Will Melky still get black ink?

Sunday, August 19, 2012 Melky Cabrera: should his stats be purged and his team's wins vacated?

... Melky is eligible to lead his conference in average categories including the granddaddy that still overly impresses traditionalists: batting average...

During yesterday's Yankee - Red Sox game on Fox former catcher Tim McCarver mentioned Melky's eligibility but insisted on saying something silly, that he did not think that someone in Melky's situation should be allowed to receive an award.  Timmy, it's not an award, it's a statistic.  The only way to prevent Melky from leading in a statistic would be too purge his stats.  Uh-oh.

Read the whole post then read the latest below.

The old Baseball Encyclopedia printed its stats with league leadership numbers in bold, extra black ink.  The term "black ink" developed to be a description.  I don't know if that's where it originated but the practice persists today.

Melky Cabrera still has his black ink this morning on baseball-reference.com.  I just checked.  Will it last?  Will baseball-reference.com bow to the nonsense that was announced yesterday:

Melky Cabrera recuses self from title

Cabrera was disqualified from the NL batting honor at his own request when Major League Baseball and the players' association agreed Friday to a one-season-only change in the rule governing the individual batting, slugging and on-base percentage champions.
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mlb.com does not use black ink.

This might be comical if it wasn't so pathetic, although maybe not as pathetic as media types like Fat Mike on talk radio WFAN in New York applauding the purging of stats.

Melky is quoted in his statement: "To be plain, I personally have no wish to win an award that would widely be seen as tainted, and I believe that it would be far better for the remaining contenders to compete for that distinction."

Melky, you idiot, it's a statistic.  It's NOT an award.  Nobody votes to determine which player has the highest batting average.  It's not an opinion.  Geez!

Melky can be excused because he's not a bright guy and does not speak English.  His agent and/or attorney can be understood for actually writing the statement because that person will make more money on Melky's next contract if Melky can somehow ingratiate himself with media and the Major Baseball League (MBL) officials.

What cannot be excused is the lunacy of the league taking this position.  It's even more bizzare that the players association would join, even for the one year exception, which would not threaten the 1998 and 2001 season home records.

I didn't think it was possible for my opinion of commissioner Bud Selig to sink any lower but it has.  What a dishonest jerk.

And did anybody think to check with players most likely to benefit and finish with the highest batting average (BA) in the MBL National Conference?  How hollow will that distinction be if we all know that another player had a higher BA but decided to ask people to not accept that?  What the heck?

Has our ability to think rationally really diminished that much?