Mark Madden: In baseball, risk management trumps magic moments

It’s lucky that pitch count wasn’t a thing in 1956.

No one would remember Don Larsen.

Larsen pitched a perfect game in the ’56 World Series. It remains the only perfect game in World Series (and MLB postseason) history.

The New York Yankees right-hander threw 97 pitches. He went through Brooklyn’s batting order three times. (Duh.)

That’s risky managing by the Yankees’ Casey Stengel. Trust analytics and your bullpen. (Wonder what the eccentric “Old Perfessor” would have made of analytics?)

Baseball’s aversion to romance and entertainment by way of cold, hard efficiency isn’t limited to MLB. It was on display in the final game of the College World Series on Wednesday.

Mississippi State righty Will Bednar, a Mars graduate, absolutely handcuffed Vanderbilt through six innings, allowing zero hits.

Bednar got yanked.

Bednar had a chance to pitch a no-hitter to win the College World Series but got pulled.

There were plenty of good reasons to relieve Bednar:

• Mississippi State led 9-0. The game was won.

• Bednar had thrown 90 pitches after throwing 97 pitches four days earlier.

• Bednar, a draft-eligible redshirt freshman, is a legit prospect who could go in the first round of this year’s MLB Draft. There’s logic to protecting his arm.

• The pitcher who replaced Bednar is quality: Landon Sims, who allowed just one hit in three innings, is projected as a second-round selection in the 2022 draft.

So, it’s difficult to criticize the decision to remove Bednar. (Enough can’t be said about Bednar’s performance. It’s the biggest game of his life, and Bednar’s stuff was electric.)

Just winning makes Bednar a legend at Mississippi State: Bednar brought the school its first NCAA title in any team sport. He was named the College World Series’ outstanding player, winning three games and allowing five hits while striking out 26 in 18 1/3 innings

But pitching a no-hitter in the championship game of the College World Series would have made Bednar an all-time college baseball great.

Yes, pitching longer could have stressed Bednar’s arm. He could slip in the shower or get hit by a bus, too. Can you pinpoint arm damage to one particular outing? Bednar is lucky he didn’t get hurt in Mississippi State’s celebratory dogpile after the game.

Bednar doesn’t have to pitch again for months.

Perhaps he doesn’t throw a no-hitter. Pull him when he gives up a hit.

But why not take a risk to make history?

History > risk might never happen again in baseball.

Sports are about magic moments. But baseball too frequently prevents those magic moments, and baseball people always think it’s a good idea.

Bednar might have a great professional career. You’d bet that based on Wednesday. He’s got the bloodlines: His brother David pitches for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

But there’s also a very real likelihood that a no-hitter in the final game of the College World Series would have been the pinnacle of Will Bednar’s career. (What did happen might be anyway.)

Will and David Bednar had a pitcher’s mound in their back yard in Mars. Did their mom and dad have them on pitch counts?

How come Ben Roethlisberger rarely sits at the end of a game that’s decided?

How come Sidney Crosby never sits at the end of a game that’s decided?

But in baseball, pitchers get relieved at the remote, projected, theoretical threat of arm problems, and it’s universally rubber-stamped as the right thing to do.

To be blunt: It’s chicken. Not on the part of the pitchers, but on the part of those who “protect” them. And despite all the precautions, pitchers develop bum arms anyway.