The dead-ball era is a baseball term used to describe the period between 1900 (though some date it to the beginning of baseball) and the emergence of Babe Ruth as a power hitter in 1920. The dead-ball era refers to a period in baseball characterized by extremely low-scoring games; in fact, it was the lowest-scoring period in major league baseball history. Using major league statistics, the dead-ball era started in about 1903, and continued to 1918. A common misconception about the dead-ball era is that it was due to a scarcity of home runs. However, home runs were also rare in the 1890s—a very high run-scoring decade. The lack of scoring in general during the dead-ball era, however, underscored the lack of home runs in the game at that time.