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What Was the Dead Ball Era?

It Was a Time in Baseball Before the Home Run Was King

May 30, 2007

In the days before Babe Ruth, home runs were less common than smart decisions by the Bush administration.

The Dead Ball Era refers to a period in baseball characterized by extremely low-scoring games. In fact, it was the lowest-scoring period in major league baseball history. Although baseball historians disagree of the exact dates of the Dead Ball Era, the general consensus is that it began in about 1903 and continued until about 1919.

Hitting and Scoring During the Dead Ball Era

How bad was hiting during the Dead Ball Era? Well, one example is the 1906 Chicago White Sox. That team won 93 games, took home the American League pennant, and eventually prevailed in the World Series. They did all this while batting just .230, and hitting a mere 7 home runs. The Sox were more the rule than the exception. For instance, the Cubs won back to back World Series titles in 1907 and 1908 despite hitting just .248 and managing just 32 homers.

But the power outage wasn't limited to Chicago. In St. Louis, the Cardinals had one of the worst three year offensive runs in baseball history from 196 until 1908. During that three year span, the team hit .235, .232 and .223. They averaged just 15 dingers a year and scored a lowly 2.6 runs per game. Not exactly the steroid era, that's for sure.

Factors Contributing to the Dead Ball Era

The Ball. The baseball used by both leagues had a rubber ball at its center and was wrapped quite loosely compared to modern baseballs. To make matters worse, most games were played using only one or two balls. As the game wore on, and the ball repeatedly hit bats, gloves walls and the ground, it became even softer and even lost it spherical shape. This made it almost impossible to hit for distance.

The Spitball. During the Dead Ball Era, pitchers threw two pitches that are now illegal: the spitball and the emery ball. To throw the spitball, pitchers lubed up the baseball with saliva, vaseline, tobacco juice or any other substance that would make the ball wetter and heavier. This caused the ball to dance like a knuckleball or a screwball, even though it was thrown at the speed of a fastball.

The Prevailing Baseball Strategy. Until Babe Ruth came along, teams played small ball. Batters didn't swing for the fences. They feared striking out above all else. Solid contact, good baserunning, sacrifices, hitting behind runners and driving singles and doubles were the key points of the game.

The End of the Dead Ball 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 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. Five popular theories have been advanced:

Changes in the ball: This theory claims that owners replaced the ball with a newer, livelier ball, presumably with the intention of boosting offense and, by extension, ticket sales. The yarn used to wrap the core of the ball was changed prior to the 1920 season, and many believe that this caused the ball to jump off the bat.

Outlawing of the spitball: The spitball and the emery ball were both outlawed at this time as well.

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."

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 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.

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.

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