Baseball has seen many different eras pass through its history. Two of those eras were the Dead Ball Era and the Steroid Era. Two completely different eras with completely different results. Here we will examine the lasting effects of the Dead Ball Era and the Steroid Era.
This article is part one of a two part series examining two of the most important eras in the history of the great game of baseball. Part two will solely examine the Steroid Era, which contrary to some people around baseball, is still going on with the suspension of Manny Ramirez.
The game of baseball has been America’s past-time for many, many, many years and it will continue to be far into the future. As long as there are enough people interested in playing, coaching, and running this great game of baseball then it will remain a constant in American culture.
Baseball has continued to grow in other countries across the world as well. It is still having trouble latching on in Canada but has seen huge growth in Latin America, Japan, and even Australia. Where baseball goes from here is decided by the people who are involved with its everyday operations.
The Dead Ball Era
This was, in my opinion, one of the most interesting Eras that baseball has ever been through. Each and every day pitching was at a premium and a constant. Rarely did you see teams putting up 10 runs every couple of games. Runs were hard to come by. Home runs were hard to come by. Babe Ruth’s 54 home runs in 1920 were more than every other team (except for the Yankees-his team) and the Philadelphia Phillies. Entire teams didn’t total the number of home runs Ruth hit in a season. That’s quite a feat!
How dead was the Dead Ball Era? In 1927 Ruth totaled 60 home runs. Those 60 home runs were 14 percent of the home runs hit by his entire league.
Pitchers dominated, flat out dominated in the Dead Ball Era.
The Dead Ball Era, unlike The Steroid Era, brought us daily pitching duels-by the handful. It also brought us starting pitchers who would pitch 9, 10 or even 11 innings at a time and then pitch again on one or two days rest. The thought of having a closer or a set-up man was irrelevant.
Pitchers were the iron-men of the game long before Cal Ripken, Jr. came around. They were the reason that there had to be changes made to the game, because they just flat out dominated hitters to the point of frustration.
Roger Angell wrote an essay titled “The Distance.” The essay was about Bob Gibson and his tough-to-get-along-with personality. In it Angell also discusses the reasons as to why the Dead Ball Era ended and why hitters began their emergence as the premier player in the game.
One reason the Dead Ball Era disappeared was that the pitcher’s mound was lowered so it could be closer to the ground and allow the hitters a better chance at the plate.
The Dead Ball Era quickly disappeared and baseballs began flying out of stadiums all across the country.
Blowouts are fun to watch, especially if it is your team putting up 15 runs, but sometimes I am in the mood to see a good-old pitching duel from start to finish. Rarely do baseball fans even see pitching duels in the minor leagues. Baseball has changed considerably since the Dead Ball Era, so much that it has gone through a Steroid Era and now a Post-Steroid Era.
Baseball will forever be America’s Past-time but one can’t look at the sport without seeing some glaring problems. One of those problems has been the use of steroids by minor and major league players to better their individual stats.
The Steroid Era
Even though steroids brought new life to the game of baseball in terms of revenue and returning fans to stadium seats, it also single-handily almost destroyed the sport that we all love so much.
Once the home run became a popular part of the game, players began to hit them at astronomical rates, in turn grabbing the attention of fans nationwide. The home run race of 1998 will forever be remembered as the sole reason for the rebirth of baseball as America’s most favorite sport. Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa put on a home run spectacle that summer and fans loved it.
As baseball exited the steroid era it became clear that the use of those performance enhancing drugs was looked at as cheating, especially by the higher-ups of the league.
The Mitchell Report was released in December, 2007 and the ramifications weren’t as disastrous as many thought they would be. Fans are still paying 40 dollars or more for tickets, are still voting in record numbers for the 2009 All-Star game and are still spending millions of dollars on MLB merchandise.
Steroids ruined the game of baseball in one sense–its purity. Records have been broken and reset by players who used HGH and steroids to enhance their ability and to hit balls harder, farther and more often. Baseball’s purity is in the process of being restored now that the steroid era has come and gone to an extent.
With the massive influx of young players into the game today, the majority of whom don’t juice their bodies, baseball is becoming more popular than ever not only in America but in countries all throughout the world.
Steroids will more than likely be an ever present part of sports in our world today. Major League Baseball and the National Football League are trying desperately to change the rules and regulations on performance enhancing drug use in their respective leagues and Major League Baseball is the organization that is having the most success with their drug testing and their substance abuse policies.
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Jim is the creator and editor of At the Dish, Cinn City Sports, Life with Tony and Enzo and owner of JAVFreelancing. He coached baseball for five years, three at his former high school (Holy Cross in Delran, NJ) and two at prominent Division III program Rowan University in Glassboro, NJ as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator. He has worked for the Courier-Post in Cherry Hill, NJ; Metro Networks in Bala Cynwyd, PA; and was the play-by-play announcer for the Camden Riversharks of the Independent Atlantic League of Professional Baseball for two seasons (2007-2008) on Rowan Radio 89.7 WGLS-FM, the student-run radio station at Rowan University. Jim earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications and minor in Journalism from Rowan University in 2008. While in school he was the Assistant Sports Director at WGLS for two years and the Sports Director for one year. He also covered the football, baseball, softball and both basketball teams for the school newspaper 'The Whit.' Jim lives in New Jersey with his wife Nicole, sons Tony and Enzo and dog Phoebe. He can be reached at jimvassallo@mlbdrafts.com.
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