What exactly is a quality start?

Imagine if Kobe Bryant was pulled out of the fourth quarter of an NBA game because he played more than 40 minutes that night. He would go ballistic. So would the fans. Professional athletes are trained to be in peak physical condition, and finish games. They are trained to win.

So why do starting pitches rarely finish games?

Pitch counts. I don't know when or why, but baseball has developed an unwritten rule which prevents starting pitchers from throwing more than 100 to 110 pitches in a game. Pitch counts didn't used to be a prevalent statistic in baseball. Now, broadcasters mention it and managers track it almost more than the score of the game.

Former Detroit Tiger Mickey Lolich won 31 games in one season. He regularly exceeded 200 pitches in nine innings. He, like many other great pitchers of yesteryear, finished what they started - or went down trying. Now, starting pitchers go seven to eight innings and throw about 100 pitches - on a good day.

Today's era of closers, set up men, and lefty specialist has ruined the prevalence of the starting pitcher.

Randy Johnson recently won his 300th career game. He will be the last pitcher to reach that mark for a very long time, possibly the last one ever.

Managers need to stop "protecting" their top pitchers for fear of injury and let them do what they are paid to do. Win games.

Major League Baseball keeps a stat known as "quality starts". A quality start is defined as a pitcher going six innings and allowing three runs or less.

And here I am thinking that baseball is a nine inning game.

There's no tweeting in golf

It has recently been suggested by Carolyn Bivens, director of the LPGA, that players should take time to tweet while on the golf course. Yes, that's right, Bivens actually encouraged LPGA players to pull out their cell phones between shots and update their twitter accounts.

I present to you the sad state of female professional sports.

The LPGA's rating and interest level are so low, they're banking on twitter to save it. John Daly doesn't even twitter on the golf course.

Soon to be announced, WNBA players will begin tweeting during games while an opposing player is at the free throw line.

The world's best days are truly behind it. I think Pope John Paul once said "the day our lives are controlled by twitter will be the beginning of our world's demise." Or something along those lines.

By the way, you can follow me on twitter @Maghielse.