Spitting on Diamonds: A Spitball Pitcher's Journey to the Major Leagues, 1911-1919

Spitball n., an illegal pitch in which a foreign substance (spit or Vaseline) is applied to the ball by the pitcher before it is thrown.

Dead ballera n., a time period during baseball, usually regarded as 1900-1919, when the game used a "dead" or almost soft ball during play. Usually, the same ball was used for the entire game.

In 1911, when Bradley Hogg began his major-league pitching career for the National League’s Boston Rustlers, baseball wa…