Yes-yes to the no-no

 The New York Yankees' latest store-bought ace, Corey Kluber, twirled a no-hitter last night, so, no, it's not true any bum off the street can throw a no-no in Major League Baseball these days. Even if it came one night after Spencer Turnbull did it for the sadsack Detroit Tigers.

Kluber's nope brings to six the number of no-hitters in the majors so far this season, and we're still 12 days away from June. So you can be forgiven for thinking that means no-hitters are today's six-hitters, or some such thing.

If so, this is Bad For Baseball, as we geezers like to say. Any devaluation of a cherished benchmark is, because if it happens often enough it's no longer a benchmark.

Not to pick on poor Turnbull, for instance, but he's not exactly Sandy Koufax. In four seasons in the majors, he's 10-25 with a 4.33 ERA. This is by far his best season to date; he's 3-2 right now with a 2.88 ERA. Last season he was 4-4 with an ERA just under four; in 2019, he made 30 appearances and was 3-17 with a 4.61 ERA.

But the other night, he became only the eighth Tiger to throw a no-hitter in the franchise's 125-year history. And that's with guys like Denny McLain and Jack Morris and Justin Verlander and Hal Newhouser in the archives.

Not sure you could say "Spencer Turnbull" in that sentence and have it come out sounding right. No offense to the young man intended.

The seamheads will tell you this is all because Chicks Dig The Longball, which is another way of saying baseball fans want to see baseballs go a long, long way when they're struck these days. The consequence is the game has devolved, with a few notable exceptions, into go-big-or-go-home.

Big swings mean big hits, after all. But they also mean big misses. 

And so today's pitchers can get away with missing the corners -- even really missing the corners -- and still get a swing and a miss. Taking pitches? Drawing walks? Moving the runner over?

Man, that is so 1970. Who do you think you are, Whitey Herzog?

Not in this man's MLB, by golly. 

Devaluation or no devaluation, sadly.

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