Alva Review-Courier -

Prior to the 1920s, major league baseball did not, in some ways, look like the game that is played a century later.

Unlike today, for example, players back then hit few home runs.

Baseball insiders have argued for decades about how “lively” or not baseballs have been at different times in the game’s history. Baseballs today travel farther and faster than they did in previous times.

In fact, fans of the sport often refer to the period from about 1900 to 1920 as the “dead ball” era because baseballs were much softer than they are now.

To use an analogy from another sport, imagine how much “livel...