Sunday, May 21, 2023
Once upon a time, a baseball pitcher was expected to pitch the entire game unless the manager removed him because of a poor performance. In 1965, for example, Sandy Koufax’s record was 28-8, with 27 complete games. He is, by most expert accounts, the greatest pitcher in history, and had the finest six-year performance of any pitcher without exception.
Today, managers pull pitchers after five innings or so, even if they are doing well and even those with no-hitters at that point, and use a series of relief pitchers to finish the game. Here is a startling fact: In 2022,
in all of baseball, only 36 times did a pitcher throw a complete game.
The late night talk show hosts make millions a year. But their shows are now in reruns because the writers are on strike and these guys can’t, apparently, come up with a comic monologue or repartee by themselves. (From what I’ve seen, neither can the writers, but that’s a different story.)
This is the trajectory of our society today. Don’t expect prolonged excellence or originality, simply try for small spurts. It’s like turning the hundred meter dash into a relay with each person running for 25 meters. Or a novel where 10 writers each write 20 pages.
And now we have ChatGPT so that people have to think and perform even less. Brave New World.