Expert: Tom Schott - 6/21/2005

Question
I know that the height of the pitcher's mound was changed in 1969, but what I would really like to know is who was the pitcher that made the MLB change the height of the mound and what his ERA was at the time?

Answer
Frank,

 Good question. It was a combination of things that happened in 1968 that drove the bozo owners to lower the mound. Recall, too, that we're just another 3 years from the abomination of the designated hitter in AL, also a spinoff of the supposed domination of pitching that was happening at the time. Several marvelous pitching performances took place in 1968: first of all, Bob Gibson led the NL in ERA with 1.12 for the year, while in the AL Luis Tiant had the best ERA with 1.60. 1968 was the year that Denny McLain won 31 games for Detroit. Couple this with the fact that Carl Yazstremski led the AL in hitting in 1968 with only a .301 average (NL leader Pete Rose hit .326), and you have a prescription for owner panic. Any true baseball fan loves excellence in any phase of the game, and he knows that there's an ebb and flow to the seasons. Any true baseball fan loves excellent pitching, pitching duels, defensive games. The rubes and casual fans are the ones who think baseball is about balls flying over the fences all the time. But the bozo owners are interested in only one thing: $$$. And if messing with the guts of the game like the size of the mound will bring more bucks, they'll do it.

Tom