Complete Games, Ruined Careers and Mike Berardino

No one knows for sure when the game of baseball originated. Currently, the earliest known reference comes from a Pittsfield (MA) ordinance in 1791 which prohibited anyone from playing the sport within 80 yards of the town's meeting house, which just got new windows.

But one thing we can be fairly sure of is that whenever the game was invented, the next day someone complained about the lack of pitching available.

Every team would love to add a Johan Santana to its roster. But if you asked every manager or general manager in the game, they would love to add an innings-eater to the roster, too. Someone who could take the ball every five days, give seven or more innings and provide a roughly league-average ERA.

That mythical pitcher, who pitched every five games and gave seven innings each time out would end up with 224 innings for the season. That would make him one of the leaders in the majors in IP. Last year, C.C. Sabathia led MLB with 241 innings.

Historically that's not a very impressive total at all. Below are the leaders in innings pitched in the National League every 10 years starting in 1887:

1877 - Devlin, 559
1887 - Clarkson, 523
1897 - Nichols, 368
1907 - McGlynn, 352
1917 - Alexander, 388
1927 - Root, 309
1937 - Passeau, 292
1947 - Spahn, 290
1957 - Friend, 277
1967 - Bunning, 302
1977 - Niekro - 330
1987 - Hershiser, 265
1997 - Smoltz, 256
2007 - Webb, 236

What we see is a pretty steady pattern of decreasing innings throughout history, with a couple of exceptions. In 1917, Pete Alexander had 48 more innings than the second place finisher. If we use Fred Toney's 340 innings as the leader, it fits the pattern perfectly. Alexander, one of the greatest pitchers in baseball history, was simply an outlier.

Our other bump in the pattern comes in 1967 and 1977. Two things help explain the 1967 irregularity. One, this was the middle of the greatest pitching era (1963-68) since the advent of the live ball in 1920; and two, the league was still feeling the effects of the first expansion in 1962, when the NL added the Mets and Astros and went to 12 teams. Those two teams combined to lose 194 games in 1967. The Mets had the worst offense and the Astros had the worst pitching in the league that year.

But 1977 is the one bump in the graph that is not so readily explained. Yes, Phil Niekro was a knuckleball pitcher, which helps explain why he was able to throw so many innings. But the number two pitcher that year was Steve Rogers, who threw 302 innings.

One theory is that we just happened to enjoy a banner era for pitchers at that time. Pitchers born in the period roughly from 1935-1950 are some of the most famous hurlers in the history of the game. Hall of Fame pitchers Steve Carlton, Don Drysdale, Bob Gibson, Catfish Hunter, Ferguson Jenkins, Sandy Koufax, Juan Marichal, Phil Niekro, Jim Palmer, Gaylord Perry, Nolan Ryan, Tom Seaver and Don Sutton all came from this era.

But just as important as those famous pitchers who had high workloads and lived to tell about it are the ones who couldn't handle the stress. The following pitchers were also from that same era and had some great seasons but were unable to put in the lengthy careers as their Hall of Fame counterparts:

Steve Barber, Dave Boswell, Jim Bouton, Ron Bryant, Wally Bunker, Steve Busby, Dean Chance, Sammy Ellis, Chuck Estrada, Wayne Garland, Gary Gentry, Don Gullett, Denny McLain, Jim Merritt, Andy Messersmith, Gary Nolan, J.R. Richard, Wayne Simpson and many, many others.

Jim Bouton won 39 games as a 24-25 year old. He won 16 the rest of his career. Don Gullett pitched 218 innings as a 20-year old. He didn't make it past age 27. Denny McLain hurled 661 innings over two seasons as a 24-25 year old. He was washed up at 28. Ron Bryant pitched 270 innings as a 25-year old. He was out of baseball two years later. All of these pitchers had great success early and then flamed out.

Now, there's no single reason why these pitchers were not able to follow up on their early promise. Many of them had what was called "dead arms" ones that we might be able to fix with surgery today.

Still, it's not surprising that teams started to be more careful with their pitchers after seeing all of these promising pitchers burn out in the 1960s and 1970s. And so the tradeoff began. Many clubs realized it was better to have 10-15 years of a pitcher at 200 or so innings than 2-3 years of a pitcher at 250 or so innings.

As with any transformation, not all teams advanced at the same pace. One team that was famous for riding its starting pitchers hard was the "Billy Ball" Oakland A's teams of the early 1980s.

Billy Martin took over a club that went 54-108 in 1979 and proceeded to win 83 games the following season in 1980. He did this by riding his starting five of Rick Langford, Mike Norris, Matt Keough, Steve McCatty and Brian Kingman. Those five combined for an amazing 93 complete games. The A's had 94 for the season because closer Bob Lacey got a start on the penultimate day of the season and Martin had him go all nine innings.

The Brewers were second in the league in 1980 with 48 complete games. The A's 94 complete games that season were easily an expansion-era mark in the American League, eclipsing the previous high of 72 complete games by the 1973 California Angels.

It was the most complete games in the junior circuit since the 1941 White Sox had 106 complete games. Thornton Lee led the way for Chicago with 30 complete games in 34 starts. Eddie Smith had 21 in 33, Johnny Rigney had 18 in 29 and 40-year old Ted Lyons had 19 in 22 starts.

So, what affects did the 94 complete games have on the A's team and pitchers the following seasons after 1980? After winning the AL West in the first half of the strike-shortened 1981 season, the A's fell to 68 wins in 1982 and Martin was fired. It was the first of five consecutive seasons under .500 for the team. Meanwhile, here's a look at how the starting five for the 1980 A's fared in the following seasons:

Rick Langford (28 year old, 19 wins, 290 IP in 1980) - Never won more than 12 games in the majors again. Went 23-26 the next two seasons, pitched 142.2 innings the following four years and was out of baseball.

Mike Norris (25 year old, 22 wins, 284.1 IP) - He pitched just four more years in the majors, including his 1990 comeback as a 35-year old after a six-year absence from the bigs.

Matt Keough (24 year old, 16 wins, 250 IP) - Had his last hurrah in 1986 as a 30-year old, when he went 5-4 in 29 games.

Steve McCatty (26 year old, 14 wins, 221.2 IP) - The success story of the group. McCatty followed up with an even better 1981 season, in which he went 14-7 with a 2.33 ERA. But he went just 24-30 in the next four years and was out of baseball after 1985.

Brian Kingman (25 year old, 8 wins, 211.1 IP) - Went 7-18 the next three seasons and was out of baseball after 1983.

So, remember "Billy Ball" and how riding starting pitchers ruined the careers of five guys who looked pretty promising around 1980. That will make you a better-informed fan than some people who write about baseball for a living.

In today's South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Mike Berardino got paid to write a column where he lamented that the Marlins, who went the entire 2007 season without a complete game, pulled 24-year old Scott Olsen after seven innings in a game they were leading 2-1.

He even mentioned Billy Martin and the 1980 A's. Further proof that there's nothing so dangerous as a little bit of knowledge. Fortunately for Olsen and the Marlins fans, manager Fredi Gonzalez and pitching coach Mark Wiley have a better understanding of injuries and senselessly going after complete games.

It's no fun to watch a game with eight pitching changes. But it's a small price to pay to see a pitcher like Scott Olsen have a complete career. The combination of fewer innings pitched and greater medical care means that Olsen is much more likely to pitch 15 years in the majors than wind up a casualty like Jim Bouton or Denny McLain or the 1980 A's.