BALTIMORE CHOP

The 'Baltimore Chop' was a hitting technique used by batters during Major League Baseball's dead ball era. This technique was an important element of John McGraw's "Inside baseball". Popularized and named after the original Baltimore Orioles, the batter would intentionally hit the ball downward to the hard ground in front of home plate, resulting in a high bounce which allowed the batter to reach first base safely before a fielder could catch it.
To give the ball the maximum bounce, Baltimore groundskeeper Tom Murphy not only packed the dirt tightly around home plate, but mixed it with hard clay. Speedy Orioles players like John McGraw, Joe Kelley, Steve Brodie, and Wee Willie Keeler — who once legged out a double off a Baltimore chop — were the practitioners and perfectors of the hit.
The technique sometimes results accidentally when a batter swings over the ball and it catches the bat in modern baseball.

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★ Excerpt from the book ''Where They Ain't - The Fabled Life And Untimely Death Of The Original Baltimore Orioles'' by Burt Solomon at BaseballLibrary.com