By Definition, It Was Only a Real Good Game

It seemed like your basic baseball meeting on statistical accuracy. You know, calculators and decimal points and stuff.

The committee was chaired by Commissioner Fay Vincent and it met last season, ostensibly to remove the longstanding asterisk next to Roger Maris’ name in the baseball record book.

But the group also decided to redefine a no-hitter in the aftermath of Mark Gardner’s near-miss last season. The Montreal Expos’ pitcher threw nine hitless innings against the Dodgers but gave up two singles in the 10th.

The committee decided that only games of nine innings or more that ended with no hits would be officially recognized.

The definition stripped 50 no-hitters from the list, leaving 225 in major league history.

Controversy over the rule cropped up when the Boston Red Sox’s Matt Young pitched eight no-hit innings in a complete-game loss to Cleveland last Saturday.

Suddenly, the committee appeared as heartless as the Internal Revenue Service. Pitchers who were stripped of no-hitters have raised protests.

Heck, the decision wiped an entire family from the record book.

The Perez brothers, Melido and Pascual, pitched rain-shortened no-hitters that were rescinded. “I don’t know why the commissioner took away my no-hitter,” Melido said. “It doesn’t make sense.”

Add no-hitters: Even baseball’s most revered publications aren’t sure how to handle the mess. Seymour Siwoff of the Elias Sports Bureau says he is not ignoring the tainted no-hitters.

Like Young, Andy Hawkins of the New York Yankees lost a similar eight-inning no-hitter, 4-0, to the Chicago White Sox in 1990.

“Hawkins is in the record book,” Siwoff says. “Years from now he can tell people, ‘I’m in the record book. I’m in the no-hit section.’ ”

“The Baseball Encyclopedia” will recognize only official no-hitters, and the Sporting News’ “The Complete Baseball Record Book” will list Young’s no-hitter in its 1993 edition with a notation that he pitched eight innings of a nine-inning game.

Trivia time: Which women’s collegiate sports team led the nation in attendance this season?

Sweet Lou: Some remembrances of St. John’s Coach Lou Carnesecca, who retired Monday after 24 seasons:

--Carnesecca’s coaching career began at St. Ann’s Academy, now known as Archbishop Molloy High. His first game was at Madison Square Garden.

“I was so scared, one of the brothers had to come in and drag me out of the locker room,” Carnesecca recalls. “There were heel marks on the floor.”

--Carnesecca, who left St. John’s for three years to coach in the American Basketball Assn., gave a lot of good advice in his time, but he underestimated the talents of one player.

“Julius Erving called and said he was thinking of leaving school early to play in the NBA,” Carnesecca says. “I told him to stay in school because he probably wasn’t ready for pro ball and all it would require. If I wasn’t so smart I might still be coaching in the pros with a bunch of titles.”

--Carnesecca will remain at St. John’s as an assistant to the university president for community relations. How much work will he actually do?

“I remember Pope John XXIII was once asked how many people work at the Vatican. He said ‘About half.’ That’s all I’m saying.”

Trivia answer: The Utah women’s gymnastics team, which averaged 12,557 for five home dates.

An even swap?Twin Cities baseball writer Jim Caple recently came across an interesting payroll statistic: “Take away shortstop Felix Fermin’s $950,000 salary and Cleveland’s 1992 payroll is projected to be $7.16 million--or about what the Cubs will pay Ryne Sandberg per season when his new contract kicks in.”

Quotebook: Detroit Manager Sparky Anderson, on what it was like taking pitcher Jack Morris out of a game: “Jack used to break blood vessels in my hand when I’d go out to get the ball.”