Before long, teams like Baltimore, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and, yes, even the expansion teams won pennants and World Series.

Years later, free agency came along and it was very good for the players as far as salaries and other conditions of employment. Expansion and subsequent widening of the post season participation helped the game become more popular and television contracts enriched all teams and increased the money available. At long last, we may have reached the point that, like most big businesses, MLB had so much cash at its disposal that some teams, like some corporations, had a whole lot more to spend on things like free agents than others. That may account for today’s disparity. Now is a good time, by the way, to tell all baseball commentators around North America that a “ton” equals 2,000 pounds, although Webster says that it can also mean a great quantity, but I would not use it a “ton” of the time.

OTHER MATTERS: May 26 marked the 65th anniversary of one of the weirdest baseball games ever. On that date in 1959, Harvey Haddix of the Pirates pitched 12 perfect innings against the Braves in Milwaukee. He lost the game in the 13th when Felix Mantilla reached on Pirate third baseman Don Hoak‘s throwing error. Eddie Mathews sacrifice bunted Mantilla to second base. Henry Aaron was then intentionally walked. Joe Adcock then delivered a home run except it wasn’t. Adcock passed Aaron between second and third base because Aaron stopped, thinking the ball had landed inside the fence. The umpire ruled Adcock out (correctly) and said the Braves won 2-0. Later, National league president Warren Giles ruled Adcock’s hit a double and the score therefore 1-0. Lew Burdette was the winning pitcher with a 13 inning 12 hitter (all singles). The question is, how many pitches did they throw? They were not counted. Haddix walked one (Aaron) and Burdette none.

More trivia:Who were the first Most Valuable Players to wear glasses at the time? Jim Konstanty of the 1950 Phillies in the National League and Dick Allen of the White Sox in the 1972 American League. You needed to know that, right?