Phil Mushnick cares about the batting title.

"Even the golden goodies — the old standards — no longer apply, lost to modern standards, which means low standards or none at all.

Remember, 'Winners never quit and quitters never win'?

But quitters now win, so much the 2016 National League batting title was won by sitting out the season’s last 4 ²/₃ games. Yet, that barely made a sound from a media who have lost their ability to identify cheap and cheesy while surrendering their tacit responsibility and public trust to distinguish right from far less."

The media was not paying attention to the Rockies or the batting title.


"To think he could’ve told them he chose to risk losing the title by trying to win it rather than to win it by quitting. To think his legacy might have been as a man who wouldn’t exploit circumstances to win rather than one who did."

He really doesn't have a legacy. 


"On Sept. 28, 1941, Boston’s Ted Williams, just 23 — five years younger than Reyes and LeMahieu when they won their titles — was batting .3996, which rounded to .400, before the last two games of the season — a doubleheader, Red Sox at the Philadelphia A’s.

He was given the option to sit them out and finish at .400 — the first since Bill Terry hit .401 in 1930. 

It wasn’t as if the Red Sox, 17 games behind the Yankees, were in a race.

But Williams insisted on playing both games, with, 'If I can’t hit .400 all the way, I don’t deserve it.'

Williams went 6-for-8 to finish at .4057 — rounded to the now unapproachable, known-by-heart-head .406. No one since has come close."

The go-to Ted Williams story, huh? God Bless America.

Technically speaking, Brett came close in 1980 (.390). Gwynn came close in 1994 (.394). Carew came close in 1977 (.388).

Manly McManly would have probably hit .400 back in the Good Ol' Days, but he strained his back Fixing America during the off season.