The Inside the Park Home Run

[DOUGHBOYS]

One of the best things about our game is the history of it all. How baseball has evolved through the years.
The pointless conversations of who is the greatest player in baseball history. Or who is the best pitcher.
In our own minds, we KNOW who the best was and we have the stats or stories to prove it.
In the mean time, our game rolls on.
Ever-changing, ever-evolving.

I'd like to go way back in baseball time. To a time where fences in a baseball park were not the last line of defense, as they are now in baseball.
The dead ball era.
A time when owners underpaid players and thought that more than one ball a game was an extravagance.
A time when most players washed their own uniforms.
And bought their own bats and cleat's.
And players had to find jobs to augment their 'Love of the Game'.

There were no such thing as a 'home run hitter'. The players that did hit an occasional ball over a fence, was no more revered than any other player.
Frank Baker earned the name 'Home Run' Baker because he hit more home runs over the fence than most.
Statistics show us that Baker never hit more than 12 homers, of any kind. in any year and finished his career with less than 100 home runs.
This alone, illustrates how few balls were hit over the fence during the dead ball era.

I use the words 'of any kind' in giving Baker's home run stats.
This is because they did have home runs rarely seen today, the inside the park home run.
Before getting to the inside the park's, let's set the scene.
Most ball parks were enormous in size.
Center field could be as far as 500 feet before seeing a fence. Some parks had fences so far from the plate that fans were allowed to sit up against the fence on the field.
The Polo Grounds and other parks had fences close in down the lines, but would veer to a virtual and literal no man's land in the middle.

Outfielders being the last line of defense would not charge the ball as we see today. They would wait for the ball, making sure it was secure, in not getting by them. The charging of the baseball by outfielders had its roots in the negro leagues who played with a lot more pizazz than what was being played in the American and National Leagues.
If a ball was struck well to the middle of the field and found a gap, there was a good chance for an inside the park home run.

There was a trade off for inside the park home runs. Big galoots could hit the ball hard and sometimes past outfielders, but had a hard time running with consistent speed to make it all the way around the bases.
The smaller, faster players found it easy to run around the bases at top speed, but had problems muscling the ball past the outfielders.
For the fans, the inside the park home run was seen enough as to not be a novelty or even revered.
Mostly, it was just a part of the game as was the occasional ball over the fence.

Ty Cobb 'cheated' in being the all time leader in inside the park home runs by an American Leaguer.
Cobb is credited with 47 lifetime ITP homers.
A lot of these ITP homers were not a continuous dash around the bases.
Cobb was a 'heady' ball player and knew defensive characteristics.
When playing against a team loaded with young players, not wise to Cobb's style, Cobb would drive a ball past outfielders and seemingly coast into third base with a triple. He even had the third base coach in on his scheme in demonstrably putting up his hands in a stopping motion.
This usually resulted in the defense letting their guard down in getting the ball back into play.
As soon as a 'lollygag' was spotted by Cobb, he would make a mad dash for home...and be credited with a home run.

Inside the park home run statistics are hard to find. A lot of scorers back then, did not distinguish between the two types of home runs. Many writers and historians have had to comb through newspaper accounts and other means to find out what types of home runs were struck.
From those accounts, we now have a pretty good idea of how many and who hit the inside the park home runs.
There have been more than 1600 ITP home runs since 1900.
Most of those were from the dead ball era.
In the early 1900's, 35 percent of homers were not hit over the fence.
In 1901, there were only 454 total home runs.
In 1902, just 357.
But, baseball started to grow and get a larger fan base.
New stadiums started being built. Stadiums with fences at a more reasonable length.
By 1915, still in the dead ball era, the percentage of ITP home runs was down to 25 percent of all home runs.
In 1920, with the live ball era, ITP home runs were at only eight percent.
By 1930, three percent.
And since, they have become rarities or novelties that usually occur with mishaps by an outfielder or an unexpected caroming of the baseball.

Sam Crawford is the all time triples leader. It is no surprise that Crawford, at least unofficially also had the most inside the park home runs.
Crawford is credited with 51.
Crawford also holds the mark for most hit in one year.
Crawford was helped by playing in THE inside the park...uh...park.
In 1901, there were 50 ITP homers in Crawford's home Cincinnati Redlegs park.
He, alone, hit 16 homers that year. 12, inside the park. The unofficial record.

Sam Rice, elected to the baseball Hall of Fame in 1963 played mostly in Griffith Stadium during his time in baseball.
Griffith Stadium, even during the times of the live ball, was still known as an ITP stadium.
Only Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, and Ted Williams, players who could hit the ball out any ball park, could hit home runs there.
Rice played at Griffith Stadium for 19 years and never hit a ball over the fence.
He did, however, hit nine inside the park home runs.

During the live ball era, ITP home runs were dictated by not how you play, but where a player played.
Forbes Field in Pittsburgh was a triples and ITP home run haven for players like Honus Wagner, Pie Traynor, Arky Vaughan, Max Carey, Tommy Leach, Paul Waner, and Kiki Cuyler.
In 1925, Cuyler hit eight inside the park homers. The most ever hit in the live ball era.
In 1928, he was traded to the Cubs and Wrigley Field.
His triples and ITP home runs diminished.
Cuyler learned to hit more balls over the fence and did hit 17 triples for good measure in 1930 at Wrigley.

Here are a few more statistics for those hitting, or not hitting, inside the park home runs....

Hank Aaron never hit an inside the park home run....

Rod Carew, the master thief of stealing home, only hit one inside the park home run...

Lou Gehrig had five and Babe Ruth had 10....

Willie Mays had seven....

Boog Powell, the older Boog Powell, had one. If anybody has that on film, I'd like to see it....

Brooks and Frank Robinson never hit an inside the park home run....

Most...Sam Crawford, 51...Tommy Leach, 48....Ty Cobb, 47