Quote:
Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards
I will eat my slice of humble pie.
Though I will also point out that the AL changed the rule prior to the 1929 season, which I found out by checking your assertion.
Sorry I jumped on you, even us know-it-alls can still learn something!
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LOL
Scott,
No harm, no foul. I honestly wasn't really aware of that late date for the rule change until very recently either. By the way, I didn't realize there was a difference in the Al and NL, so thanks for correcting me as well. I saw the 1930 date somewhere and it didn't register with me that the two leagues could have different start dates for that particular rule.
As noted in a different post in this thread, I mentioned that rule and inside-the-park home runs so no one would need to call me out and say Cobb probably hadn't hit all 5 over the fence, and therefore argue they weren't true home runs. I found it interesting in some research that a very large number of Cobb's homers were inside-the-park (ITP) ones. When he hit 12 homers in 1921, apparently 4 of those were ITP. What I found astounding though was that in 1909 Cobb won the Triple Crown and led the majors with 9 home runs, all ITP homers. I never knew that till just a couple days ago. That is an insane statistic.
So given Cobb's history, I pointed out about the ITP and bouncing over the wall homers so that people couldn't argue that the 5 he hit in two games may have been a fluke. Think about it, if say 3 of the 5 had been ITP homers, and maybe another one had bounced over the fence, that would have left only one true homer hit out of the park. That would honestly make it look like pure dumb luck he had so many all at once then. But all 5 on a fly, over the fence, means they weren't a fluke and he must have done something those two days to hit that many homers all at once. They still talk today about how some players will consciously change their swings to elevate the ball and go for more homers, and how it can sometimes really screw up a hitter and their ability to get on base. They say they'll often strike out more or sometimes go into slumps where they seem to just pop or ground out all the time as well then. Thing is, that hitting part of the game hasn't really changed that much, but Cobb just suddenly doing what he did lets you know he must have consciously changed something with his swing those two games to hit all those home runs. There really is no other plausible explanation for it.