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Rick Sutcliffe has not played in the majors in 16 years.
Wednesday night, he committed an error.
New York Yankees batter Alex Rodriguez flied out against Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Jamie Moyer in the second inning.
The ESPN commentators at Yankee Stadium were Dave O'Brien and Sutcliffe.
After Rodriguez was out, O'Brien pointed out, "That, by the way, was just the second time in major-league history that someone who has hit 500 home runs and someone who has allowed 500 home runs have squared off against each other.
Sutcliffe offered a laugh.
"Look at the names," O'Brien continued, "Robin Roberts and Willie Mays, in 1966, the only other time it's happened. Willie Mays roped a single."
Sutcliffe offered a gaffe.
What was his color commentary about 500 homers hit by a batter and 500 homers thrown by a pitcher?
"Both of those are great accomplishments."
Now, if Sutcliffe had been career slap-hitting pinch hitter, that's one thing. But this is the 1984 National League Cy Young Award winner. He knows his way around a mound. He knows the last thing you want to do is exercise your neck muscles 500 times as your head whiplashes to see how far your gopher balls travel.
In his 18 major-league seasons -- with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Cleveland Indians, Chicago Cubs, Baltimore Orioles and St. Louis Cardinals -- Sutcliffe served up 236 homers.
So I suppose he's not half the pitcher Jamie Moyer is, huh? Moyer has allowed 504 homers.
"Both of those are great accomplishments."
Does Sutcliffe often think to himself, "Man, I know if I could have stayed healthy, I could have grooved enough pitches to allow 268 more homers"?
We can only hope he was, in an odd way, referring to Moyer's longevity, which he later addressed.
Still, no matter how long you are in the game, you don't want to be tossing up 504 homers.
That's not an accomplishment. That's definitely not a great accomplishment.
When Moyer reached 500, do you think the Phillies' equipment manager sent an autographed Moyer jersey out to the fan who caught the homer in exchange for that milestone baseball?
"Both of those are great accomplishments."
The next thing you're gonna tell me is that it's a great accomplishment for the Pittsburgh Pirates to have 17 consecutive losing seasons -- and counting.
Then again, at least Pittsburgh has a team.
Montreal no longer has the Expos.
Huh.
Maybe Sutcliffe has a point.
