The ball is regarded as having been juiced up then. The 173 is great, of course, but consider that in 1930 Hack Wilson set the major league record (which still stands) of 190 rbi. Keep in mind also that the slider had not been developed; pitchers had only the fastball, curve and change-up. The slider didn't come along until about 1946. Carl Hubbell was special because he threw a screwball (which, as you know, breaks the opposite way from a curve), but almost no one else did.
Interesting. Never knew the balls were juiced. I knew about the dead ball era, I knew about the "high mound" era, I knew about the "juiced" steroid era, I just never knew about the "juiced ball" era
Look at that crazy Yankee Stadium set up in left field. Today, there still is a small section that juts out and outfielders have to be aware of the unpredictable caroms that come off of it. But what I'm seeing in the video is a crazy cut out in left field (12:25 on the video).
As you may know, Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia has a cut in the left center field wall. There have been a few inside the park homers on balls caroming off it past the center fielders.
Looking at the Yankees video, it appears you could launch a home run into the cut out stands. But if you hit it too well, the ball could come down beyond the stands and into the left field warrning track by the wall and still have the ball in play. I could be wrong about that, but that's what it looks like to me.
Then I misunderstood your post, which is my fault. Citizens Bank has a wall segment in left center with a 90 degree angle from the rest of the wall. But what you're saying is quite different.
That is the most striking thing to me too. These are working class people for the most part. Sometime around 1960 the world completely changed.
Formal type of dress for public events and public gatherings was commonplace into the 1960s. Any viewing of older video coverage illustrates that. With the rise of consumerism and the great cultural changes that occurred in the 1960s and 1970s, dress requirements became more casual. Also , you started to see the development of team sports merchandise clothes which really has exploded over the last 3 or 4 decades. As someone who worked in the corporate environment for 40 + years where suits were required until maybe 15 years ago, I appreciate the more relaxed style of dress. I dont care for wearing suits/ties etc.
My late Dad told me about still wearing a suit to Giants games at Yankee Stadium.
I have a collection of plays by Clifford Odets written in the 1930s. In one, a character expresses surprise that another is "going into the street without a necktie." When I was in junior high school and high school in the New York public schools in the early to mid-1960s, I was required to wear a necktie every day. Male undergrads at Harvard were expected to wear neckties into the early 1970s. We're now in a world where, to quote the Cole Porter song, "anything goes."
My father, uncle and their friends used to go to Yankee Stadium in the 40's and 50's as kids/teenagers. Bleacher creatures. I wish I had asked him about this and how they dressed. I bet it was JUSSSST a bit different in the bleachers back in those days compared to how it is now.
