The latest in ESPN.com's stultifying series on baseball best is up at, well, you know where. The latest senior superlative in the yearbook project ESPN.com has become is the best to break up a double play. And the Insipidy, er, ESPY goes to Scot Rolen. I'm fine with that assessment. My problem is within the article itself.

They quote Andy Van Slyke in his lamentation that "these young whippersnappers don't break up the double play like we used to." I'm paraphrasing, of course. Actually he said:

"I worked at it. I used to take notes to remind myself about which guys (second basemen, especially) went which way. But it's a different game now. There is no longer an emphasis on that extra out, it's no longer imperative. Now the game is played to hit the ball over the fence. That extra out doesn't mean as much.''

[Note: Runners at first are walks, hit by a pitch, and singles (H-2B-3B-HR)]. So did the AL collectively forget how to take out the shortstop in the Eighties? Yes, the totals have gone up since the Nineties, but that's meaningless.

Let's add in opportunities lost to stolen base attempts and see what happens:

Looking at it this way, this decade looks barely above average.

Now, keep in mind that Van Slyke was the man doubled off second when Mickey Morandini turned an unassisted triple play on September 20, 1992. Clearly, runners in the Eighties and Nineties were much less effective in stopping unassisted triple plays than they are today, right Andy?