Two no-hitters in less than 48 hours is impressive, but should Major League Baseball be celebrating the feat or concerned for the future of the game?
New York Yankees pitcher Corey Kluber threw baseball’s sixth no-hitter of the season Wednesday night, striking out nine Texas Rangers in a 2-0 Yankees victory. It’s the first no-hitter for a Yankees pitcher since David Cone’s perfect game against the Montreal Expos on July 18, 1999.
Kluber’s gem comes just one day after the Seattle Mariners went hitless against Spencer Turnbill of the Detroit Tigers.
After just two months of play, the no-hitter count for 2021 stands at six, just one shy of the modern regular season record.
The incredible accomplishment used to be a rarity — a moment for fans to remember for the rest of their lives. But the recent increase in frequency is making the feat less special — something that should concern the MLB.
The league chose to deaden the ball before the 2021 season in order to reduce the fluctuations in home run rate, according to The Athletic.
“In an effort to center the ball with the specification range for COR and CCOR, Rawlings produced a number of baseballs from late 2019 through early 2020 that loosened the tension of the first wool winding,” the memo from the office of the commissioner reads, explaining that this change had two effects — reducing the weight of the ball by less than one-tenth of an ounce, and also a slight decrease in the bounciness of the ball as measured by the COR and CCOR. COR is the coefficient of restitution, or the relationship of the incoming speed to the outgoing speed. So, in other words, this new ball will be less bouncy.
The effect has been immediate — the home run rate has decreased to 1.14 per game — down from 1.18 per game in 2020 and 1.39 in 2019. The new baseball has also increased strikeouts drastically with 24.1 percent of plate appearances ending in strikeouts, according to CBS Sports.
Even Clayton Kershaw, who only benefits from the deadened balls, sees the problem with the record amount of no-hitters.
Well, it’s not good. I’ll tell you that. I think whatever the intention was with the new ball or whatever it may be, it really hasn’t done anything. There might be less home runs, which I guess they want, but I don’t know the stats on that. But I do know that strikeouts are the same. I think I saw some stats for April that it was the worst hitting month in the history of something. No-hitters are cool. I have all the respect in the world for Corey Kluber and Bum [Madison Bumgarner] and all those guys that have thrown no-hitters. But to have one happen every night, it seems like it’s probably not good for the game. Fans want to see some hits, I get that and some action, and not many people striking out. I appreciate the attempt that MLB has tried to do but I think it seems like they missed the mark so far. We’ll see. I don’t know.
Baseball just can’t figure out the sweet spot. For the past several seasons, balls have been leaving the ballpark at a record pace as the approach at the plate has become more about “launch-angle” and “exit velocity” than contact. The increase in home runs was also a turn off for fans, as games became more about the long-ball than strategy. It leaves baseball between a rock and a hard place.
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One thing is for sure, deadening the baseball was a bad idea. Whether you’re a purist or just starting to understand the game, we can all agree that more strikeouts and fewer home runs can’t be good for the viewing experience. As Major League Baseball attempts to keep up with faster-paced sports like the NBA and NFL, they can’t allow the game to become less entertaining.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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