Yup, that's how they do it

[SWC75]

Baseball change may reduce MLB offense in 2021 season

Multiple sources confirmed to The Athletic the ball’s construction will change slightly.

theathletic.com

I have always believed that the owners, who knew a strike was coming because they were going to force it, had the laces on the ball tightened for the 1994 season to hype offensive numbers and kept it that way for years after the strike to maintain and regain fan interest after the negative reaction to their strike. And they've allowed people to believe that it was all due to players taking steroids to cover up their responsibility for the strike. The Mitchell Report list is full of guys who thought they could get talent out of a needle and didn't become superstars. I read an article years ago claiming that an insider had told the author that baseball had the laces progressively tightened for a succession of season it increase offense, then they would suddenly loosen them so they could lower player salaries because their numbers went down. Then they would begin to tighten them again.

 

[Newhouser]

I am shocked that the owners and MLB would do such a thing. It was all the fault of those rogue players taking steroids.