average , slugging average , and an earned run average (ERA) under 2.40. In the latter year, the Chicago White Sox hit three home runs for the entire season, yet they finished 88–64, just a couple of games from winning the pennant. Some players and fans complained about the low-scoring games, and league officials sought to remedy the situation. In , Ben Shibe invented the cork-centered ball, which the Reach Company—official ball supplier to the American League—began marketing. Spalding, Reach's parent company which separately supplied the National League, followed with its own cork-center ball. The change in the ball dramatically affected play in both leagues. In , the American League batting average ; in 1911, it rose . The National League saw a jump in the league batting average in 1910 in . The season happened to be the best of Ty Cobb's career; he with 248 hits. Joe Jackson in 1911, and the next year Cobb . These were the averages between and . In , however, minor league pitcher Russ Ford noticed that a ball scuffed against a concrete wall quickly dived as it reached the batter. This so-called emery ball, together with the spitball, gave pitchers greatly increased control of the batter, especially since a single ball—rarely replaced during a game—would become increasingly scuffed as play progressed, as well as more difficult to see as it became dirtier. By run scoring was essentially back to the pre-1911 years and remained so until 1919. In this era, Frank Baker earned the nickname "Home Run" Baker merely for hitting two home runs in the 1911 World Series; although he led the American League in home runs four times (1911–1914), his highest home run season was 1913, when he hit 12, and he finished with 96 home runs for his career. The best home run hitter of the dead-ball era was Philadelphia Phillies outfielder "Cactus" Gavvy Cravath, who led the National League in home runs six times, with a high total of 24 for the pennant-winning Phillies in and seasons of 19 home runs each in 1913 and 1914. However, Cravath played in the Baker Bowl, a notoriously hitter-friendly park with only a short distance from the plate to the right-field wall. Contributing factors The following factors contributed to the dramatic decline in runs scored during the dead-ball era: Foul strike rule The foul strike rule was a major rule