Mike Mussina's relief pitching remembered...

• In Tyler Kepner's NY Times article tonight:

"It was the 500th game of Mike Mussina’s career, and his night began just the way he wanted it: with the ball in his hand.

• His last appearance had been the first of his career in relief."

I understand it's "unfair" and all to consider post season appearances when discussing a player's "career" stats, and it's certainly not politically smart. And it's technically correct according to MLB, Inc. rules to ignore post season appearances. The practice is encouraged in the opening paragraph of this NY Times article. I'm not a big Mussina fan, but the 2 biggest things he's done in his "career" with the Yankees are as follows:

• His appearance IN RELIEF in Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS v Boston, he entered in the 4th inning, runners on 1st and 3rd, no outs and got out of it with no runs.
• Not a relief appearance, but just for the record, his 7 innings of shut out pitching in the 1-0 game 3, 2001 ALDS v Oakland, an elimination game facing a team the Yankees had not lead in scoring in over 70 innings leading into that game. You recall, of course, Mariano Rivera pitched the final 2 innings in that game.

I appreciate the other information in the article, but observe that enormous bodies of work of a player's "career" continue to be excluded on a technicality.

• From NY Times article by Tyler Kepner, "Back as a Starter, Mussina Helps Yanks Win Seventh Straight," 9/13/07

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