A Look Back at The Deadball Era: 1901-1919
Image credits: Baseball History Comes Alive
The Deadball Era of baseball is often dismissed. No one alive today witnessed it, so it didn’t matter. Right? No.
As baseball historians, we must commit ourselves to remembering the heroes of the past - some of them as heroic as any president. Here is why the story of Deadball Era baseball matters.
Hall of Fame
I reject the idea that ballplayers of the past should not be considered for the Hall of Fame because nobody alive today ever saw them play. Nobody alive today ever saw Ty Cobb or Eddie Collins or Christy Mathewson or Honus Wagner, but who would argue with their credentials?
Nobody alive today ever saw a majority of U. S. presidents, but that doesn't stop historians from rating them. And what are we but Deadball Era historians? And what is the role of the veterans committee but historians?
Nobody alive today saw Christy Mathewson play - but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t matter. Image credits: Louis Van Oeyen/WRHS (Getty Images)
It's the Veterans Committee's job to do the research or ask employees of the Hall of Fame to provide it. The stats are there; contemporary comments by teammates, opponents and sportswriters are more easily researched than ever.
Deadball Era players should be judged in the context of their time: wearing heavy woolen uniforms, batting against mashed, nicked, grass- and tobacco-stained pitches in the twilight of spring and fall, fielding with pancake hand-size gloves on a variety of field conditions, traveling by non-air-conditioned trains and sleeping sometimes two to a bed in stuffy hotels.
How Did Managers Manage Without All the Modern Stats and Analytics?
I am perhaps the wrong person to speak to this; I am still more of the hearts and mind school of assessing players than the new-fangled made-up stats and analytics. Managers manage men, not robots.
The object then was to get the most out of each player that he was capable of. It still is. It often required different methods for different players. Frank Chance said he could learn a lot about his men by playing poker with them.
Connie Mack and John McGraw were dissimilar in their methods and personalities, McGraw had more money to work with. But in their primes, they had as much analytics in their heads as today's computers, and they knew their players' hearts and minds.
How Did Watching a Game Then Compare to Today?
Putting the ball in play is what makes baseball fun to watch -- and that's what the Deadball Era offered. The three true outcomes today involve zero action. A home run in a crucial situation can be exciting (but seeing it repeated ad nauseum on scoreboards or TV is boooring).
I'd rather see a batter beat out a bunt - or even be out on an attempted bunt. And the restrictions on pitchers' holding a man on first plus the shortened distance between the enlarged bases have robbed some of the excitement of that action.
What Deadball Era Ballparks Would Have Been Good to Watch a Game?
I'm old enough to have seen some games in ballparks built during the Deadball Era. The Polo Grounds was fun because of its vast outfield -- a cab ride from home plate to the center field fence - providing plenty of action. And in those days a general admission ticket allowed you to sit anywhere except the few rows of box and reserved seats.
The Polo Grounds was one of the best ballparks of the Deadball Era. Image credits: Deadball Baseball
I also liked Ebbets Field for a different reason: it was small and you were close to whatever was happening wherever you sat. Right field had a high screen with a slanting billboard at its base-- no fence, no bleachers, no home runs -- just right fielder vs base-runner battles of arms versus legs.
How Come Deadball Era Pitchers Throw So Many Complete Games Without Today’s Training Equipment?
Deadball Era pitchers threw a lot of complete games because they expected to finish every game they started and they were expected to by managers and club owners. Pitching staffs were small.
At contract time, a club owner would say, "You expect me to pay two players to pitch a game?" And if you couldn't do the job, you were gone.
It was the job description. You were handed the ball to pitch the game, whether it took 9 or 12 or 15 -- or even 26 innings. And pitchers resisted being taken out of a game, even if they were injured, or were being hit hard in an early inning.
They made adjustments and hung in there. They paced themselves. The ultimate goal was to retire the side on three pitches, not to strike out the side. If they had a comfortable lead, ease up and throw a hittable pitch.
It had nothing to do with weight training and medicine. An ideal pitcher's build was long, dangling arms, flat muscles and big hands. A lot of pitchers were farmers and hunters in those days. They were sturdy, they walked a lot.
During the season they threw a lot. (Fifty years later Johnny Sain was a pitching coach preaching that pitchers had arm problems because they didn't throw enough.)
How Did Managers Manage Without Hitting and Pitching and Bench Coaches?
Managers had a coach or two, often an old catcher or pitcher, but without the titles of hitting or pitching coach. McGraw did all the strategic thinking for the Giants and tried to call the pitches for some of his pitchers, who didn't like it. (Other later managers did the same, including Bill Terry and Joe Cronin.)
Bill Terry: a Deadball Era manager who liked to call the shots - and the pitches. Image credits: Baseball Fever
Connie Mack looked for smart players, especially infielders, and encouraged them to develop strategies and plays on their own, but he moved his outfielders depending on the pitcher and batter. And he was specific about what pitchers and hitters could use some tips and who to leave alone.
Why Should the Deadball Era Be Considered Anything More Than an Afterthought For Today’s Fans?
The first half of the Deadball Era was something new: a second major league meant twice as many big league players, new stars, new rivalries, the World Series.
While the effects of the start of the Great War in 1914 cannot be minimized, and the U.S. entry into the war heightened those dampening effects, I would hardly regard as an "afterthought" any part of an era that introduced the likes of Babe Ruth, Edd Roush, Joe Jackson and George Sisler.
Was Betting on Games a Problem in Those Days?
Players betting on their own teams was common knowledge, often admitted and publicized, and not frowned upon by the public. If a pitcher almost always beat a particular team, he might bet on himself when he pitched, and some teammates might also.
Players betting on a World Series in which they were not involved evoked no outcries from the public or club owners. AL president Ban Johnson agreed with Connie Mack that gambling in baseball could not help but harm the game.
In a 1955 letter to Connie Mack, Ty Cobb wrote: "Two times Boston and Washington wagered on their pitchers, Johnson and Wood, in a game. The papers were full of it. Pitchers who knew they would win more than they lost would wager on themselves for extra pocket money."
Clutches of gamblers sat in the outfield stands, betting among themselves on all sorts of impending events: a hit, a strikeout, a home run -- whatever.
It wasn't until Judge Landis became the Commissioner following the 1919 World Series scandal that a concerted effort was launched to curb all gambling by players and managers. The occasional rumbling of earthquakes felt today may be caused by Landis spinning underground at today's marriage of betting and baseball.
Some Baseball Nerds Suggest That No Statistics Prior to Baseball’s Integration in 1947 are Legitimate and Should be Erased
I suggest that those crusaders who would erase all MLB stats prior to 1947 be politely ignored. Sure, there were some Negro Leagues players who could have played in MLB. But not all of them. And there were white players who could have played in the Negro Leagues. Again, not all of them. But erasing history is not a remedy for history's injustices.
The MLB Commissioner had no jurisdiction over Negro Leagues player transactions and infractions. Different schedule lengths and playing fields, incomplete and unreliable play-by-play scoring records raise questions about the reliability of Negro League stats.
Jackie Robinson - the first Afterican-American to play in Major League Baseball. Image credits: Raw Pixel
Anecdotal testimony: A white Dodgers player who welcomed Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanella once asked Campanella, "What did you hit in the Negro Leagues?"
Campanella said, ".365."
"How do you know you hit .365?"
"We all did. We kept our own records,"
As for removing Judge Landis's name from the MVP trophy because of dubious claims that he was somehow responsible for enforcing segregated baseball (in a thoroughly segregated society) -- shame on MLB. What's next: Shall we tear down the Lincoln Memorial because Lincoln freed only the slaves in the "rebellious states"?
How Did Sportswriters and Players Get Along in Those Days?
In those days writers did not rush down to the clubhouses after a game to get quotes. They had enough to do writing their game stories for the telegraphers to send to their papers for the early editions. And they wouldn't have been welcome in the clubhouses.
Some interviews took place on trains and in hotel lobbies. But, a lot of players were farmers or small-town boys who didn't have much to say or were wary of reporters (which has always been the case).
And, truth be told, some well-known writers made up interviews.
How is the Deadball Era Relevant to Today’s Fans?
The Deadball Era is relevant because it's history. It's part of the Americanization of the immigrants of the first 20 years of the nineteenth century, as well as the evolution of the baseball fans of not just America but the world. And it's full of fascinating stories about fascinating characters and once-in-a-lifetime events.
