It took all of one week for Major League Baseball to attempt to steal the NBA's headlines and spoil everybody's fun. By season's end, Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts' decision to pull longtime ace Clayton Kershaw amid a perfect game will go down as the single smartest move a skipper has made, and it won't even be close.
Let's be clear about one thing: preservation and conservation is the biggest key to maintaining success over a 162-game campaign -- not overutilization. When it's all said and done, the taste of champagne will be much sweeter for the Dodgers after another world championship than a perfect game. Baseball is a team sport, right? Personal achievements were always luxuries that sat at the backend of the bullpen.
Meaningless games in April are small potatoes, and Kershaw's starts during September and October will play a much larger role in the Dodgers' overall success. By then, last week's controversial move will be forgotten about. Seeing rare goose eggs on the scoreboard at Target Field shouldn't have detracted from the primary goal at hand -- not with an extremely talented roster, which recently fattened up with the addition of Freddie Freeman.
"At the end of the day, those are individual things, those are selfish goals, and we're trying to win. That's really all we're here for,” Kershaw told reporters after the game.
Roberts should be lauded for keeping his team focused and selfless, rather than scrutinized for potentially taking a once-in-a-career opportunity away from his prized starter. Even if Kershaw finished off his perfect-game bid, the victory would've only counted once in the win column. Perhaps if the league decided to count no-hitters and perfect games as multiple wins, then it'd be worth stretching starters further out. Maybe getting creative and adding extra incentive to pursue perfection would put the debate to bed.
Then there's the question of, what would've happened if the perfection bid was broken up with one out left in the ninth inning? The Dodgers would've seemingly pushed their star for nothing. Don't make the argument that they were allowing him to chase a historic opportunity either, because even if Los Angeles collapsed and lost, it hardly would've mattered in the context of what projects to be another successful season.
If big league clubs have learned anything through trial-and-error with hard-throwing power pitchers, it's that you can't push their limits without extreme consequences. Exceptions to some rules are okay. This isn't one of them.
The first instance of extreme overwork taking its toll on an ace happened back in 2012. Johan Santana never returned to pitching at an elite level after throwing 134 pitches in the New York Mets' only no-hitter in history, against the St. Louis Cardinals. At that moment, manager Terry Collins trusted his gut, ignoring Santana's pitch count. That was a night Mets fans will never forget, but after tearing his shoulder capsule in early 2013, Santana never pitched again in a major league uniform.
More recently, the tax of consistently throwing 100-plus pitches and going all out on every pitch has made its way under the microscope. As evidenced by NL East aces Jacob deGrom and Zach Wheeler -- two power pitchers who've struggled with arm injuries -- players have limited shelf life, health wise, and it's only a matter of time before the impact begins to catch up.
It's easy to foresee a similar discussion ensuing about Cincinnati Reds rookie phenom Hunter Greene, who set a major league record for 38 pitches of 100-mph against those same Dodgers on Saturday. Funny enough, the Dodgers' win in that game justified their decision to pull Kershaw on Wednesday.
Taking a new Lamborghini out for an extended joyride, rather than a leisurely cruise around the neighborhood around nighttime, makes a crash more likely. In a nutshell, that's the same issue big league teams are facing -- especially when the Reds just took their shiny new ride in Greene out of the lot.
Despite the ongoing dilemma, the debate on whether to allow a pitcher to be able to pursue perfection is tough, because of the level of emotion involved. Tossing a perfect game or no-hitter is an extremely difficult task, which is why most pitchers never throw one in their career. So, when they encounter a rare opportunity, where one is on the line, it's understandable why the manager could get cold feet as the pitcher hides in the dugout, avoiding interaction.
As with any other decision, Roberts will continue to hear from both ends of the spectrum. However, criticism from fans and analysts is hyperbole that he can quickly discredit, by pointing to the World Series ring on his finger. As Roberts will soon realize from other teams facing massive ramifications for pushing their pitchers too far, there's no rational reason to get cute and cocky. Maybe he can be the one to lead the movement of implementing a universal seventh-inning stretch curfew for starters.
Jack Stern is a columnist and an associate producer for CBS Sports Radio. You can follow him on Twitter @J_Stern97.