Joe Morgan and ESPN perhaps 'misremember'

On one of the opening games on ESPN last week, Morgan was chatting with Jon Miller about Rollie Fingers and in particular the time during games when Rollie was summoned from the bullpen. Morgan said "Rollie wanted the "save,"" which I don't believe is accurate.

• First, I heard Fingers interviewed with Dibs and Kevin a year or 2 ago and he said he never thought about "saves" when he was pitching and no one else did either (in the 1970's and early 80's). He said his managers just passed them around, nobody thought anything about it.

• Looking at just his regular season totals, his highest "save" total for one season was 37 in 1978.

• However, he pitched 108 IP that regular season and 62GF.

This is an example of baseball's culture being changed while no one is looking. ie, Teaching people that the "save" stat is and was something it is not.

• Another example, again via ESPN, is one of their many "polls." The poll even has the Official Baseball Hall of Fame insignia on it, lending authority.

The poll on 1/9/07 wants you to vote on who should be in the Hall of Fame, lists names with their most critical stats. I looked up 2 of the names, Lee Smith and Scott Brosius and it turns out

• ESPN has deleted post season play from HOF evaluation. Lee Smith didn't have much but what he had ESPN excluded. Scott Brosius will be remembered for some of the most remarkable homeruns ever in post season history. He was even 1998 World Series MVP,

but ESPN does not want you to think about post season stats.

• The logical question is what player will soon be eligible for the HOF and would be helped most by eliminating any thought of post season performance?
• ESPN enhances or diminishes a human being's life work by use of "polls" and articles with either false or misleading guidelines and stats.
• What other facts does ESPN routinely avoid?

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