A scene from “Unfinished Business”

Before Ruth, pitchers were taught to pace themselves, only bearing down when someone was on base. Now, there was a danger of a run being scored at any moment. They had to bear down from the first pitch to the last. Between 1910 and 1920, 8 different pitchers won 30 or more games in a season. In the seventy-odd years since the advent of Babe Ruth, there have been just three.