Burleigh Grimes, the last man to legally do it
February 9, 1920: Baseball's National Commission -- then consisting of National League President John Heydler, American League President Byron Bancroft "Ban" Johnson, and Cincinnati Reds owner August "Garry" Herrmann -- votes to outlaw a set of actions that results in what had been known as "trick" or "freak" pitches, which fell under the unofficial category of "spitballs."
Ever since, there has been a perception that baseball outlawed such pitches in the wake of Carl Mays hitting Ray Chapman in the head with a pitch on August 16, 1920, causing Chapman to lose consciousness, and die the next day. Certainly, it would have been the right thing to do, had it not already been done. But the ban actually came before that.
There were other notable rule changes that took effect for 1920:
* Fly balls hit over the fence along the left and right-field lines will be judged fair or foul according to where the ball passes the fence. Previously, umpires would judge based on where the ball landed. On June 25, the rule reverted to the 1919 version, which is based upon where the ball disappears from view. The rule would re-revert to the 1920 version before the 1928 season began.
* When a batter hits a ball over the fence to win the game, he is now credited with a home run. Previously, the batter would be rewarded with only the number of bases needed for the team to win the game and were not considered home runs. In other words, if a game was tied in the bottom of the 9th inning, and a runner was on 2nd base, and the batter hit the ball fair and over the fence, since only 2 bases were required to drive the winning run home, the batter was only credited with a double (and an RBI). From this point onward, it would go into the books as a home run (and the batter would also get RBI credit for driving himself home).
* A balk was to be called if the pitcher releases the ball while the catcher is out of his box.
* The failure of a preceding runner to touch a base would not affect the status of a succeeding runner.
* Cases where the defense intentionally allows the runner to advance without attempting to put him out are scored as "defensive indifference," and do not count as stolen bases. The lack of a putout attempt does not, by itself, indicate defensive indifference; the official scorer must also factor in the game situation and the defensive players' actions.
But the biggest change was the outlawing of the trick pitches. The term "spitball" implies that a pitcher spit on the ball. That's not usually how it happened. Usually, the pitcher would lick his fingers, and then grip the ball, so the moistness would cause it to drop just before it reached the plate, like what would now be called a hard sinker.
Other "foreign substances" would be used on the ball, such as tobacco juice (chewing tobacco was all too common for players, especially pitchers, even into the 1980s, and many died from cancer as a result), Vaseline or some other petroleum product, or resin (not to be confused with rosin, from the rosin bag on the pitcher's mound). Some would damage the ball, including "scuffing" it with an emery board: The emery ball was common in the early 20th Century. Some would just rub the ball in the dirt on the mound. These actions became known as "doctoring" the ball.
But all this did more than just make the ball drop or curve sharply. Sometimes, it would make the ball rise, or come inside and hit the batter. Or, worse, both rise and hit the batter, sometimes in the head. And when there was dirt on the ball, turning a white ball brown, or some sort of gunk on the ball, making it an even darker color, that made it hard to see, especially later in the day when the Sun sank in the sky. It's this reason that led later observers to see the year, "1920," and presume that the rule was put into place after Chapman's death. The ban happened before.
If a ball was found to be doctored, the pitcher and the ball would both be thrown out of the game, and the pitcher then fined and suspended. And, while a pitcher blowing on his hand to warm it up during a game in cold weather was allowed (and still is), if an umpire thought he saw a pitcher stick his finger in his mouth, the umpire would automatically call a ball. For a 2nd offense, a warning. For a 3rd offense, ejection from the game, and a 10-game suspension.
Detroit Tigers center fielder Ty Cobb, the best player of the era, in one of his many "Old man"/"Get off my lawn" pronouncements, complained in his autobiography, "Freak pitches... were outlawed when the owners greedily sold out to home runs." Indeed, fewer sharp-breaking pitches and easier-to-see balls did give rise to what became known as the Lively Ball Era. Cobb kept on hitting until his retirement in 1928, though, never batting as low as .323 until his last season.
Cobb wasn't the only one who objected to the rule change: Many pitchers did, claiming the spitball was their best pitch, their "money pitch," their "bread and butter." So 17 pitchers were "grandfathered in," allowed to continue using it: Ray Fisher, Doc Ayers, Ray Caldwell (all retiring after the 1921 season), Phil Douglas (1922), Dana Fillingim, Dutch Leonard, Allen Russell (all retiring after 1925), Marv Goodwin (who died right after the 1925 season), Allen Sothoron (1926), Dick Rudolph (1927), Urban Shocker (died of heart trouble late in the 1928 season), Hall-of-Famer Stan Coveleski (1928), Bill Doak (1929), Clarence Mitchell (1932), Hall-of-Famer Urban "Red" Faber and Jack Quinn (1933), and, finally, Hall-of-Famer Burleigh Grimes (1934).
Although Carl Mays was known to throw the spitball, he was not one of the pitchers "grandfathered in," and he did not rely on the pitch after the ban. And no player is known to have publicly complained about having to face any of the 17 pitchers after the ban.
In March 1955, Commissioner Ford Frick advocated for the return of the spitball, telling a sportswriter, "If I had my way, I'd legalize the old spitter. It was a great pitch, and one of the easiest to throw. There was nothing dangerous about it." Despite his enthusiasm, the team owners didn't vote on it, and the pitch remained illegal.
After 1934, a few pitchers were accused of throwing doctored balls, including Claude Passeau of the 1940s Chicago Cubs, Hugh Casey of the 1940s Brooklyn Dodgers, Preacher Roe of the 1950s Brooklyn Dodgers, Early Wynn of the 1950s Cleveland Indians and Chicago White Sox, Lew Burdette of the 1950s Milwaukee Braves, and Don Drysdale of the 1960s Los Angeles Dodgers.
One pitcher who ended up making the Hall of Fame admitted it: Gaylord Perry. In 1975, he published an autobiography, Me and the Spitter. He claimed to have used Vaseline, but wouldn't say where he hid it. He would also fake hitters out by wiping the sweat off his face, and off his brow, leading some people to think he kept the Vaseline on the brim of his cap. "Just the idea that batters think I'm throwing the spitter when I might not be helps me," he said. "Some of 'em worry more about whether I'm throwing it than about hitting it."
Only once was he ever caught on the field, in 1982, at the age of 44, having already joined the 300 Wins Club and the 3,000 Strikeouts Club, and having become the 1st pitcher to win the Cy Young Award in both Leagues, and, at the time, the oldest pitcher to win the Cy Young.
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February 9, 1920 was a Monday. Baseball and football were out of season. Professional basketball barely existed. And the NHL had no games scheduled. So there were no scores on this historic day.
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