Colorado Rockies' Troy Tulowitzki Hits for the Cycle*

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Colorado Rockies' Troy Tulowitzki Hits for the Cycle*
(Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)

The asterisk.

People say it should be used for players who used steroids.

They say their numbers should have an asterisk next to them because the players who put up numbers in the past did it cleanly while these guys cheated.

Now before everyone jumps all over me, I am not accusing Troy Tulowitzki of using steroids.

I am putting the asterisk next to his cycle because he did not earn a triple.

Instead, he was 4-4 with a home run, 7 RBI, and two doubles.

A good relay throw would have had Tulo nailed at third base.  But the throw was off the mark and should have been scored an error.

This is becoming a real problem throughout baseball.  The official scorers are handing out hits like Halloween candy to make the players happy.

A few weeks ago with Johan Santana on the mound, Michael Bourn hit a slow ground ball up the first base line.

Santana picked it up and tried to run to tag Bourn, but when he realized he wouldn't reach him, he flipped the ball past first baseman Daniel Murphy and into right field.

This play was scored an error at the time.

When Santana retired the next three batters, it was changed to a hit.

The reasoning: no runs were scored so it wouldn't affect his ERA anyway.

Why should this matter in the official scoring?

A hit should be a hit and an error should be an error regardless of what happens after the play.

How many more hits would Pete Rose have had with today's scoring?  How many more doubles would all time leader Tris Speaker have?  How many more triples for Sam Crawford?

Making a player happy should not factor into the official scoring.

If you don't want errors in your stats, don't make them.

If you want more hits, hit more line drives.

The official scoring should be done by a panel of three people.  There should be two official scorers and, should they disagree, the decision should then go to a former player, one who knows the difficulty of making plays on a ball and when a "hit" should actually be scored as a hit, rather than as an error.

Or, we could just get rid of the error and make everyone happy that way.  While we're at it, we'll just call all the games ties so no one gets their feelings hurt.

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