A complete sign of the times

 Mookie Betts called it "amazing." Said he'd never seen anything like it, and he'd been playing this man's game for a long time. Sounded like he'd just seen the ninth wonder of the world -- or, perhaps more accurately, an artifact from some civilization long gone to dust.

And all Yoshinobu Yamamato had done is pitch a complete game victory for Betts's Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 2 of the World Series.

OK, so it was second straight complete game in the playoffs.

And, OK, so no one had done that since Curt Schilling 24 years ago.

And, OK, so it was an absolute gem: nine innings, one run, four hits, eight strikeouts. Needed just 59 pitches to get through the last six innings. Retired the last 20 batters he faced, something no one had done since Don Larsen did it 69 years ago, when he pitched the only perfect game in World Series history.

But you know what?

Somewhere in America, Nolan Ryan must have been uttering a dry chuckle.

And somewhere else, off in the celestial void, Bob Gibson must have been chortling.

And somewhere else in those same Elysian fields, Walter Johnson must have been shaking his great head ... and the Christian Gentleman, Christy Mathewson, must have been smiling bemusedly ... and Bob Feller, being Bob Feller, was probably cracking wise about the pale state of major-league pitching in These Modern Times.

That's because 2025 is not, you know, 1925.

Or 1935. Or 1965. Or 1980, or 1990, or even 2000.

It's a time when baseball players like Mookie Betts can declare a pitcher's complete game the wonder of the age, because complete games in 2025 are as dead as triceratops. Instead, being a starter in MLB means never (or rarely) having to say you went more than six innings. It means never never (or rarely) throwing more than 100 pitches in a given start.

It means exiting a no-hitter in the seventh inning because your pitch count is getting up there, and no one's paying you the GNP of Bulgaria to throw no-hitters.

No, sir. In 2025, you're being paid the GNP of Bulgaria to ... well, to pitch as little as  possible, when you get right down to it.

And so now you've got long relievers and short relievers and the guy before the closer, and the closer. And it's why we can go almost a quarter century before seeing what we saw Yoshinobu Yamamato do last night.

No wonder Mookie Betts was amazed. No wonder everyone around him was equally amazed.

And Bob Gibson and Nolan Ryan, old-school guys like that?

Well, Gibson might have been chortling because, in 526 career starts, he pitched 255 complete games. And Ryan might have been uttering a dusty chuckle because once, against Boston in 1974, he pitched 13 innings and threw 235 pitches.

Two-hundred thirty-five! In 2025, that's two-and-a-half starts.

But in 1974?

Four days later, in his next start, Ryan pitched six scoreless innings.

Now that's amazing, Mookie Betts.