A Possible Contributory Factor To the Offensive Explosion in 1930!

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A Possible Contributory Factor To the 1930 Offensive Explosion!

Over the years, I’ve written numerous times about the offensive explosion that occurred in 1930. There has never been a season in modern baseball history to match the offensive bombardment of this year. We all know that the 1920s were a decade of increased offense due to the livelier ball, the banning of the spitball and other trick pitchers, and the offensive evolution of the game due to Babe Ruth’s emergence as the “Sultan of Swat.” But none of that can account for what happened in the single year of 1930. Try as I may, I’ve never been able to come up with a satisfactory explanation.

The massive hitting that year resulted in scores that looked more like football scores than baseball scores. Just to give an example, consider Cub pitcher Guy Bush. He pitched 225 innings that year and gave up an all-time National League record of 153 runs on 291 hits, 22 home runs, and 86 walks. Opponents batted .316 against him. His ERA was 6.20.

With stats like that, what do you think Guy Bush’s record was for the year? Are you ready for this? Fifteen wins and ten losses!! And he wasn’t the only one with lopsided numbers: Ray Kremer of the Pirates won 20 games in 1930—and had an ERA of 5.02!

Here’s a few of the offensive quirks recorded in the remarkable year of 1930. Never before or since has baseball seen such a barrage of offensive numbers:

• The batting average in all of baseball that year, including pitchers, utility men, and defensive guys, was .294. The National League as a whole hit .303 (so if you hit under .303, you were below average!); while in the American League, it was .288. Nine of the 16 major league teams averaged over .300. Seventy-eight major leaguers hit .300 or better.
• Both leagues set new highs in home runs, doubles, and runs scored. The Yankees became the first team in history to score over 1,000 runs—an average of nearly seven per game. On the road, they racked up 591 runs—almost eight runs a game!
• The Cubs’ Hack Wilson (see featured photo) had one of the greatest offensive years ever recorded. He set a new National League record with 56 home runs, and a major league mark with an incredible 191 runs batted in that has never been broken.
• Bill Terry’s 254 hits tied the National League mark set by Lefty O’Doul. He became the last National League player to hit over .400.
• The Giants as a team hit .319, the highest ever recorded by one team in modern history. 
• Boston Braves’ Wally Berger set rookie records (since broken) with 38 home runs and 119 RBIs.

  

An article I came across recently may offer at least a partial explanation for this offensive onslaught. I discovered that on July 12, 1931, ninety-four years ago yesterday, the Cubs and the Cardinals played a doubleheader to an overflow crowd at Sportsmen Park, with spectators allowed to stand in roped-off areas in the outfield. According to the account I read, “routine fly balls became ground-rule doubles when the ball landed among the fans ringing the outfield walls.” (1)

Nothing particularly new here (we read similar accounts from games as far back as the Deadball Era)…that is, until I read this next:  

After collecting nine two-baggers in the opener, the Cubs and Cardinals combined to hit another 23, including a record 13 by the Redbirds, in the nightcap, setting a major league mark of 32 doubles in the twin bill. (2)

Thirty-two doubles in a doubleheader?? That’s unheard of! I checked the box score of this game to verify what I read. Sure enough, I found that in the second game of this doubleheader, the following players were all credited with hitting three doubles: Gabby Hartnett, Woody English, and Gus Mancuso. Numerous players had two. The biggest beneficiary of all was the Cardinals’ Rip Collins, with four of these “dubious two-baggers” over the two games.

Now this got me thinking: How prevalent was this ground-rule double rule? Think how this one lopsided game alone contributed to inflated statistics. What if there were many games played with this rule in effect? What would that do to batting averages? Specifically, we need to know exactly how many routine fly balls were turned into ground-rule doubles the previous year, 1930. Has anyone ever researched this? Was this practice routine, and, if so, could this at least partially account for the inflated 1930 batting averages?

In 1931, the year this game I’m citing was played, there were some modifications made to the ball to counteract the offensive explosion; for example, the seams on the ball were raised slightly to improve the pitchers’ grip. As a result, averages fell to a more normal range. But apparently, the ground-rule doubles rule was still in effect, as the box score of this game attests.

I’m not saying that this “dubious doubles” rule was responsible for all the offensive anomalies from 1930, but I’m offering it up as at least a partial contributing factor. Hopefully, someday someone will do extensive research on this topic.  

Gary Livacari 

Information: Excerpts edited from “The Online Book of Baseball,”  and from article by George Bryson,” What Happened to the Hitters in 1930,” in the book, “The 24-Inch Home Run,” Quotes (1) and (2) from the National Pastime, This Day in Baseball History website, July 12, 2025. 

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