Every few years the "leading after seven innings" thing is trotted out, and there's always someone who thinks it's the Dead Sea Scrolls or something.

Actually, the most revealing thing of this article is how the Pirates manager was very clear on how many pitches had been thrown by his starter and how that number clearly influences his decision making.

It would be interesting to see "leading after seven" stats from the days of the CG.

It seemed to me like he had good reasons, not some sort of slavish obedience to an arbitrary number.

When he took Gorzelanny out, he mentions 93 pitches thrown, but also the right-handers due up, the 4th time through the lineup, the close score, and having two runners on in the previous inning.

I don't think Tracy is a particularly great manager, but that's the sort of thinking that I'd want my manager to be making.

Back in my day, pitchers throw a hundred innings a day! Every day! With both hands! Blindfolded! Buttpnaked in twelve feet of snow! Uphill! Both ways!

Now get off my lawn!

Tracy is kind of prone to leaving his starters in too long, actually. I've seen a surprising number of instances where a guy was under 100 pitches, but still pretty clearly gassed, and he didn't reach for the hook until there were already a couple of runs in.

It would be interesting to see "leading after seven" stats from the days of the CG.

Well, b-ref has a team inning scoring feature in its PI . .

Comparing the 1974 AL (the greatest CG league in the last half-century) vs. the 2006 AL . . .

When leading after 7 innings:
1974 AL: 725-114 (.864)
2006 AL: 882-146 (.858)

When leading after 8 innings:
1974 AL: 778-82 (.905)
2006 AL: 952-92 (.912)

There's at least one complicating factor - run environment. 1974 AL averaged 4.10 runs a game. Last year it was 4.97 runs a game.

2007 has more extremes at either end. Whereas every 1974 team blew at least 6 leads in the last two innings, the '07 Twins blew only four and the Angels dropped only 5. Meanwhile, the two teams with the worst W/L records after 7 when leading were the '07 D-Rays (41-18) and '07 Royals (48-17). The best 1974 team was the Rangers (70-6). Worst was the Angels (51-16), who were second in the league in CG. Then again, second worst in '74 was Cleveland (62-17), who had one of the fewest CG totals in the league.

The Twins (72-1) & Angels (70-2) were also better after 8 than any 1974 team. The Royals (47-12) were still the worst. The highs and lows of 1974 were the Yanks (69-3) and Cleveland (65-13).

Complete games are not obsolete!

- R. Wordsworth