Pitches in the Dirt

[waveball]

I was watching a Rangers-Orioles game from the late 1980s a few weeks ago on
ESPN Classic and noticed one thing in particular. In stark contrast to today's game, where hitters ask the umpire to throw out every pitch in the dirt, I didn't see one
instance where players asked the umpire to do this. Does anyone know when this
switch occurred and any possible reasons behind it? I realize that pitches in the
dirt could become scuffed and give the pitcher a possible advantage, but why
didn't hitters in the past request that these balls be tossed?

[Old Sweater]

My guess is that it just wasn't the norm in the 80's. Now before the death of Ray Chapman in 1920 you played with a ball until you lost it or wore out. Give a pitcher a new ball back then and they blackened it up right away so the batter had a hard time seeing it, which many believe caused the death of Chapman.