Baseball is humiliating enough without columnist piling on Patrick Corbin (Your Letters)

To the Editor:

Fifty years ago, a friend, on seeing her first Major League Baseball game (Chicago Cubs), told me that what she had seen that day was a game of constant humiliation. That thought came to mind when I read the column by your Brent Axe (“Axe: Corbin is the worst pitcher in MLB. Is a trade in order for the CNY native?” (July 1, 2022), a diatribe humiliating a distinguished pitcher going through a bad patch. Baseball itself has enough humiliations without a need to pile it on.

I have no idea whether or why Patrick Corbin, a local product, deserves such mean-spirited abuse with repeated judgments of “the worst pitcher on the worst team in the MLB,” a phrase amplified by the Post-Standard in no fewer than three headings, including one on the first page. I do suspect that Axe’s interpretation of the statistics, subject as they are to myriad variables (e.g., the most starts), seem chosen with malice aforethought. Your columnist’s piece struck me as a cheap shot, a bungled bunt, and he should ask himself, “What’s my point?” I couldn’t tell.

David H. Stam

Syracuse

See also: Axe: Shrader is the starter, but history says we’ll get to know SU’s backup QB