Anyone Could Get Dizzy With All These Numbers

So, Cap Anson is no longer a member of the 3,000-hit club. But why is Dizzy Dean still listed as a 30-game winner in 1934? On June 27, 1934, Ol’ Diz pitched against the Cubs, went 8 2/3 innings and left with the score tied, 7-7. The Cardinals won in the bottom of the ninth, the official scorer crediting Dean with the win, although he was no longer the pitcher of record. Dean’s record for that year has yet to be corrected to 29-7.

JEFFREY R. THOMSON

Los Angeles

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I’m used to the shoddy way The Times does its baseball statistics. We readers have gotten used to top batters out of order, league leaders a day late, sometimes not at all and frequently incomplete. But you had a stat Tuesday that sank to a new low: The average rainfall in July is a number too small to calculate.

While other sections of your paper constantly harp on our students’ low math scores, you actually print something like that? Look, divide the total inches in July by the number of years you have been keeping track. Or hire a fifth-grader to do it for you. And don’t confuse too small with too close to zero.

MICHAEL HELWIG

Canoga Park