Why were there so few home runs during baseball's Dead Ball era?

Question

It's creepy. A guy with the nickname 'Home Run Baker' is in the Hall of Fame with 96 career home runs in 13 seasons, including a league leading 9 in 1914.

Answer 1

Because the ball was DEAD?

That's not even a joke answer, it's the exact answer. It's called the dead ball era for a reason - the ball didn't travel as well as the ball they used in different eras.


princehill - The dead ball era is generally considered to be from between 1900 - 1918, Ruth began breaking records after the era ended.
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Answer 2

Don't knock Home Run Baker! He was a superb fielder, won 3 World Series and played in three more, and had an OPS+ of 135 for his career.
In addition to the reasons listed, it was also thought to be a sucker's bet to uppercut the ball. Cobb, Wagner, and Speaker were just a few players who hit with their hands apart to control the ball--this just won't generate home run power.
Ruth was allowed to swing away because he began as a pitcher and it didn't matter so much how he hit. When he got results, a lot of other people realized that the conventional wisdom was wrong.
It so often is.

Answer 3

Not at all. Only fake fans, bandwagoners and those that not educated about the history of baseball are still trying in vain to ask that "steroid era" HR's be erased. True baseball fans could care less because HR's are part of the game, steroids or not, and the players involved or named in it's use are harming themselves, not us. Henry Aaron used "speed" (amphetamines), but the fake fans did not know that, because they claim he's "clean", George Herman Ruth was a boozehound and unhealthy eater, Ty Cobb was probably as worse a racist as they come and others gambled or were alcoholic, but were considered "angels" by those that don't know about the sport.

Answer 4

The balls were softer, less bouncy, used longer in games so they got really beat up (which killed what little bounce they had).

Parks were larger.

Batters were demographically smaller.

Bats were cruder.

Pitchers had various advantages, depending on what specific years one looks at. Shorter pitching distance, higher ball counts to a walk, running start allowed.

And there was more pride in getting on base and doing some waltzing there, instead of smacking a long drive and trotting around.

Different era. Same game, just played differently.

Answer 5

Its been awhile since I read over the rule changes but wasn't the pitchers mound closer as well, or was that prior to 1900. I know it was moved back to the current 60 feet 6 inches by mistake....was suppose to be 60.0 feet, but it was misread as 60.6 instead.

The main reasons have already been stated so there really is no point in adding more of the same to it.

Answer 6

You can get a feel for the times by hitting a rolled-up sock. Balls weren't solid like today; there was a lot of give to them. They also usually used one ball for the enitre game, making it softer and softer each time a bat struck it.

Answer 7

I think the MAIN reason (next to a softer ball) the fences were 100 ft farther back than today in some ballparksn and the game was built for speed back then ...

Answer 8

It was called the Dead Ball Era because the ball was more dead, DUH! It wasn't wound as tightly as it is now, so it was softer in nature, much like the flight-restricted softballs. Also, spitballs and other doctored pitches were allowed at that time, so it was harder to hit it out of the bigger ballparks of the time.

You definitely had to hit the ball squarely back then to get it aloft enough to clear the fence. That's why many feel the Babe's records were so extraordinary.

Answer 9

The deadball era is very confusing, but these factors contributed to it.

Factors that contributed to the dead-ball era

The following factors contributed to the dramatic decline in runs scored during the dead-ball era:


The foul strike rule
The foul strike rule was a major rule change that, in just a few years, sent baseball from a high-scoring game to one where scoring any runs became a struggle. Prior to this rule, foul balls were not counted as strikes: thus a batter could foul off a countless number of pitches with no strikes counted against him. This gave an enormous advantage to the batter. In 1901, the National League adopted the foul strike rule, and the American League followed suit in 1903.


The ball itself
Before 1920, it was very common for a baseball to be in play for over 100 pitches, as in cricket. A ball would be used until it started to unravel. The early baseball leagues were very cost-conscious, so fans would have to throw back balls that had been hit in the stands. The longer the ball was in use the softer it would become, and hitting a heavily-used, softer ball for distance is much more difficult than hitting a new, harder one. There is also the argument that the ball itself was softer to begin with, making home runs less likely.


The spit ball
Another reason the ball was hard to hit was that pitchers could manipulate the ball itself before a pitch. For example, the spitball pitch was permitted in baseball until 1920. Pitchers often marked the ball, scuffed it, spit on it, or did anything else to gain an advantage over the ball's motion. This made the ball "dance" and curve much more than it does now, making it more difficult to hit. Tobacco juice was often added to the ball, as well, which discolored it. This made the ball difficult to see, especially since baseball parks did not have lights until the late 1930s. This made both hitting and fielding more difficult.

END OF THE DEADBALL ERA

The dead-ball era ended suddenly. By 1921, offenses were scoring 40% more runs and hitting four times as many home runs as they did in 1918.[1] The abruptness of this dramatic change has caused widespread debate among baseball historians, and there is no consensus among them regarding the cause of this transformation.[2][3] Six popular theories have been advanced:

Changes in the ball: This theory claims that owners replaced the ball with a newer, livelier ball (sometimes referred to as the "jackrabbit" ball), presumably with the intention of boosting offense and, by extension, ticket sales. This theory has been denied by Major League Baseball. The yarn used to wrap the core of the ball was changed prior to the 1920 season, although testing by the United States Bureau of Standards found no difference in the physical properties of the two different types of balls.
Outlawing of the spitball: The spitball, a very effective pitch throughout the dead-ball era, was outlawed at this time as well. This theory states that without the spitball in the pitcher's arsenal, batters gained an advantage.
More baseballs per game: The fatal beaning of Ray Chapman during the 1920 season led to a rule that the baseball must be replaced every time that it got dirty. With a clean ball in play at all times, players no longer had to contend with a ball that "traveled through the air erratically, tended to soften in the later innings, and as it came over the plate, was very hard to see."[4]
Game winning home runs: In 1920 Major League Baseball adopted writer Fred Lieb's proposal that a game-winning home run with men on base be counted as a home run even if its run is not needed to win the game. The intentional walk was also banned‚ and it was decided that everything that happened in a protested game would be added to the game record. (From 1910 to 1919‚ records in protested games were excluded.)
Babe Ruth: This theory alleges that the prolific success of Babe Ruth hitting home runs led players around the league to forsake their old methods of hitting (described above) and adopt a "free-swinging" strategy designed to hit the ball hard and with an uppercut stroke, with the intention of hitting more home runs. Critics of this theory claim that it does not account for the improvement in batting averages from 1918–1921, over which time the league average improved from .254 to .291.
Ballpark dimensions: This theory contends that the cause of the offensive outburst were changes in the dimensions of the ballparks of the time. Accurate estimates of ballpark sizes of the era can be difficult to obtain, however, so there is some disagreement over whether the dimensions changed at all during this time, let alone whether the change led to an increase in offense.

Answer 10

because the ball was dead, the way it was wound underneath the leather, it didnt bounce off the bat, plus there were a lot of huge stadiums back then