Today in Baseball / Baseball Shorts: No More Bouncing Home Runs

Today, ninety years ago, the rules committee made an important decision that would cut down the number of home runs in baseball.

On this day in 1930, the rules committee decided that a ball that bounces into the stands will no longer be a home run but will become a ground-rule double. Babe Ruth’s total of round-trippers would have reduced by about twenty-two “dingers.” It was estimated that major leaguers who played in the era before the rule change hit about two homers a year that bounced over the wall.

One can wonder how many of Babe Ruth’s 714 home runs would have been ground-doubles if this rule would have been in place when he started his career.