Number of games mlb history

A number of changes happened in baseball around Eight members of the Chicago White Sox threw the World Series, leaving baseball scrambling with its first public relations crisis. Then Babe Ruth started hitting more homers than any player before him, attracting more fans than ever at the same time. In the midst, Ray Chapman became the first major leaguer killed by a pitched ball. For these and perhaps other reasons, Major League Baseball banned the spitball and emery ball in , as noted by Bill James; MLB also elected to keep cleaner balls in play that could be more easily seen by hitters and would be less likely to lose shape late in games.

This led to the first great offensive age of the modern era for baseball, 22 glorious seasons that offered some of the highest RBI totals and batting averages that will ever be seen. While run totals occasionally dipped, such as when less-lively balls were introduced in , scoring stayed high until the majority of big leaguers went to war.

The run totals are certainly more or less in-line. Like the earliest Deadball Era, this one primarily owed itself to the balls in use. During wartime, the quality of baseballs used was inferior, as there was something in regular baseballs that was needed to make explosives or O.

I doubt the caliber of balls was inferior in ; I just have this theory that long breaks tend to favor pitchers and that it took hitters a year or so to get back to form after the war ended. The popular story on Travis was that he suffered frostbite at the Battle of the Bulge. His New York Times obituary quoted him saying the real reason he declined was he lost his timing as a hitter. The majors were integrated.

Teams began to relocate for the first time in half a century and four expansion clubs were added. Transcontinental air travel and night games became commonplace.

Run totals for this period, 4. It was certainly better than it is now. Sandy Koufax entered spring training in boasting a lifetime record with a 4. He had nearly as many strikeouts for innings pitched at that point of his career, though the young lefty was also averaging more than five walks every nine innings.

Then, on January 26, , as recounted by Bill James in the historical abstract, the Baseball Rules Committee expanded the strike zone, stating that it went from the shoulders to the bottom of the knee. Over the ensuing four seasons before his arm gave out, Koufax went with a 1. Following the offensive nadir that was , when teams averaged their lowest runs per game in 60 years, Major League Baseball lowered the mound from 15 inches to 10 inches.

In fact, certain pitchers got better while others continued to dominate. First, as Jim Bouton wrote during spring training in in Ball Four :. He majored in phys. Has to do with the hypotenuse of a right triangle decreasing as either side of the triangle decreases. Assuming the lower mound favored hitters, I asked Dierker how he compensated. Find out more.

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