For 145 years, players have walked, slid, walked, sunk and jumped on white rubber patches across the continent. It’s the act of scoring a run, the goal of baseball, and adding to an impending goal.
From Queen Victoria’s reign to the days of Lance Angles, a parade of baseball players crossed the plate 1,999,610 times during Monday’s games, according to the Sports Bureau of Elias, Major League Baseball’s official statistics.
Which means that in the next few days – no one knows exactly when – a lucky player will put on the rubber toe and score what will officially be the two-thousandth inning in historic MLB.
Cue the confetti and hit the group?
In fact, the fact did not attract much attention. The lack of fanfare contrasts sharply with the events surrounding the millennium race, which sparked national interest amid a competition sponsored by Tootsie Roll and Seiko Watches. Most people today don’t know enough about the approaching benchmark, which is a testament to the sustainable production of the national hobby – at least for some of those who have helped lift the total.
“Wow, it’s a great thing,” said Pete Rose, who scored 2,165 of those points. “Two million is a ton.” I’m glad I didn’t have to follow through. “
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Pete Rose has scored 2,165 points during his long career. He cites his grassroots career as one of the main reasons for his prolonged success. Credits … Al Behrman / Associated Press
This responsibility belongs to Elias, who convened an audit last week to confirm the exact figure as the step approaches. Baseball Reference has its own practice tab
, which tells first-hand everything you do every day in the sport. This site has become the bible of statistical information for many fans, largely thanks to the old numbers provided by Retrosheet, another reliable historical tab. But the totals in Elias and Baseball Reference are very little different, with Baseball Reference being 97 runs higher than Elias. This gap will lead Baseball Reference to record the lead a little ahead of Elias, with the two million run scheduled to cross the plateau this week, probably Wednesday or Thursday based on teams averaging about 130 runs per day. this season. That Elias and Baseball’s reference numbers were less than 100 together after more than 221,000 games is remarkable, especially since the record-keeping before 1900 was a bit murky. forgive the expression, in the same sense. “This shows that baseball has been around for a very, very long time,” said John Labombarda, research director for Elias, who has worked in the sports office for 41 years, during which most of the second million points have been marked. One reason for the gap is that MLB dates back to the 1876 National League season. It’s been a lot of baseball games there has been a debate about the leagues and the years to go. There are also questions about the games played., Not decisions and losses. Occasional new searches lead to new tracks being created and others being deleted. Image The Boston Red Sox were part of the original League National teams in the 1870s. The first official race, according to MLB accounting, was held at a Red Stockings game in 1876. Credits … Mark Rucker / Transcendental Graphics, via Images “Baseball statistics in general are more interesting because they’re confusing,” said John Thorn, MLB’s official historian. “It’s like, how many stars are there in the sky? There are so many anomalies in our record keeping, who really knows? But it’s still an important step.
A similar uncertainty was overseas in 2012 when the cricket test hit two million performances in 2012
, and it is said that two different players have marked the historic race. The league was made up of eight teams, but they came together to score 3,066 points in the opening season. For three centuries, they and their descendants who played ball added hundreds of thousands more.
In fact, the two millionth run has already been marked. In the near future – perhaps next season – MLB will incorporate some Black League statistics into the historical record
, making the two million inning a true score from several years ago. Similarly, the Millionth Run was credited to Bob Watson of the Houston Astros on May 4, 1975 – but that turned out to be also wrong, for almost the same reason. Image In 1975, Houston Astros outfit Bob Watson was awarded a million Tootsie Rolls for scoring what was believed at the time to be the illionth baseball bat. Credits … Bettmann / Images Watson’s race was the culmination of a baseball game of the century, culminating in a one-week promotional campaign with watch clocks in stadiums across the country, great speculation on who would score the race, and a million Tootsie Rolls (and a watch) for whoever made it. Unfortunately, Thorn said this figure was based solely on the National League and the American League. In 1969, MLB officially recognized several other leagues, such as the Federal League, the Union Association and even more, adding several racing seasons. If the other leagues had been counted, the thousandth inning would have scored much sooner. Today, Elias and Baseball Reference correctly include these old leagues in their MLB database, so that two million runs – beyond the addition of the birth league – can be accurately verified. Sort of. “Absolutely, it’s possible,” Thorn said, “as long as you do it with a grain of salt, not just a grain. Now throw this on the salt pile: An unofficial audit of the MLB database has led to a third number that is about 500 executions higher.This suggests that the two-millionth inning must have been marked somewhere on the West Coast Sunday afternoon.But Elias is the official MLB statistician for all pre- 2001, so his number – which strictly reflects the baseball reference number – is all that is, however, it took a little less than 100 seasons in baseball to compile a million runs, but it took only 46 seasons for the second million.The doubled pace is the result of many factors, but mostly of expansion.There are now 30 clubs, all producing several races apart in a season of 162 games.From 1916 to 1960, 16 teams have played 154 games each. as a sharper ball, the introduction of the designated batting rule in the American League, smaller ball fields and larger players may have helped speed up the game. the production of the breed, but this was marginal. The average number of points per team per game – it was 4.39 until Sunday – has remained relatively constant since 1900, going most often from 4.0 to 4.9 points per team per game. “The only thing that has changed a lot is the way we score,” Thorn said. Today’s teams rely heavily on circuits, but over the years the emphasis has been on getting hit and working your way around the bases. Rose was great for that. He says his count number is a credit to the sloths batting behind him in the lineup. Rose was then excluded from MLB to bet on his team as manager, and now works with the gaming site UpickTrade. But on the field, he was best known for setting the career success record, with 4,256. Despite that record, Rose said the most important baseball statistic was running, where he was sixth. Rickey Henderson was the first, in 2295. Image Rickey Henderson broke Ty Cobb’s career record for runs marked with a home run in 2001. He was knocked out of the house before stepping out to be kissed by his teammates. Credits … Jon Soohoo / Images “The point of the race is what you get to play,” Rose said. “Rickey had a talent, but I have to believe I was one of the best at it. I scored a lot because I knew how to score goals. I was the best guy ever in baseball awards in the third. The active leader for the points scored is Albert Pujols with 1,853 points.But it will be difficult, without a concerted effort, to determine this week who is actually walking safely on the home plate for the two millionth time, whether based on the numbers produced by the numbers produced by Elias, Baseball Reference, MLB.official database or home fan scores.In 1975, there were observers at all stadiums connected by telephone to determine who had marked what they considered to be the millennial inning.Forty-six years later, it looks like it will be more of a joint effort by all baseball players to reach that most authentic benchmark. And then there will be three million. “What does that mean, two million runs?” Thorn said. “Absolutely nothing. But that’s what makes them fun.
