In baseball, it’s said, the frame of the game
Comes down to pitching, so experts proclaim.
On The Field of Dreams the moundsmen hold sway –
Historically that way since Doubleday.
With exploding fastballs, sliders that zip,
Knucklers that wobble, curve balls that dip,
The pitcher’s advantage is hard to refute,
Just ask any hitter, you’ll get no dispute.
Cy Young was the first to bolster the rule,
Won 500 games—was from the “old school.”
Later Mathewson, Johnson, Ryan, and Grove,
Fueling discussions around the “Hot Stove.”
One short vignette to buttress the case …
Hubbell’s performance, Chicago the place.
Fanned Ruth, Gehrig, Foxx – his screwball, you know –
Simmons and Cronin, all five in a row.
Fast forward three decades, Sixty-Eight the year,
When pitchers excelled in hurling the sphere.
Outstanding swingers lost much of their glitter –
“Yaz” was his league’s only .300 hitter.
In all major phases “hill” dominance prevailed.
Batters flailed – and failed – solid contact curtailed.
Case in point, the Cards Bullet Bob Gibson
Whose game E.R.A. was just over one.
Out west among the Dodger winnings
Drysdale threw zeroes, 58 plus straight innings.
And for total triumphs, Denny McLain,
Whose 31 wins had teams wishing for rain.
At season’s end, a decision profound –
To lower the height of the pitching mound?
The “Moguls” ruled that it had to be done,
Five inches later the batters had won.