Is a 60-game MLB season, shortest since 1878, 合法的?
George Will pondered the meaning of the shortest Major League Baseball season since 1878.
"If you´re an Indians fan and you 勝利，勝つ the World Series, are you elated or do you think this is just one more 侮辱?" the political commentator and baseball author said.
If Mookie Betts bats .400, would he 追い出す Ted Williams as the last .400 hitter in 1941?
If Jacob deGrom 地位，任命するs a sub-1 ERA in over a dozen starts, would he better （頭が）ひょいと動く Gibson´s 1.12 as the best since the Dead Ball 時代 ended a century ago?
"Who thinks that anything that happens in 2020 is anything other than a one-off, that they ーするつもりである to play perpetually without fans, that they ーするつもりである to 限定する teams only to their own time zones perpetually?" 放送者 （頭が）ひょいと動く Costas said. "This is all a one-off."
Yet for some, perhaps many, the abridged, 60-game season is 単に peculiar and not misbegotten.
FILE - In this Nov. 10, 2016, とじ込み／提出する photo, NBC sportscaster （頭が）ひょいと動く Costas appears before a broadcast in Baltimore. Costas says the 2020 baseball season will be 見解（をとる）d by fans as unique, with .400 hitters and low ERAs 拒絶するd while no-hitters and four-ホームラン games are 受託するd. (AP Photo/Gail Burton, とじ込み／提出する)
"I just can´t wait for the games to begin -- for the story of this strange season to move 今後 from beginning to middle to end -- so there is some 外見 of everyday life returning," historian Doris Kearns Goodwin wrote in an email to The Associated 圧力（をかける）. "And then I will leave to you and the 専門家s to 人物／姿／数字 out the hard stuff -- asterisks etc etc -- while I 逆戻りする to my seven year old self, just happy to follow each game!"
Baseball has long sought a metric for each 面, a data 捨てる 目的（とする）ing to doom intangibles into 絶滅.
Every stat has a 懐疑論者／無神論者 this season. No-hitters and four-ホームラン games may be 支配する to 疑惑.
"We´re going to have a blizzard of asterisk talk now," Will said.
Fans compare players from different 時代s as if they competed against each other in the flesh, imagining Babe Ruth going 深い against 投手s who warm up to hip-hop music and Walter Johnson blowing heaters by muscle-bound Steroids 時代 強打者s. They 階級 players against each other from １０年間s apart, even though the sport keeps 発展させるing to make comparisons often meaningless. Old Hoss Radbourn´s 678 2/3 innings in 1884 won´t be matched by any team this season, much いっそう少なく any 投手.
Like much in life, history will be でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れるd by the 勝利者s. Fans of the 2020 World Series 支持する／優勝者 will みなす the year 合法的, historic if the 勝利者 happens to be the Texas 特別奇襲隊員s, San Diego Padres, Seattle 水夫s, Milwaukee Brewers or Colorado Rockies taking the 肩書を与える for the first time.
After the 1918 season was 削減（する） short at 123-131 games per team, the World Series was moved up to Sept. 5 予定 to World War I. Boston 辛勝する／優位d Cleveland by 2 1/2 games for the AL pennant and won the World Series over the Cubs, who had coasted to the NL 肩書を与える. During the 86-year wait for another 肩書を与える, Red Sox fans didn´t consider that 選手権 いっそう少なく worthy.
"Under these circumstances, people will understand and 受託する almost anything if they feel that it´s been 課すd upon them by the coronavirus and 合法的 関心 and this is the best we can do," Costas said.
MLB first 提案するd an 82-game season starting around the Fourth of July, but 開始 day kept getting 押し進めるd 支援する as teams and the players´ 協会 fought over money in a 序幕 to 取引ing for a new labor 契約 that starts in 2021.
"We have a 論争 here in a 離婚, let´s say, over who gets the silverware and who gets the sofa," Costas said. "Let´s （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する that because the house is on 解雇する／砲火／射撃."
Because of that, the shorter 見本s from this season will lead to oddities.
Seven 公式の／役人 qualifiers starting in 1942 were hitting at .400 or higher at their team´s 60-game 示す, the last Chipper Jones at .409 in 2008 before fading to a big league-best .364. The others also finished 井戸／弁護士席 short (Tony Gwynn .377 in 1997), Larry Walker (.366 in 1997), Paul O´Neill (.359 in 1994), 棒 Carew (.339 in 1983), Hank Aaron (.355 in 1959) and Williams (.369 in 1948).
Walker and O´Neill were at .417 through 60 games.
Teams thought to be out of it are likely to 競う while favorites 滞る and flop.
"It´s closer to a sprint than a マラソン, and just about everybody is in it because the number of games is so short," Costas said.
Hard to tell whether an 豊富 of 競争相手s will draw more eyeballs to television 審査するs or attention will be as abbreviated as the season.
"I´ll just feel it," Will said. "I´ll tune in on 開始 day, Do I tune in the next day? I don´t know."
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FILE - In this Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2015, とじ込み／提出する photo, political columnist George Will answers audience questions during a 会合 of The 経済的な Club of Southwestern Michigan at Lake Michigan College, in Benton 郡区, Mich. Will has been pondering the meaning of the shortest Major League Baseball season since 1878. "If you're an Indians fan and you 勝利，勝つ the World Series, are you elated or do you think this i s just one more 侮辱?" he said. (Don Campbell/The 先触れ（する）-Palladium 経由で AP, とじ込み／提出する)
