It may not be being talked about out in the open but you can read between the lines: This is a critical year for Todd Butler and his Wichita State baseball program. Apathy has started to settle in with the Shocker faithful about their baseball program and that’s not good. It has been one of the two cornerstones of the Wichita State athletic program along with basketball but that was under former head coach Gene Stephenson. Under Butler, not so much.
The Shockers were better last year but that is relative because they were mediocre the three years before that. Butler’s 2019, version has got to be a lot better and , more importantly, must compete in the new American Athletic Conference, something they have not done since joining that bigger and better conference.
Butler is now in his sixth season as boss of the Shocker baseball program. Like it or not, it’s put up or shut up time!
The Big Cigars of the National Football League don’t like to talk about it but the officiating is a hot topic in closed-door meetings this off-season. Not just the blown calls in the two divisional playoff games but the growing trend of more and more penalties.
We’ve reached the point that in any given game there are more penalties than big plays. The NFL’s officiating crews set a league record this past year with 3,447 penalties called during the regular season. With that in mind, it becomes almost comical that the biggest uproar was about a penalty that WAS NOT called; the blown pass interference call in the Saints-Rams playoff game.
Has increased technology simply put a magnifying glass on missed calls and bad calls? Does the instant review analysis expose the bad calls or are we just getting more and more poorly officiated games? Has the officiating always been bad but we just didn’t get to see it on replays? Will this filter down to the college game? High school? These are legitimate concerns that must be discussed.
As for me, I think a lot of this has been caused by the tinkering with the rule book, trying to make the game more favorable for the offenses. League owners and managers have wrongly assumed that fans want more and more scoring and have adjusted the rulebook to make that happen. Thus, more pressure on the game officials.
Major League baseball teams are reporting for Spring Training. Good pitching is still at a premium. The days are long gone though, when dominating starting pitchers were a part of the game. The Sandy Koufax, Whitey Ford, Bob Gibson, days are over. The marquee starting pitcher is an endangered species. As recently as 2012 starting pitchers accounted for 71.5% of all wins. Last year that fell to 62.3%, an all-time low.
Major League Baseball has set a record for most relief appearances for four consecutive seasons. From 1998 through 2018 relief appearances have increased by 37%, from 4.9 per game to 6.7 per game.
So, Royals fans, if you’ve never heard of most of your starting pitchers, not to worry. You would be better off checking out the bullpen. That’s where your victories are if you are looking for a 2019 resurgence for your Boys In Blue!
Buddy Tabler is a guest columnist for the Great Bend Tribune and his views don’t necessarily reflect those of the paper. He can be reached at budtabler@gmail.com.
