Kansas City, Mo. — If you go 440 straight games at the Major League level without being charged an error, at any position — well, you’ve done something unprecedented in the history of the game.
Robbie Grossman did that. He hadn’t been charged with an error since 2018. It’s a testament, first of all, to his hard work because early in his career, he was considered a defensive liability. He made himself into a dependable outfielder.
And it is a testament to his work-a-day approach and his dogged consistency.
The streak came to a rather tragic end Sunday in Chicago. His dropped fly ball led to the White Sox’s winning run in the eighth inning.
In typical Grossman fashion, he made no excuses. He called it a terrible play and said he’d catch the next one.
You want to say it will be a while before another fielder approaches his record error-less streak. But the way they are scoring games these days, who knows? In an apparent attempt to fluff offensive numbers across the league, official scorers have been erring generously on the side of the hitter.
It is, frankly, increasingly more difficult to make an error in this game. Just look at the recently concluded series in Chicago. There were three plays that were scored hits that could have been errors. Two of them absolutely should have been errors. The visiting Tigers made the misplays, the home White Sox were credited with the hits.
The most egregious was when Tarik Skubal fielded a swinging bunt and threw errantly to first base. It was not a bang-bang play at first. The runner is dead out with a good throw. The throw was uncatchable, even for Spencer Torkelson who catches almost everything at first base.
Single.
Manipulating scoring decisions is bad business. Plain and simple. It chips at the integrity of the sport. And, pertinent to this case, there are unintended consequences. Falsely-inflated batting averages are the least of it.
There wasn’t a lot of fanfare for Grossman’s error-less streak — not before he broke the Major League record or after. It’s a feat unequaled in baseball history — 440 straight games, 821 chances without an error. You shouldn’t ever downplay such an achievement.
Except, it was hard to play it up knowing by rights the streak should have ended 56 games earlier.
On April 26 at Target Field, Grossman misplayed a hard-hit ball by the Twins’ Max Kepler. Grossman, running to his right, seemed to short-arm it and the ball hit off the webbing of his glove. It’s a ball he would have expected to catch.
It was scored a hit.
Understand, a 384-game errorless streak would be mighty impressive on its own merits. But the big-league record for consecutive games without an error was held by Nick Markakis: 400 games. Grossman broke that record on May 11, after the misplay in Minnesota, which would have stopped his streak 16 games short of Markakis’ record.
It creates uncomfortable columns like this, where one is torn between wanting to recognize Grossman for an amazing defensive achievement, yet also knowing it was at least slightly tainted by the scoring decision in Minnesota.
Maybe if we closely examine all record streaks in baseball, we’d find similar inequities. Maybe Joe DiMaggio went 1-for-4 during one day during his 56-game hitting streak and that one hit was awarded by a debatable scoring play.
Certainly, there have been no-hitters where a questionable scoring decision was the difference between a hit and an error.
It happens. This is a game played by and adjudicated by human beings. What makes this one more troubling is the seemingly conscious effort by the league to skew scoring decisions more toward the hitter.
Grossman doesn’t deserve an asterisk next to his record. He deserves to be applauded and praised for it. But, hopefully, this is also a cautionary tale. Let hitters earn their hits. Punish fielders when they make their errors.
To artificially fluff offensive numbers is detestable. It can create false narratives and dubious records.
Twitter@cmccosky