The Heart Melters Gallery - #11 and #12

Ah yes, the Heart-Melters Gallery: the list of fictional females that I find so attractive that they "melt my heart." The list originally had eight females when I first came up with it back in 2005, and added two more between then and 2010, when I made my 5th Anniversary post. At the time it had been four years since a new Heart-Melter was inducted, and three years since there was an active "Heart-Melter Age" (aka the period of attraction to said Heart-Melter) other than Misty. Well, needless to say, there have been quite a bit of action with the Heart-Melters Gallery since then.

Of note:
-Sheena Fujiabayashi made the stunning jump in the overall strength ranking from 6th to 2nd
-I decided to celebrate an Honorary Heart-Melter: the first celebrity Heart-Melter
-Two more were inducted into the ranks of the Heart-Melter

It's pretty heady stuff. So why has it taken so long before I made this post? Well, for one thing I don't use this blog much anymore. And plus I've gotten kind of busy / lazy. But I decided to get out and write this post? Why? Well, you'll see

300 Win Club - 125th anniversary

 

The pitching win has been one of the most contentious baseball stats in recent years. For most of the first half of the 20th century it had been the primary stat to judge a pitcher, as pitchers reaching the 20-win plateau have been much more celebrated by writers and baseball executives than somebody with 19 wins, no matter how much better the latter pitcher may be in "secondary stats" like ERA or strikeouts. Even in the 1980s it was still a quick and dirty way to assess a pitcher. However, people soon came to realize that the pitching win was dependent on a whole slew of factors, including run and defensive support. This year has seen the rise of the #killthewin movement to completely abolish the practice of assigning a winning pitcher to the game. Somebody even made a petition for President Obama to step in to do it, even though it has since been removed. I don't think it's ever going to happen completely, but needless to say the pitching win has taken a massive hit in its reputation.

Nevertheless, the pitching win is still at the heart of baseball's golden milestone for pitchers, the 300-win club. It is still relevant because while the usefulness of the pitching win has come into the question, the measurement of it hasn't changed much since the days of the National Assocation. There have been a few changes here and there along with some subjective decisions, but pitchers today get wins in the very much the same way as pitchers from the 1870s, and there will always be the hardy few with the talent, tenacity, and luck to get to 300 wins. That is why the 300 win club had been the most consistent rate of admission of the golden milestones, more so than 3,000 strikeouts, 3,000 hits, 300 saves, or 500 home runs.

IDW Limited My Little Pony #1-4 Blue Label: Rainbow Dash

300 Game Winners and Their Graves

The 300-win club is the most prestigious milestone club for pitchers. 24 pitchers have had the skill, luck and longevity to cross the border. I have been big fan of the 300-win club for several years now, and two years ago I decided to try to visit as many of the gravesites as I can. Of course ten of the 300-game winners are still alive, so I've tried to meet up with them at card shows and the like. Now on the fourth anniversary of the last time anybody joined this milestone club, I present this album of my misadventures.