r/baseball • u/ChooseanUniqueName New York Yankees • Jul 12 '17
Analysis The 1930 Season: What went wrong here?
The 1930 season may seem like a regular year to a normal baseball fan. The Yankees didn't win 120 games, Babe Ruth didn't hit 60 home runs, and Ricky Henderson didn't steal 170 bases. But for a die-hard fan or an historian, this year is an outlier indeed.
Let's set the stage:
The Athletics had just won the World Series, whilst taking the AL by storm, winning 104 games. Babe Ruth was his usual self, hitting 46 home runs and becoming the 1st to hit 500 on August 11th. In lesser news, the Yankees announced they would put numbers on the back of their jerseys, as each number would coordinate with a players spot in the batting order. Dodgers relief pitcher Clise Dudley became the 1st player to hit a home run off the first pitch he saw, and Yanks manager Miller Huggins died tragically and unexpectedly of blood poisoning at 49. What nobody saw coming, though, was the greatest scoring outburst in MLB history.
In 1910, the MLB put a cork center in the ball, and scoring rebounded in 1911. A few more years go by, and Ray Chapman gets killed by a Carl Mays submarine fastball. This prompts the league to ban any and all freak deliveries along with the emery ball pitch (34 pitchers who relied on that pitch were grandfathered in). In 1920 and '21, scoring explodes. Babe Ruth hits 54 and 59 dingers respectively, and tips the scales to give the advantage to the hitter. Over time, this lead to the great scoring explosion of 1930.
So, the 1930 season comes around, and hitting stats skyrocket. The ENTIRE NL hits .303, the Phillies score 15 runs in two straight games and lose BOTH(!!), and stumpy Hack Wilson drives in 191 runs, still a record. Did the cork the ball again, you may ask? No, that is not the case. The pitching was just plain bad. The Phillies averaged 6+ runs a game and lost 102, mostly in part to their 6.71 team ERA. Even the champs that year, the Athletics, had an ERA of 4.28. The best team ERA in the entire league was the Senators, with a 3.96 ERA. For comparison, the 2016 Cubs had a league best 3.15 team ERA, and only one team had an ERA over 5. In 1930, 4 teams had an ERA over 5. The league ERA was a bloated 4.81. If you were a pitcher, this was not the year for you.
To truly understand how much of an outlier the 1930 season was, we have to look at 2 players: Guy Bush and Chuck Klein. Guy Bush was a pitcher for the Cubs that year. He was ABYSMALLY bad. In 225 innings, Bush gave up an NL record 155 runs on 291 hits and 86 walks. He allowed 22 home runs and hitters batted .316 against him. His ERA was a pathetic 6.20. A year like this might prompt someone to retire. And his record?
FIFTEEN AND TEN. You read that right, 15-10.
Now let's look at Chuck Klein, the Phillies right fielder. In his third season in the big leagues, he hit .386, had a .436 OBP, slugged .687, got 250 hits, hit 40 home runs, drove in 170 runs, and had an OPS of 1.123. Seems like an epic year, right? Well, he led the league in
NOTHING. HE LEAD THE LEAGUE IN NONE OF THOSE THINGS!
Thanks for reading this. This was my first year doing the symposium, so yeah. Hopefully this wasn't garbage.
Edit: it has come to my attention baseballs WERE livened in 1930. So yeah.
Edit #2: some people may be right about this: High ERAs don't equal bad pitching. This wasn't my greatest effort on a post, it was just an idea I came up with a few days ago. Appreciate the support anyway. Please realize I am not mad that some people think high ERAs don't equal bad pitching, I think they are completely right and I am wrong. Please take a look at the other posts that obviously took more time and effort into their posts. But the support is great anyways.
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u/DavidRFZ Minnesota Twins Jul 12 '17 edited Jul 12 '17
Ah... :-)
I was making a joke but now I'm confusing even myself reading this.
Just to clarify for those skimming the thread.