1 00:00:00,240 --> 00:00:02,000 Speaker 1: The Day in History Class is a production of I 2 00:00:02,080 --> 00:00:14,960 Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class, 3 00:00:15,280 --> 00:00:18,640 Speaker 1: a show that runs the basis of history every day 4 00:00:18,640 --> 00:00:23,000 Speaker 1: of the week. I'm Gabelusier, and today we're taking a 5 00:00:23,040 --> 00:00:26,840 Speaker 1: closer look at the worst kept, dirty secret of America's 6 00:00:26,920 --> 00:00:37,960 Speaker 1: favorite pastime. The day was February tenth, ninety the Major 7 00:00:38,040 --> 00:00:42,800 Speaker 1: League Baseball Rules Committee officially banned the spit ball, pitch, 8 00:00:43,880 --> 00:00:48,000 Speaker 1: known by many colorful nicknames, including the spitter and the 9 00:00:48,080 --> 00:00:52,040 Speaker 1: wet one. Throwing a spitball was a common technique used 10 00:00:52,040 --> 00:00:56,000 Speaker 1: by pitchers in the early days of baseball. It involved 11 00:00:56,040 --> 00:00:59,840 Speaker 1: coding part of the ball with a foreign substance, usually saliva, 12 00:01:00,200 --> 00:01:04,160 Speaker 1: in order to gain an advantage on the mound. Sometimes 13 00:01:04,240 --> 00:01:06,959 Speaker 1: the spit was used to reduce the friction between the 14 00:01:06,959 --> 00:01:10,600 Speaker 1: pitcher's fingers and the ball, causing it to slip out 15 00:01:10,600 --> 00:01:13,559 Speaker 1: of his hand with less spin than a regular pitch. 16 00:01:14,280 --> 00:01:17,120 Speaker 1: In other cases, the spit was used to change the 17 00:01:17,160 --> 00:01:21,680 Speaker 1: aerodynamic properties of a baseball. Applying spit to one side 18 00:01:21,680 --> 00:01:25,479 Speaker 1: of a ball changed its wind resistance and weight, affecting 19 00:01:25,520 --> 00:01:29,080 Speaker 1: how it behaved in the air. When thrown correctly, a 20 00:01:29,200 --> 00:01:32,560 Speaker 1: spit ball would drop straight down as it flew, causing 21 00:01:32,600 --> 00:01:34,600 Speaker 1: the batter to hit the top part of the ball 22 00:01:34,680 --> 00:01:38,520 Speaker 1: on a swing, resulting in a grounder. The result of 23 00:01:38,560 --> 00:01:42,960 Speaker 1: that tactic was fewer home runs and more low scoring games, 24 00:01:43,400 --> 00:01:47,960 Speaker 1: characteristics that came to define early twentieth century baseball, earning 25 00:01:47,960 --> 00:01:53,000 Speaker 1: it the nickname the dead ball era. Nobody knows when 26 00:01:53,000 --> 00:01:55,880 Speaker 1: the first spit ball was thrown or who threw it, 27 00:01:56,160 --> 00:01:58,440 Speaker 1: but it's been in use since at least the early 28 00:01:58,520 --> 00:02:03,800 Speaker 1: nineteen hundreds. George Hildebrand of the Brooklyn Superbus is known 29 00:02:03,840 --> 00:02:07,080 Speaker 1: to have experimented with the technique in nineteen o two 30 00:02:07,320 --> 00:02:09,359 Speaker 1: and may have been the first to use the pitch 31 00:02:09,400 --> 00:02:12,800 Speaker 1: in a Major League game two years later. He's also 32 00:02:12,960 --> 00:02:16,640 Speaker 1: said to have shared the trick with several other spitball pioneers, 33 00:02:16,880 --> 00:02:21,160 Speaker 1: including Frank Coridon and Elmer Stricklett, who in turn taught 34 00:02:21,160 --> 00:02:25,840 Speaker 1: it to others. Despite the name, not every spitballer used 35 00:02:25,840 --> 00:02:30,880 Speaker 1: saliva to make their pitches less predictable. Other slick substances 36 00:02:31,000 --> 00:02:36,560 Speaker 1: used to doctor baseballs included, but weren't limited to mud, petroleum, jelly, 37 00:02:36,760 --> 00:02:41,400 Speaker 1: and hair products like palmade. The first pitchers to depend 38 00:02:41,480 --> 00:02:44,919 Speaker 1: heavily on the spit ball were Jack Chesbro of the 39 00:02:44,960 --> 00:02:49,000 Speaker 1: New York Highlanders and Ed Walsh of the Chicago White Sox. 40 00:02:49,639 --> 00:02:52,480 Speaker 1: They made good use of it, too, becoming the only 41 00:02:52,560 --> 00:02:55,800 Speaker 1: American League pitchers to ever win forty games in a 42 00:02:55,880 --> 00:02:59,720 Speaker 1: single season. Their success led other pitchers to try out 43 00:02:59,800 --> 00:03:03,239 Speaker 1: this bitball themselves, and by the nineteen tens it was 44 00:03:03,320 --> 00:03:07,640 Speaker 1: common practice, for better or worse. The ethics of the 45 00:03:07,720 --> 00:03:11,320 Speaker 1: spit ball were always up for debate, as rules dating 46 00:03:11,320 --> 00:03:15,000 Speaker 1: back to the eighteen nineties had prohibited players from defacing 47 00:03:15,160 --> 00:03:19,800 Speaker 1: or otherwise damaging the ball. Some believed that included covering 48 00:03:19,800 --> 00:03:23,799 Speaker 1: a ball with spit, but plenty of others disagreed. At 49 00:03:23,800 --> 00:03:26,840 Speaker 1: any rate, the only penalty for an illegal pitch was 50 00:03:26,919 --> 00:03:30,440 Speaker 1: a five dollar fine, and even that was rarely imposed. 51 00:03:31,160 --> 00:03:35,160 Speaker 1: The ambiguity of the rule and its lax enforcement enabled 52 00:03:35,200 --> 00:03:38,360 Speaker 1: the rise of spit balling, but the arguments against it 53 00:03:38,440 --> 00:03:42,760 Speaker 1: began to multiply as time went on. One obvious complaint 54 00:03:42,960 --> 00:03:45,720 Speaker 1: was that it was unsanitary to throw around a ball 55 00:03:45,840 --> 00:03:50,040 Speaker 1: coated in saliva. In nineteen o seven, a Cleveland doctor 56 00:03:50,200 --> 00:03:53,280 Speaker 1: raised alarm by claiming a link between the pitch and 57 00:03:53,320 --> 00:03:57,720 Speaker 1: a recent rise in tuberculosis cases. His concern was taken 58 00:03:57,800 --> 00:04:00,920 Speaker 1: much more seriously a decade later, when the deadly flu 59 00:04:01,040 --> 00:04:06,800 Speaker 1: epidemic of eighteen began to rage. Another charge leveled against 60 00:04:06,800 --> 00:04:09,440 Speaker 1: the spit ball was that it put too much strain 61 00:04:09,560 --> 00:04:12,240 Speaker 1: on a pitcher's arm and could do serious damage if 62 00:04:12,320 --> 00:04:15,520 Speaker 1: used too often. In the end, though the spit ball 63 00:04:15,680 --> 00:04:20,359 Speaker 1: wasn't banned because it was unsanitary, unfair, or dangerous. The 64 00:04:20,440 --> 00:04:23,159 Speaker 1: real reason it was outlawed was to make the sport 65 00:04:23,240 --> 00:04:26,440 Speaker 1: more exciting for the fans and more profitable for the 66 00:04:26,440 --> 00:04:31,400 Speaker 1: team owners. Spectators were tired of low scoring games where 67 00:04:31,400 --> 00:04:34,120 Speaker 1: the only wins came from hit and run plays and 68 00:04:34,279 --> 00:04:37,920 Speaker 1: stolen bases. Doing away with the spit ball and other 69 00:04:38,040 --> 00:04:41,279 Speaker 1: so called freak pitches was a way to inject some 70 00:04:41,440 --> 00:04:44,960 Speaker 1: much needed excitement into the games, generating more of the 71 00:04:45,000 --> 00:04:49,520 Speaker 1: fly balls and home runs that crowds craved. With the 72 00:04:49,560 --> 00:04:52,600 Speaker 1: support of the majority of team owners, it was decided 73 00:04:52,640 --> 00:04:55,440 Speaker 1: that the nine twenty season would be the last year 74 00:04:55,560 --> 00:04:58,080 Speaker 1: in which the spit ball would be allowed on the field. 75 00:04:58,720 --> 00:05:02,600 Speaker 1: After that, any player caught defacing the ball with saliva 76 00:05:02,880 --> 00:05:05,800 Speaker 1: or anything else would be expelled from the game, with 77 00:05:05,880 --> 00:05:11,080 Speaker 1: the possibility of further suspensions. However, in a surprising show 78 00:05:11,080 --> 00:05:16,599 Speaker 1: of Diplomacy, seventeen spitball pitchers were grandfathered in as an exception. 79 00:05:17,279 --> 00:05:19,880 Speaker 1: They were all players who had made their career on 80 00:05:20,000 --> 00:05:22,839 Speaker 1: throwing doctored pitches and who wouldn't have had much of 81 00:05:22,880 --> 00:05:26,680 Speaker 1: one without them. Out of respect for their livelihood, that 82 00:05:26,839 --> 00:05:31,400 Speaker 1: handful of players, dubbed the bona fide spitballers were allowed 83 00:05:31,440 --> 00:05:33,960 Speaker 1: to continue throwing the pitch for the remainder of their 84 00:05:34,000 --> 00:05:37,480 Speaker 1: time in the league. The last player who was legally 85 00:05:37,480 --> 00:05:40,560 Speaker 1: allowed to throw a spitball was Burly Grimes of the 86 00:05:40,600 --> 00:05:43,960 Speaker 1: Pittsburgh Pirates. He used the pitch to help defeat the 87 00:05:43,960 --> 00:05:48,280 Speaker 1: New York Giants on September tenth, four, and then retired 88 00:05:48,400 --> 00:05:52,440 Speaker 1: ten days later. From that point on, the spit ball 89 00:05:52,520 --> 00:05:56,159 Speaker 1: has been completely illegal in Major League Baseball, though that 90 00:05:56,279 --> 00:05:59,640 Speaker 1: hasn't kept some pitchers from throwing it anyway. One of 91 00:05:59,680 --> 00:06:02,520 Speaker 1: the most famous players to admit to using the dirty 92 00:06:02,560 --> 00:06:05,600 Speaker 1: pitch was gay Lord Perry, a star pitcher in the 93 00:06:05,680 --> 00:06:10,000 Speaker 1: nineteen seventies. Throwing spitballs and making the batter think he 94 00:06:10,080 --> 00:06:13,280 Speaker 1: was throwing spitballs were a huge part of his pitching style. 95 00:06:13,920 --> 00:06:17,560 Speaker 1: Perry leaned hard into that reputation too, even going so 96 00:06:17,600 --> 00:06:21,080 Speaker 1: far Is to name his memoir Me and the Spitter. 97 00:06:22,080 --> 00:06:25,760 Speaker 1: Despite his lack of subtlety, though, Perry wasn't ejected from 98 00:06:25,760 --> 00:06:28,400 Speaker 1: a game for using the spit ball until his twenty 99 00:06:28,440 --> 00:06:32,400 Speaker 1: one MLB season. Even then, he came right back the 100 00:06:32,440 --> 00:06:35,479 Speaker 1: next year for a final season, and was later inducted 101 00:06:35,480 --> 00:06:39,200 Speaker 1: into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Other players who have 102 00:06:39,279 --> 00:06:42,080 Speaker 1: been caught doctoring balls in different ways have been met 103 00:06:42,120 --> 00:06:46,640 Speaker 1: with similarly minor punishments. In recent years, however, Major League 104 00:06:46,640 --> 00:06:49,920 Speaker 1: Baseball is cracked down on the use of prohibited substances 105 00:06:50,000 --> 00:06:54,760 Speaker 1: on baseballs. Beginning in one Pitchers who violate the rules 106 00:06:54,839 --> 00:06:59,919 Speaker 1: now faced ten games suspensions. That harsher punishment is unlikely 107 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:02,839 Speaker 1: to end the practice entirely, but I guess if you've 108 00:07:02,920 --> 00:07:06,920 Speaker 1: got to do something better the baseball than the players, 109 00:07:12,240 --> 00:07:15,760 Speaker 1: I'm gay Bluesier and hopefully you now know a little 110 00:07:15,760 --> 00:07:19,640 Speaker 1: more about history today than you did yesterday. You can 111 00:07:19,720 --> 00:07:23,520 Speaker 1: learn even more about history by following us on Twitter, Facebook, 112 00:07:23,560 --> 00:07:27,960 Speaker 1: and Instagram at T D I HC Show, and if 113 00:07:28,000 --> 00:07:30,160 Speaker 1: you have any feedback you'd like to share, you can 114 00:07:30,160 --> 00:07:32,880 Speaker 1: get in touch any time by writing to This Day 115 00:07:33,160 --> 00:07:37,000 Speaker 1: at I heart media dot com. Thanks to Chandler Mays 116 00:07:37,080 --> 00:07:39,440 Speaker 1: for producing the show, and thanks to you for listening. 117 00:07:39,800 --> 00:07:42,440 Speaker 1: I'll see you back here again soon for another day 118 00:07:42,680 --> 00:07:43,720 Speaker 1: in history class.