I stopped at George Plender

I wrote about this in the paper today (Friday), and you can read the story here...:

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2008/04/11/comment-crows-scoreless-inning-streak-inspires-sea/

...but that's a fairly cheap blog post.


Anyway, here's the deal. A week ago, I thought Missouri pitcher Aaron Crow was going for a record. Why? Because I listened to a tip, researched it online, found a couple of papers that corroborated the tip, and then called the school's sports info director, who also confirmed it as fact.

What did I get out of this? A scoop, of course.

A scoop that was very wrong. The fact that it only went online for about 15 hours during Friday night, and that the KC Star got it wrong the same day with a different guy, and that the Tribune got it wrong just yesterday, still with the same wrong guy, only slightly made me feel better. I was still an idiot, but at least I had company.

By the next afternoon, we had already turned up a couple more people that had longer streaks.

So, anyway, even before Greg Bowers gave me my talking to, I had already learned my lesson. I had not read the signs that I should have to make me wary of publishing such nonsense, I made myself look like a moron, and I didn't make the paper look good, either. To say that I was entirely depressed for the next 24 hours would have been an understatement.


So, anyway, the next day, Saturday, I'm sitting at the baseball game, still moping, still feeling dumb. I've done some extra research on the topic, and by the time Greg had assigned me to figure out what is up with said record, I had already become quite determined to figure out everything that is knowable (is that a word?) about said record.

And so I did.

Over the past week, I have called, emailed, and practically stalked every major applicable sports information organization - Baseball America, Baseball Prospectus, the NCAA, multiple conferences and SID's, ESPN, and so on. I searched...literally...for 5-6 hours a day, each day, combing obscure reference books and online records, in hopes of finding "the record."

I had been embarrassed, and I damn sure intended to do something about it.


Well, long story short, there is no record. The NCAA never kept track (though it is all rather absurd, if you read the actual story). On top of that, no one I talked to knew anything more than I did, and they seemed kind of embarrassed about it themselves. As the week progressed, rather than me emailing them, they started emailing me to see what I'd found out, and one of the publications even mentioned me online (Baseball Prospectus).

Anyway, by the time you have read this, my research will be the most complete and exhaustive effort that - dare I say - has ever been conducted in the history of the world. Ever. The Mizzou SID passed out information last night that will go in everyone's paper today, and they will all be wrong, every paper across the nation that publishes it. Except ours.

Of course, had I not been a dumbass a week ago, this would all be a non-issue. And, for the record, I apologize to all of those that care that I was wrong, and even to those that don't, because it still hurts our credibility.

That said, though I spent far more time than anyone should ever spend doing anything about baseball ever, I must say that I am fairly pleased with how I rebounded. That may change tomorrow, when 20 people send me links to longer streaks, but even that is a good thing. In my story, I mention that I, essentially, know nothing. The more information we can get, the better.


For the record, the longest scoreless innings streak that I found was by former Vermont Catamount George Plender in 1954-1955. He is my greatest journalistic achievement yet.