Omniverous seems to have been hot on the trail for some time, so I
shall just contribute my own two cents with some findings and thoughts
and defer to Omniverous.
I shall be standing by on deck to pinch hit if called for.
Vitalmed-ga
Balldom, 2nd edition is shown at:
http://www.basehit.net/ItemView.asp?PartNo=1542
Balldom was also published by the Balldom Publishing Company, in
Youngston, OH.
I would check the Pittsburgh Post, including the articles he wrote,
and any information that the newspaper can provide. I would also
inquire with the public library in Pittsburgh as a source for the
paper and archival information about it. The library may even have its
own file regarding George, as a matter of local interest.
Following is a 1908 item from Sporting Life pertaining to Moreland:
To Help Batsmen (Sporting Life, 1908)
Pittsburg, September 22.--Claiming that the foul strike rule, as
interpreted today, is interfering with good batters of both leagues,
George L. Moreland, the well-know base ball statistician of Pittsburg,
will appear before the Committee of Rules of the major leagues the
coming winter and submit an amendment to the rule, which if adopted he
thinks will go far toward improving hitting. His idea is to have a
line drawn parallel with the foul lines just six feet outside, and a
drive which lands between these two lines shall not be scored as a
strike against the batsman. Mr. Moreland said , in explaining the
diagram tonight: "The foul strike rule was made for the purpose of
preventing scientific batsmen from making the game look foolish by
fouling off all the good balls. It was never meant to handicap the
real hard batter, who does his best to hammer the ball out hard, and
who often hits what would have been good for three bases had it been a
few inches further in, but the best he gets out of this honest effort
is a strike called on him. My idea now is to begin at third base and
draw a line parallel with the foul line only six feet outside clear to
the fence. Do the same on the first-base side of the field, and call
every ball which lands inside those two lines neither foul nor strike,
but a dead ball. This will give such batters as Lajoie, Donlin, Cobb,
Leach, Crawford, Wagner, Lumley, and Lobert a better chance. My idea
is that the foul-strike rule was made for those who intentionally
fouled off balls. There can be no intent to foul if a ball is driven
beyond either first or third base before hitting the ground. So my
idea would not interfere with the real intent of the foul-strike rule
and would encourage batting." --Joe Murphy
The origins of the baseball journal can be traced to 1914, the year
George Moreland created Food for Fans, a sheet of statistics. In it,
Moreland, who was also the author of Balldom, a seminal baseball
record book, offered readers insights into and analyses of the
contemporary baseball scene. |
