Year of the K

BY KEVIN KERNAN

MLB excuse-makers were out in full force following one of the worst All-Star Games in major league history.

For the first time ever, half the outs in the All-Star Game were strikeouts. 27 up, 27 down, 27 times the ball was not put into play by All-Star hitters who were facing All-Star pitchers, 27 Ks in the American League’s 4-0 win over the National League Tuesday night in Philadelphia. National League “hitters’’ struck out 15 times, AL “hitters’’ struck out 12 times. The 27 strikeouts were the most ever in a 9-inning All-Star Game.

“It was embarrassing,’’ said one longtime baseball man. “It was strikeout, strikeout, pop out, strikeout, strikeout, pop out. Both teams.’’

The game was merely a reflection of what baseball has become under the direction of the Nerds.

Things were not even this bad in 1968, the Year of the Pitcher.

We are in the Year of the K, but the game is better than ever, right Short Attention Span Baseball Sheep?

In that 1968 All-Star Game, a 1-0 NL win at the Astrodome, 11 AL batters struck out and nine NL batters K’d — and that was the year before they dropped the height of the mound to help out hitters. They’ve been helping hitters out ever since and they still can’t hit; this year’s All-Star batting averages were pathetic, just like the rest of baseball where only one American League team is batting over .250.

That happens to be the mighty Rays, well-known cheapskates who lead the AL with a .596 winning percentage and are batting .259, 22 points higher than the Cash Cow Yankees, who rank 22nd in batting average at .237.

Back in 1968, each team employed six pitchers. The 2026 All-Star Game used 20 pitchers, 11 in the AL, and nine in the NL. The good news is that the All-Stars no longer wear those wacky pajama uniforms that Rob Manfred used to make them wear…

The Nerds told us years ago that batting average doesn’t matter and, in the process, they have ruined the game. This was the most boring All-Star Game I can remember — and I’ve been watching them since 1960.

It was so lackluster, I flipped over to legendary pit-master Pat Martin to catch a few episodes of Life of Fire.

Even the ’68 game had more drama because of the Hall of Famers in that group, including Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Don Drysdale, Carl Yastrzemski, Tom Seaver and Mickey Mantle in his swan song season. Mickey hit .237 that season, the same as the AL leadoff hitter Mike Trout is hitting this year.

The NL starter Drysdale pitched three innings to get the win. If a pitcher pitched three innings in an All-Star Game today, the manager would be in big trouble with the Pitch Count Police. NL starter Christopher Sanchez struggled through a 34-pitch first inning and the PCP were on high alert.

Back in 1968, each team employed six pitchers. The 2026 All-Star Game used 20 pitchers, 11 in the AL, and nine in the NL. The good news is that the All-Stars no longer wear those wacky pajama uniforms that Rob Manfred used to make them wear; this year they were wearing their own colors.

Also back in 1968, the AL went 0-9 with runners in scoring position, the NL went 0-5. The only run of the game came across when Willie McCovey hit into a double play against AL starter Luis Tiant. There were only eight hits in the game, but at least three were doubles, by AL batters Jim Fregosi, Tony Oliva and Don Wert.

There were only 10 hits on Tuesday night in Philadelphia at Citizens Bank Park with the White Sox’ Miguel Vargas hitting the lone home run. There was one extremely encouraging sign of hitting and that happened in the first inning when two Yankees – and two lefty hitters – Ben Rice and Cody Bellinger each cut down their swings and hit the ball back up the middle for hits to drive in the three runs that inning against the lefty Sanchez.

Hopefully, for the Yankees’ sake, when they get down to Manfred’s watered down playoffs they remember how to make contact just like that. Last year in the playoffs, Bellinger, the All-Star Game MVP, hit .188 while Rice batted .182.

Oh, but I forgot, batting averages don’t matter. At least that is what the people who don’t know baseball and are in charge of baseball, tell you.

I will give credit here to two writers. Buster Olney, who I worked with in San Diego, admitted the All-Star Game, which has been around since 1933, is in a “fragile’’ state. “There is a lot of concern in the sport because so many players are opting out of the game,’’ he said.

Some of that is because of the silly Manfred Rules limiting pitchers. As a result, pitchers the public wanted to see did not pitch: studs like Jacob Misiorowski, Paul Skenes, Zack Wheeler and Cam Schlittler.

Because of injuries, superstars Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani – the leading vote getter – were not there. Olney noted that a third of the stands of Citizens Bank Park had cleared out by the eighth inning. “That is a concern for baseball to address,’’ he said.

Here at BallNine, we have been sounding the alarm for years that baseball is facing serious issues.

As for his take, Kepner noted that this game was a “star-spangled, 4-0 snoozer for America’s 250th.’’

Again, this was the most strikeouts in a nine-inning All-Star Game ever: 27, half a game’s worth of outs. Of course, excellent pitching is part of that equation; but the launch angle approach, where a generation of players have been told striking out is no big deal is the biggest part of the problem. Put the ball in play.

The Home Run Derby is the Home Run Derby, not the All-Star Game, and isn’t it interesting how far those balls flew in the HR derby. It was also interesting to see how high those baseballs bounced when they landed, I would say super ball high, but that is just an observation of mine, not scientific fact. Our baseball man was convinced “the balls were juiced’’ in the derby and added, “That’s okay, that’s what the fans want to see.’’

Home runs have their place in the game – hey, I was there for the 1998 Great Home Run Chase between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa that saved baseball after the 1994 strike – and I get it, Chicks Dig the Long Ball (“Hey, we got Cy Young winners over here”), but making contact and putting the ball in play also is important. It is more fun to watch and real fans want to see action, especially from All-Stars.

What I’ve noticed and what so many veteran baseball people I talk to have noticed is that this generation of player, encouraged by the Nerds, could care less if they strike out and then they offer the easy excuse, “Oh man the pitching is phenomenal.’’

Where is battle-mode at the plate? Where did that go?

Instead, you see a mighty swing to nowhere, the player walks back to the dugout, not with his head down but looking back at the big screen to see his “A’’ swing, no sense at all of being in battle-mode.

Enough is enough and at least in 1968, those hitters had the excuse that the pitchers were pitching from a mountain top. In 1969, baseball lowered the mound five inches from a height of 15 inches down to ten inches to help the hitters after 1968 was dubbed “The Year of the Pitcher.’’ They also changed the strike zone to help the hitters, back to the 1961 version of K Zone. Now ABS has taken away the front part of the plate strike, so the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Batting averages will eventually go up and it will have nothing to do with batters making adjustments. Expansion is again on the way and once Nashville and Salt Lake City are added (that’s my guess) there will be that many more crappy pitchers in the majors and that will help the hitters. The owners will earn billions from those entry fees, and the game will again suffer overall.

The average batting average is at .242 now, but that is inflated. Just think of all the balls put in play that used to be called errors that are now scored hits — and just think about all the hits that have come about because position players are lobbing the ball over the plate late in blowout games. It’s a joke.

In 1968 the league wide batting average was .237. Manfred will take the hits anywhere he can take them so .237 is not the number this year.

Another problem with the All-Star Game has been created by MLB. With the overabundance of interleague play and with designated hitters in both leagues, the two leagues are the same.

Back in 1960 when I first started watching the All-Star Game and for decades later there really was competition between the American League and the National League. Each team had its own president and there was pride in each league. All that has been stolen away.

The shame of all this is that baseball and the new generation of fans have no clue what they have lost. They have been sucked into the world of over-analytics. Believe me, analytics have always been there, and baseball men used the numbers that were important. Now the goal posts have been moved in every way by the Nerds.

Pete Rose barreling over Ray Fosse in 1970 is the poster child for what used to mark competition between the leagues, but such fierce play is no longer tolerated; contact has been taken out of the game at the plate, by ineffective hitters, and in the field. You no longer can break up a double play; you can’t cause a collision at home and what are laughingly labeled “brawls’’ by today’s media are simply “hold me back’’ skirmishes.

In 1969, the year the mound was lowered was also a year of massive expansion as four teams were added, a lot of minor league pitchers became major league pitchers. As a result, the MLB batting average jumped from .237 to .248. It was soon over .250, went to the .260s and even the .270s in 1996, ’99 and 2000, then it settled back into the .260s through 2009 before dropping into the .250s. The league-wide batting average has not been above .250 since 2019.

Strikeouts continue to go through the roof. There were 20,076 Ks n 2025 and nearly 12,000 already this season, and that does not count the record 27 Ks in the 2026 MLB All-Star Game.

Thanks, Nerds, for the Midsummer Classic that wasn’t close to being a classic.