LO3B

Looking at a baseball box score you can virtually reconstruct the entire game. It's a thing of beauty, I think. The information is dense and cryptic. But if you know what you're looking at, you see exactly who came up big and who let the team down.

There are the runs batted in, the homeruns, the extra base hits, the sacrifices and the 2-out RBI, just to name a few badges of honor. Then they indicate who made errors, who grounded into a double play and who left men in scoring position with two outs. These are the dubious honors. I'd like to propose one more. This one I think should be pointed out as it is even more egregious: runners left at third base with less than two outs.

When a runner is at third with less than two men out, simply putting the ball in play will usually score the run. A fly ball to the outfield. A well placed ground-ball. A hit. All will score the run easiliy. Striking out or popping up in this situation is a complete embarassment and should be indicated in the box score.

If you're going to single out batters who are unable to place a clutch hit to score a runner from second base with two outs, surely we can point out hitters who can't even move a runner 90 feet with no outs or only one out.

Let the tallying begin!