Poor choice of words on my part. Let me correct myself and say that conversation was when I was first introduced to 11.7.There is no explanation for 11.7 for baseball.
As for the Ben McDonald story, Bertman told me that Ben had come to LSwho via a basketball scholarship to play for Dale Brown. After his first fall on campus, he never went back to basketball.
Back to 11.7. I always understood it to be a way to ālevelā the playing field/ # of scholarships between the sexes, Title IX bullshit. My ballplayer went on to BSC and after redshirting his first year, he led the nation (all divisions) in 3 point FG%. He grew another 1 1/2ā and put in another 15-20lbs. After graduation, he went into pharmaceutical sales. Good kid that grew into a fine man!