[Giants]

In the years between the Giants' arrival to San Francisco and the start of the steroid era (1993), there was only one year that baseball teams averaged more than one home run per game, and the typical average was about .75 to .80 home runs per game pre-1993. During the steroid era (roughly 1993 through 2002), average home runs per game increased from .72 in 1992 to 1.03 in 1994 and to 1.17 in 2000, tapering off to 1.04 in 2002 and 1.00 by 2008 and a post-'roids era low of 0.86 hrpg by 2014.  

The dirty little not-so-secret is that team home run per game averages crept back up reaching an astounding 1.39 per game in 2019, and were still 1.28 per game through last year. What is undeniable is that during the same period, strikeouts have been skyrocketing.  Pre-Sandy Koufax, strikeouts were 3.7 per team per game, then jumped to the high 5.8/5.9 range during the heydays of Koufax, Drysdale, Gibson and Marichal -- and they stayed there until the start of the same steroid era when batters began to go for broke, breaking the 6.00 K's per team/per game record in 1993, then breaking 7.00 K's per team/per game by 2010.  By 2016, team averages were more than 8 strikeouts per game, and this season, for the first time, team strikeout averages are more than 9.00 per game.

When they lowered the mound in 1969 after Gibson's 1.12 ERA, it was noted that 22 pitchers had sub-2.00 ERAs.  Any one of those 22 would have led the league in 86% of the prior seasons.  So, something had to be done.

Today, there has been talk of lowering the mound to return some advantage to the hitters, mandating defensive alignments away from the shift and the like.  So with this in mind, here's a few trivia questions:

1) In what year did baseball first introduce the pitching mound?
2) What effect did it have on number of strikeouts per game?
3) In what year did baseball move the pitching distance back to 60' 6" and what was the original distance?
4) Why are pitchers called "pitchers" and not "designated throwers" or any other term?

Bonus question: In 1927, the New York Yankees had the famed Murderers Row lineup. In how many of the major offensive categories did the Yankees lead the other American League teams?  How about pitching categories?

Extra bonus question: around this same time, Ty Cobb was managing the Detroit Tigers and ran across a pitcher with a unique pitch.  He advised the pitcher to get rid of the pitch and let him languish in the Detroit minor league system for a few years.  He later became a Hall of Famer for another team, a pitcher that Joe DiMaggio called the toughest pitcher he'd ever faced.  Who was that pitcher and what was the unique pitch?

The days of “you get one good pitch to hit each at-bat, make sure you hit it” have changed to “wait until you get a pitch you can hit for a home run or just strike out”. An exaggeration, of course, but the numbers Mick cited don’t lie, the game has changed substantially.

---

I thought that Joe D said that Satchel was the toughest he faced but he doesn’t fit the question.

What HOF pitcher is the only honoree with more career walks than strikeouts?

Early Wynn?

[Giants]

In the years between the Giants' arrival to San Francisco and the start of the steroid era (1993), there was only one year that baseball teams averaged more than one home run per game, and the typical average was about .75 to .80 home runs per game pre-1993. During the steroid era (roughly 1993 through 2002), average home runs per game increased from .72 in 1992 to 1.03 in 1994 and to 1.17 in 2000, tapering off to 1.04 in 2002 and 1.00 by 2008 and a post-'roids era low of 0.86 hrpg by 2014.  

The dirty little not-so-secret is that team home run per game averages crept back up reaching an astounding 1.39 per game in 2019, and were still 1.28 per game through last year. What is undeniable is that during the same period, strikeouts have been skyrocketing.  Pre-Sandy Koufax, strikeouts were 3.7 per team per game, then jumped to the high 5.8/5.9 range during the heydays of Koufax, Drysdale, Gibson and Marichal -- and they stayed there until the start of the same steroid era when batters began to go for broke, breaking the 6.00 K's per team/per game record in 1993, then breaking 7.00 K's per team/per game by 2010.  By 2016, team averages were more than 8 strikeouts per game, and this season, for the first time, team strikeout averages are more than 9.00 per game.

When they lowered the mound in 1969 after Gibson's 1.12 ERA, it was noted that 22 pitchers had sub-2.00 ERAs.  Any one of those 22 would have led the league in 86% of the prior seasons.  So, something had to be done.

Today, there has been talk of lowering the mound to return some advantage to the hitters, mandating defensive alignments away from the shift and the like.  So with this in mind, here's a few trivia questions:

1) In what year did baseball first introduce the pitching mound?
2) What effect did it have on number of strikeouts per game?
3) In what year did baseball move the pitching distance back to 60' 6" and what was the original distance?
4) Why are pitchers called "pitchers" and not "designated throwers" or any other term?

Bonus question: In 1927, the New York Yankees had the famed Murderers Row lineup. In how many of the major offensive categories did the Yankees lead the other American League teams?  How about pitching categories?

Extra bonus question: around this same time, Ty Cobb was managing the Detroit Tigers and ran across a pitcher with a unique pitch.  He advised the pitcher to get rid of the pitch and let him languish in the Detroit minor league system for a few years.  He later became a Hall of Famer for another team, a pitcher that Joe DiMaggio called the toughest pitcher he'd ever faced.  Who was that pitcher and what was the unique pitch?

The days of “you get one good pitch to hit each at-bat, make sure you hit it” have changed to “wait until you get a pitch you can hit for a home run or just strike out”. An exaggeration, of course, but the numbers Mick cited don’t lie, the game has changed substantially.

---

I thought that Joe D said that Satchel was the toughest he faced but he doesn’t fit the question.

What HOF pitcher is the only honoree with more career walks than strikeouts?

Early Wynn?