Atlanta Braves Morning Chop: history and importance of the double play
MLB Numbers
The major league record for double-play prowess (again – all of this is for games of 9 innings or fewer) is seven DP’s in a single game: Houston did this in 1969 against the Giants, winning 3-1.
16 times have 6 DP games come about, with Houston on this list twice on defense and once on offense.
The thing I’m curious about is the history and the time periods:
- Of the 6+ DP games (17), only 1 of these came before 1966.
- Of the 5 DP games (182), 40 of these came before 1966.
- Of the 4 DP games, 1079 came after 1966; only 365 prior to that.
It’s evident that double plays in general are up sharply in the most recent 50-ish years of the 112 years that we have data for.
The question, then, is “why?” Is it about better fielding, slower runners, more runners on base to get doubled-up, or what?
Better Pitches?
The guess here is that it could be related to the advent of pitches designed to induce ground balls more often: the sinker, the palm ball, the forkball, the split-finger/splitter… whatever variation and whatever name you wish to call it, the intent is the same.
The splitter was said to be “invented” in the 1970’s (a bit late for the data spike, but possible). The forkball had been around for a lot longer than that (1920s!).
The palmball (a.k.a. the ‘slip pitch’) came into common use in the mid-1960’s, though an NL MVP used in in 1950. The sinker also came onto the scene in roughly that same era… though it allegedly took some time for pitchers to figure out how to execute the pitch on a consistent basis.
All of this may have also helped to bring the era of the strikeout into being in addition to the double play as hitters were facing more pitchers with more ‘stuff’ options – moving pitches intended to miss bats or generate weaker contact.