Born in 1876, major league baseball was still a changing teenager in 1893 when the rules were altered more than usual and lots of noise was made. This last “major” change of the game manifested most strongly in 1894, but actually took place the prior year, in 1893; when instead of pitching the ball from behind a fifty foot line, the pitcher had to keep his back foot on a rubber slab sixty feet six inches from home plate. The resulting five or six foot lengthening of the pitching distance sent the offense through the roof for a few years, dwarfing the subsequent steroid years. Five players batted over .400, with Hugh Duffy leading with the still unsurpassed .440.In a short time things returned to "normal."

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