by The Last Hollywood Star
I can’t turn on ESPN without hearing its baseball analysts talk about which World Series pitcher will be going on “short rest,” “long rest,” or “regular rest”
Boring!
Turn back the pages to 1957 when the Milwaukee Braves’ Lew Burdette pitched three complete game victories over the New York Yankees. After Burdette’s first start in the second game, he pitched on three and two days rest. Burdette’s last two wins were shut outs.
Then in 1968, Detroit Tiger Mickey Lolich repeated Burdette’s feat by winning three games against the St. Louis Cardinals, also on short rest.
Starting the second, fifth and seventh game, with three and two days off between games five and seven, Lolich too pitched three complete games. In the seventh game, Lolich defeated Hall of Famer Bob Gibson.
So announcers, please, stop talking about how many days off the starters have had. This is the World Series! Let the pitchers suck it up and do their job no matter how much or little time they’ve had to rest.
1 comment:
Koufax also pitched the second, fifth, and seventh games in 1965. (He couldn't pitch Game 1 because it was Yom Kippur.) He lost the first but won the last two.
Of course he was done at 31.
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