Contrary to the beliefs of most, especially you, Joe Sambito, I was not around in 1920. And, most of you are probably wondering why I would pick a year to spotlight when none of us were alive.
Well, 1920 was the season that gave us baseball as we know it now.
Before 1920, anything went for pitchers. Spitballs, greaseballs, shineballs emory balls, all legal. In 1919, Babe Ruth hit 29 home runs. On the first day of 1920, he was sold to the New York Yankees. Seeing the excitement generated from those Ruth homers, baseball rule-makers decided to assist the long ball.
There were 17 'bona fide' spitballers in the game. They were 'grandfathered' into 1920 and beyond, still allowed to throw their pitches. The practice was outlawed for all others.
The effects of that rule change may be scoffed at a little bit today. But, while ERA's shot up across baseball that year, while the 17 spitballers composite ERA remained virtually the same.
A second rule change was enacted that effectively took us from the dead ball era to the live ball era.
Ray Chapman was beaned with a pitch by Carl Mays and died the next day. A lot of baseball folks surmised that Chapman never saw the pitch due to the baseball being discolored. Baseballs were just another expense to owners back then. If possible, games were played using one ball. You can imagine the shape that ball was in by the time the later innings were played.
After the Chapman death, clean baseballs were ruled to always be in play. It was the death of the dead ball era and the birth of baseball as we know it today.
Another change that brought baseball to where we are now, was the abolition of the three man commission that presided as the commissionership for baseball. Judge Kenesaw 'Mountain' Landis was given the job and one of his first acts was to ban the eight players who were acquitted at trial, for lifetime from baseball.
With the scandal of the Black Sox hitting the papers during 1920, baseball's rule changes were well timed.
Off setting the news of the tainted World Series from the year before, baseball fans were excited about what Babe Ruth was doing. Ruth had already set a major league record of 29 home runs in 1919. In 1920, he would awe baseball with 54 home runs.
Ruth.
54 home runs doesn't shock most of us now. After all, we've seen the steroid era. But, to put it in perspective for 1920, Ruth had hit 29 homers in 1919, then 54 in 1920, yet still, no other hitter had touched the 20 home run mark. Incredible, really.
From a fantasy perspective, Ruth's 1920 stats are arguably one of the best of all-time.
But, when compared to the competition from that year, the 1920 Babe Ruth stats may be arguably the best fantasy year in history.
Ruth had 54 homers, George Sisler was second with 19.
Ruth had 137 rbi, next best was 'Baby Doll' Jacobson with 122.
Ruth had 158 runs, next best was 137. The 158 runs also set a new baseball record.
Ruth would also hit .376, ranking fourth in baseball.
And, he led the Yankees with 14 stolen bases.
Because Ruth was a man among boys, pitchers started walking him more. He finished with 148 bases on balls. No other hitter had even 100 walks.
You didn't think I was gonna let a great nickname like 'Baby Doll' go, did you?
Baby Doll had a good career. It was interrupted by World War I, but when all was said and done, he finished with a career batting average over .300 and amassed over 1,700 hits.
While playing in the Southern League in 1912, William Jacobson hit a home run. The band in the crowd struck up the most popular song of the day, 'Oh you, beautiful doll'.
The next day, the local paper had a picture of William Jacobson striking his homer with a caption that read, 'That Baby Doll'.
From that day on, only family members and close friends would call him William. To everybody else, he was Baby Doll.
1920 was also the year of the first organized negro leagues. Started up by Rube Foster, it was called the Negro National League.
Foster would participate as a pitcher, but would serve as an administrator and Manager soon after.
Although Ruth outperformed all other hitters in 1920, George Sisler had a big year himself.
Sisler had the 19 homers that finished second to the Babe. And actually collected 11 more total bases than Ruth. Sisler did this by hitting an astounding .407, the seventh highest average in history and getting 257 hits, a mark that stood till Ichiro broke his record. 86 of Sisler's hits were for extra bases.
It was to be Joe Jackson's last year in baseball. He hit .382, and had over 100 rbi and runs. Incredibly, in 570 at bats, Jackson struck out just 14 times.
The 1920 World Series was won by the Cleveland Indians.
In a story that ESPN and others would drool over in today's times, the Indians lost one of their best players when Chapman was beaned by Mays. He was replaced, more than ably, by Joe Sewell and the Indians went on to claim the Series. They wore black arm bands in remembrance of Chapman.
Carl Mays defended that pitch till his death. Chapman was known for crowding the plate while hitting, even putting his head over the plate in most at bats.
Mays insisted that if Chapman had not been hit with the pitch, that it would have been called a strike.
17 pitchers posted at least 20 wins in '20.
Six of those were pitchers that could still legally throw spitballs.
10 Pitchers threw over 300 innings.
Pete Alexander had 173 strike outs, no other pitcher had 140 k's.
This would illustrate that even with the coming of Ruth, most batters of this era maintained their 'contact swings' of the day.
Strike outs were considered an embarrassment for most hitters.
'Bottle bats' were popular. These bats had handles just a tad thinner than the barrel of the bat, made for contact and spraying the ball.
The rule changes and Ruth soon changed the strike out from an embarrassment to the price paid for a healthier swing.
Outside of baseball, here are some other things going on in 1920-
The first radios were marketed.
A Westinghouse radio would sell for $10
Warren Harding was elected President. It was the first election in which women were allowed to vote.
Because there were so many 'mixed races' in America, the census bureau stops counting mixed races and creates 'the one drop' rule.
Meaning if a person was considered to have one drop of black blood, they were considered 'black'.
1920 was the first full year of prohibition and not coincidentally, the rise of the Mafia.
World War I had ended two years earlier. Before World War II, World War I was called 'The Great War'.
Which only made sense, who would be silly enough to think we'd have another?
The New York Times ridiculed Robert Goddard, a (real) rocket scientist for his speaking out about a trip to the moon.
49 years later, a retraction was owed.
91 years is a long time ago, hopefully this was entertaining enough for you to still be reading this....
[ September 22, 2011, 08:25 PM: Message edited by: DOUGHBOYS ]
1920
1920
I thought you'd catch that!
The word should be spelled e-m-e-r-y, but with you in the Pre-Mature, I used your spelling.
The phrase 'Cats pajamas' was coined in 1920.
Instead of 'Chicks Dig the Long Ball', that year could have produced, 'Dolls think Clean Balls Are the Cats Pajamas'.
[ September 22, 2011, 01:49 PM: Message edited by: DOUGHBOYS ]
On my tombstone-
Wait! I never had the perfect draft!
Wait! I never had the perfect draft!