This is not entirely fair: much of the cost-cutting was done before he arrived, and the current crop of hits was greenlighted by Mark Canton, Mr Calley's unloved predecessor.
While the gaudy offensive statistics of Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire captivated and stupefied millions of baseball fans running through the turnstiles, a select crop of pitchers began to dominate and overwhelm opposing hitters.