NEW YORK (AP) — Baseball has transformed at dizzying speed since Edgar Martinez took his final swing and Mike Mussina, Mariano Rivera and Roy Halladay threw their final pitches.
“We don’t have enough time to talk about that,” the ever erudite Mussina said Wednesday when a trio of newly minted living Hall of Famers appeared at a news conference. “The game always evolves — it always has. I’m not sure I love the way it’s changed lately, but that’s just the nature of it.”
When Mussina retired Boston’s Dustin Pedroia on a double-play grounder to end his final outing in 2008, a start that made him a first-time 20-game winner at age 39, strikeouts in the major leagues totaled 32,884.