It's Outta Here!: The Might and Majesty of the Home Run

It's Outta Here!: The Might and Majesty of the Home Run — page 7
blasts But the biggest question focused on baseball's future In a sport where fans loved the home run did MLB want the long ball trend to continue THE REIGN AND FALL OF THE DEAD BALL Baseball wasn't always centered on hitting the ball over the fence In the early 1900s MLB games were built around a strategy that modern fans call small ball Players didn't swing for the fences They tried to get on base They bunted and focused on making contact with the ball The game was about methodically moving runners from base to base not bringing them all home with one swing of the bat During the dead ball era from 1900 to 1919 the home run was a novelty an afterthought In both 1905 and 1909 not a single MLB player reached double digits in home runs Baseball historians have several theories about why the home run was such a rarity for the first two decades of the century During that time MLB allowed pitchers to throw spitballs Pitchers doctored balls with sticky substances to affect their flight possibly leading to low home run totals The spitball was banned in 1920 and home run totals surged Others point to changes in ballpark sizes pitching strategies or how baseballs were manufactured Probably all of these contributed to the low home run totals Historians agree however about the player who was most responsible for ending the dead ball era It was a young pitcher turned slugger who During the dead ball era many hitters choked up on the bat went on to rewrite baseball's record to help make contact with the ball reducing the power of their swings books It was Babe Ruth 8 IT'S OUTTA HERE