Talk:Dead-ball era

Untitled

Just wondering what people think about this article. I wrote it myself and I'm still fairly new at this, so any comments or editing would be appreciated. --Woohookitty 02:49, 5 Jan 2005 (UTC)

In the passage During the dead-ball era, baseball was much more of a strategic, station-to-station game. It relied much more on stolen bases, hit and run plays and similar strategies than on home runs. It was basically a speed game, what would be referred to now as "small ball."

This is the opposite of how I understand the term "station-to-station" in modern parlance. I thought playing station-to-station was trying to get guys on base and wait around for a home run or a string of hits -- the opposite of small ball. Nowadays the cliche is that the AL tends toward a more station-to-station style, while the NL tends toward small ball. --65.78.28.86 02:01, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

Agreed. In fact, I came to the discussion page to make that very point :) Varitek 20:24, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

Yep, somebody should change that already.

Pitcher's Mound

I don't have a source for this, but someone may. I've always thought that the pitcher's mound was higher during this era, and when it was lowered that was one of the factors for the end of the era. Tithonfury 23:47, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

Intentional walk

The article says " The intentional walk was also banned‚". I never knew it was banned. The article Base on balls says nothing about intentional walks ever having been banned and, in fact, reads as if they are perfectly legal. I know only a little about baseball history. Can someone clarify this apparent inconsistency? --Richard (talk) 16:36, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

The intentional walk has always been legal, dating back to Cap Anson's days with the White Stockings (he pioneered it). Only since the 1950s has it been recorded, but it was still a used tactic much before then. Many of Babe Ruth's walks were intentional. We just don't know how many. Opponents frequently pitched at him or in the dirt to avoid feeding him potential home runs.--MattytheMaster (talk) 17:47, 1 September 2013 (UTC)

Lead

Parag 2 is currently contradictory and therefore makes no sense. It was about home runs, it wasn't about home runs, it was about home runs. Make your mind up! (NB I'm on wikibreak) --Dweller (talk) 00:42, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

Especially problematic (and contradictory) is the sentence that describes the 1890s as both "a very high run-scoring decade" and one in which "home runs were rare." However, the paragraph as a whole is not necessarily contradictory. I think the suggestion is that the "dead-ball" idea is partly but not entirely about home runs. It does need clarification, though. Also, if it's not entirely about home runs, what else _is_ it about? maybe some authority could be cited.--Curious georgianna (talk) 06:44, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

Spacious?

In the "baseball during the dead-ball" era section it says: "Teams played in spacious ball parks that limited hitting for power"

Wouldn't having more room (by being spacious) be more conducive to hitting for power? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.19.24.108 (talk) 06:59, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

Beginning of period?

How could the beginning of the period be so ambiguous? Is there a separate term for the era of baseball prior to the dead ball era?

Prior to the dead ball era (before 1900), baseball existed as a series of major and minor leagues such as the Western league, Eastern league and the National league. There was no country-wide champion. The dead ball era is about the standardized ball's attributes, the huge parks, and the unique rules. Before 1900, there were many major leagues that didn't all have dead ball style play. Torria78 (talk) 08:00, 28 July 2009 (UTC)

I don't think this answer really satisfies my question. The indicated beginning of the dead-ball era in this article, 1900, does not coincide with the consolidation of the National and American Leagues that, in some ways, allowed for a "country-wide champion", which didn't happen until 1903. Furthermore, I don't even really see why having this "country-wide" champion would be necessary for the dead-ball era anyway. The dead ball era is about specific characteristics of gameplay, not the organization of leagues. Do you have any evidence of radically different styles of play existing in different leagues? Using the graph in the article, you can still see a noticeable drop-off in runs per game for the National League beginning around 1900, which would indicate that the balance of power had indeed swung toward pitchers at this time. So if this drop-off in production marks the beginning of the dead-ball era, then what "era" came prior? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.142.66.240 (talk) 17:27, 28 July 2009 (UTC)

I believe you just answered your first question; there was a sharp dropoff in runs around 1900. The second question violates the Wikipedia guidelines for a talk page: "Do not use the talk page as a forum or soapbox for discussing the topic. The talk page is for discussing improving the article." I suggest you use a more appropriate forum. Torria78 (talk) 22:51, 28 July 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.142.66.240 (talk)

Nadir?

I would take issue with the passage;"The nadir of the dead ball-era was around 1907 and 1908". In my opinion, it was just a different style of baseball, not necessarily worse or better. Some pundits at the time thought Babe Ruth's increase in home run production might destroy the game.Orsoni (talk) 04:39, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Merger Proposal

I am proposing merging the article Baseball in the 1900s into this one, because that article seems to overlap entirely with this one, is less well-written and has fewer citations. Dpf90 (talk) 20:05, 23 May 2010 (UTC)

I agree that this article is better written and has more citations, however the other article is so sparse, I see little benefit from merging the two articles. The term "Deadball Era" would seem to be an established part of baseball lore and deserves it's own article.Orsoni (talk) 10:26, 1 June 2010 (UTC)

Yeah I see where you're coming from with that. Baseball in the 1900s more or less a redundant content fork of this article. I've proposed it for deletion. Dpf90 (talk) 01:53, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

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