Welcome to 2023, a joyful year when it comes to math and baseball. The number 2023 is a Harshad number, a term from Sanskrit that means “joy-giver.” A Harshad number is any number that is divisible by the sum of its digits (2 + 0 + 2 + 3 = 7; 2023 / 7 = 289). This is the first time since 2000 and ’01 that we get back-to-back years with Harshad numbers. With two more to follow, it is the first four-year Harshad run since 1014 to ’17—not even Rich Hill was pitching in the High Middle Ages—and the last until 3030 to ’33.
It’s also a Harshad baseball season because new rules are joy-givers. MLB games for the first time will be played with a pitch timer and specific governors on where defenders must stand. Hallelujah.
A countdown clock between pitches and regulations for where defenders can be positioned were antithetical to the game’s free-market traditions for about a hundred years. But because players took too long, and because shifts took away too many hits, what was once charming became corrosive. Proven in the minors, and with the addition of bigger bases, the new rules are designed to bring back a better version of baseball: faster paced with more balls in play and more stolen bases. Joy, joy.
