there’s a lot of stuff going on leading to more strikeouts:

five-man rotations allow starters to rest more throughout the season, which means a higher effort each time out….specialists in the bullpen, particularly high-strikeout closers….hitters sometimes seeing three or four different pitchers in one game [different arm angles and release points, arsenals, speeds, handedness] rather than seeing the same guy four or five times….the rise in the power game, as the best way to stop power is to miss bats…

As for why a pitcher is often measured on Ks whereas hitters don’t automatically stink if they strike out a lot, it’s always better for a pitcher to get more Ks because it takes pressure off their defense and reduces the chance of an error or seeing-eye grounder. While the reverse is true for batters, it’s also true that if a batter doesn’t make contact, he has no chance of, say, hitting into a double play. If the bases are loaded with one out, it’s better that you strike out than that you hit a grounder to second. In the same situation, of course, a pitcher would take the strikeout pretty much every time, I think.

$700,000,000,000/301,139,947 (July 2007 est.) = 2324.50 (almost exactly). I’m with you so far.

But here’s where everything’s screwed up. Anyone with three little kids knows that Apple Pies are 2 for $1! So assuming you were putting all that money into Apple Pies, and you couldn’t get a volume discount * then each person in the US would actually get (using the numbers above) Exactly 4,649 pies. And there’d be a tenth of a penny or so left for each person, or about $386,397 left over.

*which I’m pretty sure you could… wouldn’t you like to be in on that conversation? “You want to haggle on 1.5 TRILLION Apple Pies?!?”

Walter Johnson, Pete Alexander, Cy Young, Rube Wadell, Three Finger Brown

All of these guys were dominant beyond belief in their day PLUS they threw the same ball all game; a scuffed up, blistered, tobacco-stained DEAD ball.

How come not as many K’s??

1. Randy Johnson 10.674
2. Kerry Wood 10.386
3. Pedro Martinez 10.081
4. Nolan Ryan 9.548
5. Sandy Koufax 9.278
6. Johan Santana 9.258
7. Jake Peavy 8.964
8. Arthur Rhodes 8.891
9. Sam McDowell 8.858
10. Dan Plesac 8.740
11. Hideo Nomo 8.734
12. Lee Smith 8.732
13. Curt Schilling 8.600
14. Josh Beckett 8.563
15. Roger Clemens 8.552
16. Eric Plunk 8.453
17. Sid Fernandez 8.404
18. J.R. Richard 8.367
19. A.J. Burnett 8.357
20. David Cone 8.284

Despite this, I think there’s something else going on. I’m not sure what it is but some possibilities include an increased emphasis on power, plate discipline not taught as much anymore, the rise in the percentage of night games, changes in the size of the strike zone, and so on.

Nate

1) Most people don’t have a graphs of 300,000,000 — the number of people in the USA — either. So, it just punts the issue.

2) I don’t really have a grasp of what 2000 McD’s apple pies would be, and I doubt that anyone else does, either? How big a pile of Apple Pies would that be? Give it to me in some unit and number that I can make sense of. Like, how many Apple Pies would fit in a new Ford Mustang? Or, how many Microsoft Zunes could you buy with that many McDonalds Apple Pies?

Oh, wait. This isn’t about product placement? Well, then, it’s just a dumb way to explain it.

As for the poll, why not do team that that mildly annoys me most. You know, like the the team you dispise 5th most. That wipes out the obvious biggies, and gets it down to a more universal level. Like the Braves. You can’t really hate them, but aren’t they annoying. And the Eagles. Heck, anything and anyone associated with Philadelpia, really.