Keeping Score: A No-Hitter by Alec Mills Cannot Be Cheapened With an Asterisk

In his 1973 autobiography, “Games Asterisks and People: Memoirs of a Lucky Fan,” Frick confirmed that no asterisk ever existed. The clarification hardly seemed necessary, as Frick spoke openly about his decision not to push for an asterisk before Maris even broke the record, inspiring a memorable headline in The New York Times: “No * Will Mar Homer Records, Says Frick With †† for Critics.”

For single-game accomplishments, like Mills’s no-hitter on Sunday, the realness of the feat is undeniable, as Mills had to get the same 27 outs as any pitcher would in a normal season. But Thorn said the same philosophy applies to season-long accomplishments this year, even with 102 fewer games.

You will often see baseball records limited to seasons that came after 1901 — including regularly in this column — but Thorn says that is incorrect, and that the Special Baseball Records Committee in 1968-69 clarified things by saying, “Major league baseball shall have one set of records, starting in 1876, without any arbitrary division into nineteenth- and twentieth-century data.”

As a result of that ruling, Ross Barnes is credited with an official batting average of .429 in 1876, a season in which his team played just 66 games, lending credence to the idea that a .400 average this season should be viewed as legitimate. Thorn said that splitting the game into pre- and postmodern records is a “bad habit” and that no one should deny Barnes, or anyone else, his accomplishment.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/14/sports/baseball/alec-mills-no-hitter-asterisk.html