“My point was that if you were a good enough pitcher, you would be kept in the game even if you were a poor hitter.”
You know the sport, congrats. But the real thing about the earlier years of the game when offense was hurt by nothing but good pitching was in the 50’s and 60’s. !968 was the year they decided to lower the mound, bring in the fences, and change the ball and the strike zone. Pitchers were over powering the hitters. So they didn’t need an extended bull pen. Just a couple of starters, one maybe two long relief, and a closer.
And the expectations of hitter has changed. According to batting average leaders at mlb.com only eight hitters in all of major league baseball that have enough at bats are hitting over 300.
https://www.mlb.com/stats/batting-average.
Home runs are up, batting averages are down. So the expectation of a hitter delivering is less as they don’t do it as often. It all balances out in the end and the game survives on hype rather than success.
wy69
I came of age years after Yaz won the triple crown with a .301 batting average in 1968. Even after the changes you mentioned, bullpens were a secondary consideration for most teams except the Yankees.
Most teams had an ace, a solid number 2, a lefty, and depending on the team, one or two more starters with varying degrees of ability.
So, in 1975, Burt Hooten had a dozen complete games even though he had a paltry .125 batting average. These days, managers will pull a pitcher out a no-hitter if the pitch count is over 100.