No one ever started a career the way Trevor Story did. Playing shortstop for the Colorado Rockies in place of the suspended Jose Reyes, Story hit home runs in each of his first four games, a total of six. He added a seventh home run in his sixth game.

The early flurry of home runs overshadowed Story’s strikeouts – eight in those first six games, 15 in the first nine, a trio of 3-strikeout games in a 5-game span.

Now, approaching the halfway point of the season, the 23-year-old Story has struck out 104 times (before Sunday), more than any other major league hitter.

He is the leader of a pack of hitters who are headed toward an all-time high number of strikeouts, projected to top 38,000 for the first time in major league history. With an especially whiffy second half, hitters could even reach 39,000.

The rise in strikeouts is not new. Every season since 2005 has seen an increase in major league strikeouts. The increases in that 10-year span have ranged from a high of 1,938 in 2012 to a low of 5 last year.

Unlike the view of strikeouts in earlier eras, in this era they are not seen as something to be avoided at all costs. Players see a strikeout as just another out, same as a grounder or a fly ball. Managers and general managers have no choice but to accept the current thinking.

The Baltimore Orioles’ signing of Chris Davis last January epitomized the new way of thinking about strikeouts and their acceptance.

Davis, the Orioles’ premier slugger for four seasons, became a free agent after last season, potentially ending his tenure with the team by leading the majors in strikeouts with 208.

The Orioles, however, opted to re-sign Davis, giving the 30-year-old first baseman a seven-year, $161 million contract. With $6 million deferred each year without interest, the present-day value of the deal is worth only about $21 million a year instead of $23 million, but it still comes out to be worth $101,000 per strikeout.

The contract is worth it to the Orioles because in the last four seasons Davis averaged 40 homers and 103 runs batted per year.

A week before the Orioles signed Davis, they agreed to a $9.15 million salary for this year with Mark Trumbo, a designated hitter, whom they acquired in a trade with Seattle six weeks earlier. Entering Sunday’s games, Davis was third in the strikeout race with 100 and Trumbo was eighth with 84.

The Orioles did not make their decisions blindly. Asked if they considered Davis’ strikeout frequency, General Manager Dan Duquette said, “We did. We looked at that carefully. We also looked on the other side of ledger. He’s a left-hand hitter, our ballpark, he led the league in home runs. You have to weigh both sides.”

Duquette’s scale has worked well 74 games into the season. The Orioles weren’t supposed to be playoff contenders, but at the start of the week they were in first place in the American League East by three games with the second best record in the league.

Despite the Davis-and-Trumbo swings and misses, the Orioles were only sixth in the AL for most strikeouts, and they had the fifth highest batting average and had scored the fifth most runs. Most important, apparently, the Orioles had hit more baseballs out of parks than any other team in the majors.

“Our guys are hitting the ball out of the ballpark when they’re making contact,” Duquette said. “There are times you’re not advancing runners when you don’t make contact.”

How do Baltimore fans feel about the Orioles’ all or nothing offense? “At the end of the day,” Duquette said, “they like power and power hitters. But I don’t think fans come to see players hit the ball over the fence.” But Duquette added, “They don’t come to see players strike out.”

“We encourage the guys to look for their pitch, work on balls in the strike zone,” Duquette said, then raised another element. “There’s a number of pitchers who throw over 95. With more and more pitchers throwing hard, that’s what you’re seeing – the strikeout rate going up. The velocity has increased the last 15 years.”

While the increase in pitchers’ velocity has very likely contributed to the increase in strikeouts, it is also true that major league hitters can hit pitches at any speed, especially if they don’t move when or before they reach the plate.

Even Aroldis Chapman has been hit this season, even though his pitches have been clocked as high as 105 miles an hour. The New York Yankees’ closer, who was suspended for the first month of the season for violating baseball’s domestic violence policy, has allowed 16 hits, including 2 home runs, in 20 innings. The Cuban left-hander has also struck out 31,

Colorado’s rookie shortstop, Story, was not celebrated in the first week of the season for his strikeouts, but they have piled up.

“If you look at his history in the minor leagues the strikeouts have never been low,” said Jeff Bridich, the Rockies’ general manager. Throughout his minor league career Story averaged more than one strikeout a game.

“He’s been a talented hitter. Minor league performance isn’t necessarily the great barometer or telltale sign that was going to happen in the majors. It’s just going to come down to what adjustment he’s going to make. Time’s going to tell, He’s still facing pitchers for the first time. This is a natural thing for a young hitter to go through in the big leagues.”

Bridich cited another Rockies’ youngster, though one with more experience. Third baseman Nolan Arenado, 25, is in his fourth major league season, and he leads the National League with 63 r.b.i., .591 slugging percentage and 161 total bases and is tied for the home run lead with 21.

“He’s already got as many walks this year as he had last year,” Bridich said. “He struck out 100 times last year and he has 35. He’s obviously learned some things.”

Last season Arenado struck out 110 times and walked 34 times. This season the ratio is far more favorable – 36 walks and 37 strikeouts.

Bridich is looking for a similar improvement from Story as he gains more experience.

“We have to make sure there’s a reliable swing and good balanced,” the general manager said. “To this point it’s been workable. It’s been positive. We have to remember he’s had less than half a season at the major league level. It’s a lot of things. These young guys at this level learn as they go through their career.”

Despite their different levels of experience, Arenado and Story shared a listing among the National League leaders Sunday: Extra base hits:

Story COL            40

Arenado COL     40

Story, of course, has been the beneficiary of Jose Reyes’ domestic violence episode with his wife. Katherine Ramirez allowed the veteran shortstop to escape the charge by refusing to cooperate with Hawaiian investigators. Major League Baseball, however, suspended him for two months, and when his suspension ended, the Rockies released him.

I asked Bridich what he would have done with Story had Reyes not created the domestic violence issue.

“I’m glad I don’t have to answer that,” he said.

Story, though, is not an accidental replacement for Reyes.

“He’s been thought of as part of our future,” Bridich said. “We’ve thought about him that way for a long time. As he was growing up we were sure it was going to be good. A lot has happened bad. He’s had an opportunity.

We hope he stays the same as he has been.”

STRIKEOUTS SOARING

As the following chart shows, strikeouts have been rising as hitters have become more long-ball conscious and pitchers have become harder throwers. No end appears in sight. Some baseball people talk about cycles, but this trend appears to be more than a cycle.

If you study the chart closely you will see the aberration of the 2005 season. The number of strikeouts dropped that season and went back up immediately the next season. Adam Dunn led the majors in strikeouts in 2004-05-06, and his total dropped and rose as the over-all total reacted.

Strikeouts last season represented a 22 percent increase over 2005, and the percentage of increase over that season’s total will be even greater this year.

REDS HONOR ROSE, DISHONOR BASEBALL

The Cincinnati Reds last Saturday honored Pete Rose, a man without honor, who deserves no honor.

The Reds inducted their former player, manager and liar into their hall of fame, courtesy of Commissioner Rob Manfred. Under terms of his lifetime ineligibility, which Manfred upheld in rejecting Rose’s appeal for reinstatement in December 2014, Rose and the Reds needed Manfred’s approval for such an event. Inexplicably he gave it to them.

At the time of Manfred’s approval, I suggested it was his way of placating the Reds’ principal owner, Bob Castellini, who opposed Manfred’s election in August 2014. The suggestion outraged Manfred. I have heard nothing since to change my mind.

Now Rose has had his undeserved honor, Castellini has had his undeserved sellout and Manfred has a new vote for re-election in his pocket.

This is a column about two women. They may not belong in the same column, but they are here as the result of the coincidence of recent news development. One of the women, Jen Pawol, whom I talked with, is ecstatically happy, and I am happy for her. I have not talked to the other woman so I don’t know how she feels, but she very likely has mixed feelings.

Katherine Ramirez is the wife of Jose Reyes, the 2011 National League batting champion, who was suspended for the first two months of this season for violating Major League Baseball’s domestic violence policy. Ramirez can’t be happy because she was the target of the alleged domestic violence, but she is happy that Reyes was not criminally convicted and, following his suspension, is free to play baseball.

Reyes avoided criminal prosecution because Ramirez refused to cooperate with investigators. The pattern is familiar to people involved with domestic violence. I learned about it when my wife years ago was a volunteer with Alternatives to Domestic Violence in New Jersey.

Battered women don’t like being abused and readily detail their abuse to authorities, but they often stop short of testifying against their abusers, who are free to abuse them again. My wife recalls an episode in which a man, free from a domestic violence charge, fatally battered his wife with a baseball bat.

I am not suggesting a similarity between physical abuse of women and baseball’s treatment of aspiring female umpires, but no woman has ever umpired in the major leagues. In fact, according to Minor League Baseball, Pawol is only the seventh woman to umpire in the minors.

Scheduled to begin her professional career Friday in Dunedin, Fla., in the Class A Gulf Coast League, Pawol (pronounced Powel) is the latest who will try to break the gender barrier.

“I’m passionate about umpiring,” Pawol said in a telephone conversation Wednesday evening, “I absolutely love the work, the job. I can’t imagine not doing this the rest of my life. I attended an umpiring camp in Cincinnati last summer to see if I had what they were looking for. If it didn’t work out, it didn’t, but it has worked out on the good side. I have worked as hard as I could and I love it.

Umpiring, frankly, is a lousy profession. Working conditions, on the road for the entire season, are poor and the pay poorer. Pawol will earn $1,900 a month. Union activity has forced major league salaries up, but minor league salaries remain unconscionable. Gulf Coast League salaries come to about $7.50 an hour. Yet the positions don’t go unfilled. Pawol’s attitude is typical of the aspirants.

A talented baseball and softball player who has played on championship teams, the 39-year-old Pawol was born in West Milford, N.J., grew up on Long Island and graduated from Hofstra University. She is an artist and a creative arts teacher and also trains young softball and baseball players, both boys and girls. But umpiring remains her passion.

“I think everybody who is umpiring, male or female, they’re one pitch away from a career-ending injury,” she said. “There’s a danger to the job. Everybody is aware of that. But you go out and do the best job you can and let it play out. I’m just very thankful for everything that has happened in my life. I’m going to keep working hard and try to get better. I’m going to enjoy every minute of it. I love it that much.”

Pam Postema, who umpired in the minor leagues from 1977 to 1989, probably came the closest of the six female minor league umpires to reach the majors, but her career ended in the highest minor league level.

A person familiar with developments surrounding Postema said some umpires who worked spring training exhibition games with her thought “she was pretty good,” but senior umpires didn’t think she “commanded a game in a physical sense.”

“They thought she was a distraction sexually,” he said.

Some owners also apparently opposed the idea of having a woman as an umpire. “To some owners,” the person said, “it was like saying women should go in submarines.”

In 1991 Postema filed a sex discrimination lawsuit, but the two sides settled it without a trial.

Reyes does not face a trial on a domestic violence charge, and the fact that he does not face criminal charges figures prominently in the debate over whether he should be signed by any team. His team, the Colorado Rockies, recently released him, owing the once prominent shortstop about $44.7 million.

Reyes became a free agent, and a rumor circulated last week that the New York Mets, for whom Reyes played for seven seasons, might sign him. A writer for The Ringer website was vehement in her view that the Mets should not sign him. Nor should anyone else, for that matter.

“The Idea of a José Reyes–Mets Reunion Sucks,” the headline read.

I understand the strong feelings about the issue, but most people who commit crimes should get another chance. We can make exceptions for people like the Orlando killer if he had survived his own massacre

If the writer of the Reyes piece, Claire McNear, wants to find fault, perhaps she could question why Katherine Ramirez didn’t cooperate with the Reyes investigation.

I know why abused wives or girlfriends won’t go after their abusers. But that’s the only way to stop abuse. Baseball’s policy is only a first step. If no team signs Reyes and he is out of baseball, MLB won’t be able to do anything the next time, if there is a next time.

There are various ways to react to the idea that Madison Bumgarner has raised. The San Francisco Giants pitcher said earlier this month that pitchers should be allowed to compete in Major League Baseball’s Home Run Derby, which is staged the day before the All-Star Game.

My immediate reaction was absolutely not…dumbest idea I’ve heard…why make a joke of events surrounding the All-Star Game, the oldest and most popular all-star game of the four major sports? The other leagues have already made a joke of their all-star games; why join them?

But I thought about it for another second and said why not? MLB has already made a joke of its once glamorous All-Star Game; what’s one more joke in July?

In saying he wanted to compete in the Home Run Derby, Bumgarner was feeling his oats. He has hit 2 home runs this season, giving him 13 for his career, 5 of which he hit last season.

Noah Syndergaard of the New York Mets is the only other pitcher who has homered more than once. He hit two against the Dodges in a game in May.

Seven other pitchers have hit one home run: Jake Arrieta (Cubs), Gerrit Cole (Pirates), Bartolo Colon (Mets), Kenta Maeda (Dodgers), Wily Peralta (Brewers), Robbie Ray (Diamondbacks), Adam Wainwright (Cardinals).

An output of 2 home runs, even Bumgarner’s 5 last season, doesn‘t exactly qualify a pitcher, nor do 11 for 9 pitchers collectively qualify pitchers for a home run contest. This is all about ego and Bumgarner’s $35 million contract should satisfy his ego. He should also remember he gets that money and will get a whole lot more after this contract expires after next season for pitching wins, not for hitting phony home runs.

A pitcher’s ego, of course, would never allow him to think he could get hurt swinging an unnatural swing trying to lift the ball and drive it over the fence, not just once but 20 or 30 or 40 times.

It’s difficult to believe that any team official would allow his pitcher to participate in the Home Run Derby. Executives and managers are obsessed with the number of pitches and innings a pitcher throws, and they’re going to let one of them swing for the fences? But an executive told me that major league officials are discussing the possibility of inviting pitchers to the home run party.

“It’s under discussion,” the official said, “as part of the event or in a separate format. They could be creative. If everybody agrees, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was done. All of the ideas are on the board.”

Why, then, not add another idea? Borrow a gimmick from the carnival world and have a sideshow, if pitchers in a home run derby don’t already constitute a side show. How about a hitting contest among a team of little people, formerly known as descendants of Eddie Gaedel?

MLB desperately wants to rescue the All-Star Game from the course it is traveling to oblivion, and will do anything to achieve its goal. It finds nothing funny about the developments.

The joke I referred to is the one Bud Selig perpetrated in 2003 when he was the baseball commissioner. He linked the All-Star Game to the World Series, acting under the guise of making the game more exciting and more meaningful for the fans. In reality he did it for the sake of Fox Sports’ television ratings.

The ratings had fallen steadily and Fox felt it wasn’t getting value for what it was paying. Trying to mollify the network, Selig adopted an idea that Bill Giles, chairman of the Philadelphia Phillies, had raised years earlier of giving home field advantage in the World Series to the league that prevailed in the All-Star Game.

To digress for a paragraph, this was the same Bill Giles who had been criticized by the owners for not destroying his notes on their collusive plans against free agents in the mid-1980s. The notes were critical evidence that led to player victories in three collusions cases and $280 million in payments to the players.

Selig, on the other hand, liked Giles’ All-Star plan and initiated it starting with the 2003 game. Results of the link’s impact on the ratings have been mixed but for the most part a failure.

The first year the rating was the same, 9.5, as the year before. For 12 games since, ratings were down for eight games and up for four. Viewership was split, up for six games, down for six. Last year’s rating was 6.6, the lowest ever, and viewership was 10.9 million, matching the lowest ever.

So much for the fantasy that the all-important All-Star link would inspire a more exciting game, and that, in turn, would lead to higher ratings.

Meanwhile, pennant-winning teams that had nothing to do with their leagues’ All-Star triumphs get a critical extra home game in the World Series.

Even though the link has done absolutely nothing for baseball or Fox (a friend suggests that maybe the ratings would be lower without the World Series link), it remains the rule.

The All-Star Game, of course, is an exhibition game, and to have the outcome of an exhibition game determine which team gets the extra game, and sometimes the deciding, ultimate games, in the World Series is ridiculous.

But if MLB can treat its most important games of the year that way, why not make a farce of an event that means absolutely nothing?

ICHIRO OR PETE?

Now that Ichiro Suzuki has eclipsed Pete Rose’s career number of hits, the debate has begun. Rose had 4,256 hits, the most in MLB history. At the start of play Sunday, Ichiro had 4,258, including 1,278 in Japan.

The debate is whether his hits in Japan should count and allow him to snatch the “Hit King” crown from Rose’s head.

Rose, who is offended when anyone says Suzuki has more hits than he had,  said last week that if Suzuki’s Japanese hits are counted, his minor league hits (427) should count because he accumulated them as a professional player.

Rose has also been quoted as saying ”the next thing you know, they’ll be counting his high school hits.” However, speaking to an Associated Press reporter last Friday, Rose denied having said that. Based on my experience with Rose, I’m not too quick to believe his denial.

But I am also not quick to disagree with him when he says Suzuki’s Japanese hits shouldn’t count.

I would like them to count because I would rather see Ichiro as the Hit King than Rose, just as I would rather see Henry Aaron be the Home Run King rather than Barry Bonds. Unlike Bonds, though, Rose didn’t cheat. He is said to have played his career on amphetamines, but they were not illegal when he played and everyone used them.

However, I don’t see how Ichiro’s Japanese hits could be considered equal to his or Rose’s major league hits. For one thing, there have been very few Japanese pitchers viewed as equal to even the average MLB pitcher.

Character is another matter.

As distasteful a person as Rose is, Ichiro is a terrific person. While Rose has always let people know how good he was, Ichiro is modest to a fault. While Rose enjoyed humiliating people and acting and speaking derogatorily of them, Ichiro is courteous and kind.

Comments the 42-year-old Miami Marlins outfielder made last week after he surpassed Rose were typical.

“This wasn’t like a goal of mine to get to this point,” he told reporters through a translator in San Diego last Friday. “To be honest, this wasn’t something that I was a making out as a goal. It was just kind of a weird situation to be in because of the combined total.”

“For me,” he added, “it’s not about the record. It’s about my teammates and the fans.”

TIMES INVITES ANOTHER TROUNCING

Feeling betrayed and disturbed by the disappearance of baseball coverage in The New York Times, readers of this site continue to express their feelings in e-mail messages. The most recent comments have come as the Times’ baseball coverage plunged to its nadir last week. For someone who covered baseball for the Times for 39 years, it was a sickening sight.

Readers thought so, too.

“You hit the nail on the head,” Rick Assad wrote. “The New York Times’ baseball coverage isn’t what it used to be. The same holds true for the LA Times. I remember when they’d have at least three covering a World Series. Now it’s Bill Shaikin and that’s it.”

I’m not familiar with what’s happening in Los Angeles, but The New York Times is headed in a direction that is not helpful to Major League Baseball. The newspaper is providing less coverage than ever.

The last three days of last week shockingly lacked what used to be baseball coverage.

The Thursday edition had sufficient coverage of two news developments – the Colorado Rockies’ release of Jose Reyes over his domestic violence issue and Ichiro Suzuki’s passing Pete Rose’s career hit total.

The rest of the previous day’s baseball, though, was stuffed into a brief description of some of the games played, including the Yankees and the Mets. The baseball briefs were placed at the bottom of the fifth of six sports pages, under an article headlined “TNT’s Sager Will Join ABC for Game 6 Broadcast.”

The next day’s paper had an article on David Wright’s neck operation, but the Mets’ game and the few other games that finished in time to make that edition again were squeezed into a small space at the bottom of the fifth page of the six-page section.

Meanwhile, an entire page was devoted to soccer and another whole page was consumed by six photos and a short article headlined “Russians Are Making An Impact In M.M.A.”

In Saturday’s paper baseball was represented by an article about Matt Harvey’s loss for the Mets and that same tiny space, tucked into the bottom corner of the fourth page of the six-page section. It included an Associated Press report on the Yankees’ win over Minnesota.

With the Times so desperate to acquire and preserve its revenue, shedding its best reporters, curtailing its coverage in previously dominating areas, I see the day coming when the Times won’t send reporters to games on the road or at home but simply use the AP, leaving the coverage vague and absent any insight.

“The Times sports section editors have their own agendas, it doesn’t matter what the readers care about or want,” Peter Wagner wrote. “Evidently, their market research combined with their serious financial constraints prevent them from sending reporters all over the country, so we get a diminished product. The writing is still great, we can give them that, but what they chose to write about is perplexing. Using the AP to cover the NHL playoffs, including the local teams, is a joke. We do deserve better.

“The good news is that it forces those of us who are passionate about sports, all sports, to go online to read great writers: You, Tom Boswell, Bill Simmons, to name three. We have to work a little harder to get the insights we want and need, but thankfully we can. It’s just an unfortunate sign of the times that the Times is so out of touch.”

In a follow-up e-mail Wagner said, “Yesterday and again today the paper I was trying to make financial excuses for in my previous Email to you, ran AP stories about both NY baseball teams. That was it. Just a few paragraphs. This is sad, embarrassing and forces their long term, loyal readers elsewhere. Don’t they realize the long term consequences of their short term decisions?”

And then he wrote: “How can we knock some sense into them?? Their insultingly awful coverage forces us to go elsewhere-thus spending less time with their product, wouldn’t that resonate with them?”

They apparently don’t get it, they have their own agenda that is unfathomable to us and they don’t care about their readers who supported them for decades.