As we have seen, inside-the-park (ITP) home runs – once quite common in baseball – have become rare occurrences.

When, for example, Alcides Escobar led off the first game of the 2015 World Series with an ITP homer it was the first one hit in the so-called “fall classic” in 86 years!

In contrast, nine such four-base hits had occurred in the World Series between 1903 and 1929. Likewise, many more regular-season ITP home runs happened in the early 20th century than today.

As we noted last week, Sam Crawford hit 12 of them in 1901; he also hit four homers that year that left the field, for a major...