About three weeks ago the Met's Matt Harvey , who goes by the nickname " The Black Knight", informed the team through Scott Boras that his hard limit on the season for innings pitched would be 180. Coming off arm surgery last year his physician and agent set that arbitrary limit. Harvey said at the time that he had to think of his career in spite of the fact that the Mets were in a pennant race. He later backed off a little but the team has skipped his scheduled start at least once since. Last night on national TV he held the Yankees to one hit and no runs through five and sat down with a 1-0 lead. The Yankees proceeded to tear through the middle relievers for 11 runs on their way to a series win. If Gehrig was the Iron Horse then I would suggest Harvey be re-named My Little Pony.
I see it as just one more instance of the drama that is MLB in NYC. It's appropriate that the Yankees were the opponent. And George, your title for this topic says it all.
I saw an article on the Cardinals pitching staff. Wacha and Martinez I think both have never thrown more than 180 innings and that's where they are right now. It's uncharted territory as the Cardinals approach the playoffs. No doubt so many of today's pitchers would melt if they had to shoulder the load of guys like McLain, Don Drysdale, Early Wynn, Warren Spahn, and more than a few others.
Seven times in his career Ferguson Jenkins has over twenty complete games in a season. Once he had thirty. You take the top pitchers in baseball today and add then togther and you wont come up with 1/4 of those numbers.