Editing Major League Baseball (section)

===Dead-ball era===
{{Main|Dead-ball era}}
[[File:T205 Cy Young.jpg|thumb|upright|Cy Young, 1911 baseball card]]
The period between 1900 and 1919 is commonly referred to as the "dead-ball era".<ref name=":4" /> Games of this era tended to be low-scoring and were often dominated by pitchers, such as [[Walter Johnson]], [[Cy Young]], [[Christy Mathewson]], [[Mordecai Brown]], and [[Grover Cleveland Alexander]]. The term also accurately describes the condition of the baseball itself. The baseball used American rather than the modern Australian wool yarn and was not wound as tightly, affecting the distance that it would travel.<ref name=McNeil>{{cite book|last=McNeil|first=William|title=The Evolution of Pitching in Major League Baseball|year=2006|publisher=McFarland|isbn=0-7864-2468-0|page=60|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6ODvYhwnhn0C&q=deadball+era+yarn&pg=PA60|access-date=November 16, 2020|archive-date=July 1, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230701111718/https://books.google.com/books?id=6ODvYhwnhn0C&q=deadball+era+yarn&pg=PA60|url-status=live}}</ref> More significantly, balls were kept in play until they were mangled, soft and sometimes lopsided. During this era, a baseball cost three dollars, equal to ${{Formatprice|{{Inflation|US|3|1919|r=2}}}} today (in inflation-adjusted [[USD]]), and owners were reluctant to purchase new balls. Fans were expected to throw back fouls and (rare) home runs. Baseballs also became stained with tobacco juice, grass, and mud, and sometimes the juice of licorice, which some players would chew for the purpose of discoloring the ball.<ref name=Keating>{{cite news|last=Keating|first=Peter|title=The game that Ruth built|url=http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2006/05/07/the_game_that_ruth_built/|publisher=[[Boston.com]]|access-date=November 24, 2013 |url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110918184533/http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2006/05/07/the_game_that_ruth_built/|archive-date=September 18, 2011}}</ref>

Also, pitchers could manipulate the ball through the use of the [[spitball]] (In 1921, use of this pitch was restricted to a few pitchers with a [[grandfather clause]]). Additionally, many ballparks had large dimensions, such as the [[West Side Grounds]] of the Chicago Cubs, which was {{convert|560|ft}} to the center field fence, and the [[Huntington Avenue Grounds]] of the [[Boston Red Sox]], which was {{convert|635|ft}} to the center field fence, thus home runs were rare, and "small ball" tactics such as [[single (baseball)|singles]], [[Bunt (baseball)|bunts]], [[stolen base]]s, and the [[hit and run (baseball)|hit-and-run]] play dominated the strategies of the time.<ref>Daniel Okrent, Harris Lewine, David Nemec (2000) "The Ultimate Baseball Book", Houghton Mifflin Books, {{ISBN|0-618-05668-8}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=mAbGN_1cmhcC&pg=PA33&dq="inside+baseball" p. 33] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230701111641/https://books.google.com/books?id=mAbGN_1cmhcC&pg=PA33&dq= |date=July 1, 2023 }}.</ref> Hitting methods like the [[Baltimore chop]] were used to increase the number of infield singles.<ref>{{cite book|first=Burt|last=Solomon|date=1999|title=Where They Ain't: The Fabled Life And Untimely Death Of The Original Baltimore Orioles|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=0-684-85917-3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ooF5NtRmJbwC|access-date=April 8, 2019|archive-date=July 1, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230701112619/https://books.google.com/books?id=ooF5NtRmJbwC|url-status=live}}.</ref> On a successful Baltimore chop, the batter hits the ball forcefully into the ground, causing it to bounce so high that the batter reaches first base before the ball can be fielded and thrown to the first baseman.<ref name=Lieb>{{cite book|last=Lieb|first=Fred|title=The Baltimore Orioles: The History of a Colorful Team in Baltimore and St. Louis|year=1955|publisher=[[SIU Press]]|isbn=0-8093-8972-X|page=46|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BahcUaZZebYC&q=%22baltimore+chop%22&pg=PA46|access-date=November 16, 2020|archive-date=July 1, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230701112620/https://books.google.com/books?id=BahcUaZZebYC&q=%22baltimore+chop%22&pg=PA46|url-status=live}}</ref>

The adoption of the foul strike rule—in the NL in 1901, in the AL two years later—quickly sent baseball from a high-scoring game to one where scoring runs became a struggle. Before this rule, foul balls were not counted as strikes: a batter could foul off any number of pitches with no strikes counted against him; this gave an enormous advantage to the batter.<ref>{{Cite web |title=MLB Rule Changes {{!}} Baseball Almanac |url=https://www.baseball-almanac.com/rulechng.shtml |access-date=June 21, 2022 |website=www.baseball-almanac.com |language=en-us |archive-date=February 22, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210222190730/https://www.baseball-almanac.com/rulechng.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref>

After the [[1919 World Series]] between the [[Chicago White Sox]] and Cincinnati Reds, baseball was rocked by allegations of a [[game fixing|game-fixing]] scheme known as the [[Black Sox Scandal]]. Eight players—[[Shoeless Joe Jackson|"Shoeless" Joe Jackson]], [[Eddie Cicotte]], [[Lefty Williams|Claude "Lefty" Williams]], [[Buck Weaver|George "Buck" Weaver]], [[Arnold "Chick" Gandil]], [[Fred McMullin]], [[Swede Risberg|Charles "Swede" Risberg]], and [[Oscar "Happy" Felsch]]—intentionally lost the World Series in exchange for a ring worth $100,000 ($1,743,674.03 in 2024 dollars).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chicagohs.org/history/blacksox/blk3.html|title=History Files – Chicago Black Sox: The Fix|publisher=[[Chicago History Museum]]|access-date=October 26, 2013 |url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029184407/http://www.chicagohs.org/history/blacksox/blk3.html|archive-date=October 29, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=CPI Inflation Calculator |url=https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl |access-date=January 28, 2025 |website=data.bls.gov}}</ref> Despite being acquitted, all were permanently banned from Major League Baseball.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chicagohs.org/history/blacksox.html|title=History Files – Chicago Black Sox|publisher=[[Chicago History Museum]]|access-date=October 26, 2013 |url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140815042229/http://www.chicagohs.org/history/blacksox.html|archive-date=August 15, 2014}}</ref>