The Baseball 100

“Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it don’t matter.” “How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you were?”

In 1930, he led the league in wins and saves (though it would be decades before the save became an official statistic).

Tony Gwynn hit a magnificent .338 for his career.

How many gorgeous sunrises in a row can we appreciate? We get bored, even with greatness.

Only three men as big as Frank Thomas—Derrek Lee and Mike Morse are the other two—have hit .300 in a full big-league season. Thomas did it nine times.

My favorite insight into Kershaw came after I asked him at the end how much he enjoyed those special days when everything goes right. He said he enjoys them, obviously; he was clearly giddy with joy after his no-hitter against Colorado in 2014, for example. But he said that while those days are fun, he had trouble with the phrase “special days.” “I

(and still only)

In 1995, when Gwynn led the league with a .368 average, he struck out 15 times all season. The next year, he struck out 17 times. In 1999, he played in 111 games and struck out 14 times. Gwynn struck out three times in a game once. In 1992, he did not strike out in back-to-back games all season.

“Do you throw that fast consistently?” the team’s manager asked. “No, sir,” Paige said. “I do it all the time.”