The Sneaky Pitch (NewYorker)
During the so-called Dead Ball Era, prior to 1920, the name of the game was deception. Pitchers routinely did whatever they could to get an edge. They’d spit tobacco juice on the ball, rub it in mud, scuff the seams, anything they could think of. Then, in 1920, the spitball was banned, Babe Ruth went to the Yankees, home runs became much more prevalent, and the whole nature of baseball became more about great displays of power, on the part of the pitcher and the batter both. This is a vast oversimplification, and, in fact, the knuckleball probably was at its popular peak in the two decades or so after the spitball was banned, when pitchers needed to find ways of compensating.
During the so-called Dead Ball Era, prior to 1920, the name of the game was deception. Pitchers routinely did whatever they could to get an edge. They’d spit tobacco juice on the ball, rub it in mud, scuff the seams, anything they could think of. Then, in 1920, the spitball was banned, Babe Ruth went to the Yankees, home runs became much more prevalent, and the whole nature of baseball became more about great displays of power, on the part of the pitcher and the batter both. This is a vast oversimplification, and, in fact, the knuckleball probably was at its popular peak in the two decades or so after the spitball was banned, when pitchers needed to find ways of compensating.
