44 years later...

[greymule]

It is indeed interesting to see how the game differed years ago. It seems that back before the 1970s the umps considered a checked swing to be anything other than an obvious, all-the-way-around cut. From the 1965 series, also note that the top of the zone was several inches higher. What was rightly or wrongly called "the letters" was a strike, and a fastball there from Koufax was practically impossible to hit.

Some people claim the last strike to Mickey Owen in Larsen's perfect game (1956) was high, but stop motion clearly shows that he offered anyway (at least by today's standards). From the 1959 series, I captured a stop-frame of Jim Landis obviously offering on a 3-2 pitch and then bringing the bat back. But again, ball 4 without a peep from the defense.

The umps also called strikes as quickly as possible, as if the goal was to get the arm in the air before the pitch hit the mitt. Immediate out calls, too, with a lot of reversals on dropped balls.

From the "old" days you will also see runners 10 feet out of the baseline throwing body blocks on infielders to break up double plays. From the 1940s, you see infielders throwing their gloves onto the outfield grass after the third out, too. And sometimes the catchers are practically standing straight up as the pitch is delivered, moving down only after the pitch is on the way.

And well into the 1960s the first-base ump often squeezed in between the coach and the bag, as if the best spot from which to call plays at 1B was two feet from F3.