The Year Babe Ruth Hit 104 Home Runs

A source I read said that in the 1890s they firmed up the distance to 60’ 6" and added the pitching rubber and gradually as guys realized they could throw harder downhill, teams started to build pitching mounds on the sly to the point that MLB had to establish a maximum allowed height by the '20s.

This book was just silly. It gave him all those extra home runs for rules that were a disadvantage (and made up some)…but ignored ones like that ground rule doubles were counted as home runs until 1930. A payer hits far more ground rule doubles than home runs that hook around or hit the foul pole.

And while it concentrates on such things as the Polo Grounds’ deep center field, it ignores the same ball park’s extremely short dimensions down the base lines, which enabled pop fly home runs such as the one that won the first game of the 1954 World Series:

Other ball parks of the time also had dimensions that both worked for and against the hitter. For example, Cleveland’s League Park was essentially a mirror image of Fenway Park. It had a deep center and left center field, but it also had a close right field wall that favored left-handed hitters like Ruth.