In Joe DiMaggio’s rookie year in 1936 Joe D had 39 strikeouts. In his 13-year career, he whiffed 369 total times. In Aaron Judge’s rookie season in 2017 he had 208 K’s. In nine years, he has 1,150 total. Those 208 strikeouts were a rookie record. Second most all time by rookies is Kris Bryant with 199 in 2015. The most by a switch hitter is Yoan Moncada who summated 217 in 2018. The Yankee Clipper averaged 34 in a season and Judge averages 198 in a year. Need I say more? The style of the game today is night and day from the Golden Age of Baseball and at times it’s blatantly unrecognizable.
Players used to be embarrassed when they would walk back to the dugout after getting rung up by their opponent on the mound but today it’s reminiscent of how in Little League if you had a good at bat but struck out you still got a high five. Every swing is home run or bust. It’s like playing Whac-A-Mole.
I most definitely understand that the style of the game is different today but that is repudiated by me due to my discontent for the ignoramus analytical strategy. I’m an old school guy trapped in a new style game. The small ball era was the real way to play the game. A,B,C baseball. Get the guy on, move him over, get him home. That’s how we all learned playing the game in Little League and it’s just the instinctive and rational way this great game is supposed to be played.
Joe Sewell barely eclipsed the triple digit mark with a whopping 114 career K’s in 14 seasons. The most strikeouts the Cleveland Indians infielder had were 20 in his second full season. His second lowest was 17 in his first full season and he would average 10 a year. Sewell struckout once every 63 at bats and once every 73 plate appearances and went 115 games without one whiff in 1929.
Lloyd Waner was punched out a maximum 173 times in nearly two decades (18 seasons). The most K’s Waner tallied in a season was 23 in his rookie year and it was all uphill (or downhill so to speak) from there. The second most the Pittsburgh Pirates Center Fielder had was 20 in a season and the third most was 16. Waner averaged 14 each season.
Frank McCormick from Manhasset, NY who was an MVP with the Cincinnati Reds was rung up only 189 times in his 13 years of big-league service. That’s four months for Kyle Schwarber. 26 punchouts were the most McCormick had in one big league campaign.
The top 10 current Major Leaguers with the most career strikeouts are Giancarlo Stanton (1,910), Paul Goldschmidt (1,831), Andrew McCutchen (1,743), J.D. Martinez (1,665), Joey Votto (1,640), Freddie Freeman (1,603), Eugenio Suarez (1,558), Mike Trout (1,485), Bryce Harper (1,477), and Nick Castellanos (1,441). Six or seven of those guys will be Hall of Famers.
The standards are so low today. You can bat .220 and hit 40 home runs and you’re a superstar. What ever happened to the admiration of batting in the .290’s or .300’s? The batting title used to be a badge of honor. Today’s style of play is another reason that the Splendid Splinter’s batting average of .406 in 1941 will never be broken.
Getting on base and strategically running the bases is a lot more exciting to me than slamming the ball over the fence on ever pitch. And exit velocity and launch angle!? Get the hell outta here! Who seriously cares about those precise scientific statistics. This is how the game is played today and sadly it’s not changing anytime soon. The same goes for pitch counts and innings limits.
What can I say I’m an old school guy stuck in a new school game. I guess we just have to roll with it. One of my favorite quotes of all time was by Ted Williams. “Baseball is the only field of endeavor where a man can succeed three times out of ten and be considered a good performer.”
Jordan Stankovich
My name is Jordan Stankovich. I am a journalist on Long Island. I have been in the journalism field for 5 years. I am a sports reporter for the Suffolk County News, the Long Island Advance, the Islip Bulletin, and the Tide of Moriches and Manorville. Beat writer for the Suffolk County Stingrays minor league basketball team in the ABA. On substack I cover current topics about the pro New York teams and sports history. I have an avid passion for sports history and statistics.
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