Baseball in the 1900s

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Whereas baseball in the 1890s featured a versatile and exciting "run-and-gun" offensive style, baseball in the 1900s were the heyday of the deadball era. The deadball style of play featured a plodding, one-run-at-a-time outcome. Instead of using the hit-and-run to aggressively exploit the weaknesses in opposing defenses, it became primarily a way to play for one run and to stay out of the double play. Instead of a means of getting on base, the bunt was used more and more exclusively as a sacrifice.

This all coincided with the adoption of the foul-strike rule by the National League in 1901 and the American League in 1903. In other words, a foul ball was counted as a strike. In return, batting averages and ERAs plummeted.

[edit] Defense

Meanwhile, defense improved via the aid of bigger gloves, better-maintained fields, and advances in catchers' equipment such as shin-guards.

[edit] Pitching

Managers began to rely less and less on a single pitching ace and more and more on efficient three or four-man rotations. Pitchers' workloads in the 1900s were much more evenly distributed withen the pitching staff than in previous decades, contributing to the trend toward pitching dominance. For example, in the 1890s, personal seasonal leaders in games typically pitched were in the low to mid-50s.

The 1900s also saw the development of the spitball, which - along with related trick pitches such as the shine ball, emery ball, and mud ball - was perfectly legal until 1920.