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Permalink Reply by terrier8HOF on May 24, 2014 at 2:13pm

In 1991 Major League Baseball made the decision not to recognize two all time hr leaders. At that time roger maris was the holder of the single season record. Alone.
A season is a season. Period.
If you want to talk about unfairness in the game of baseball talk about the dh rule.
Baseball is a game of almost perfect balance. 90 ft bases. Any shorter or longer would not work. 60 ft 6 in. Same thing. Designed around the limitations of the normal human body. You have 1/10 of a second as a hitter to decide what the pitch is, where it's going, and whether or not you want to swing. Any chemical advantage upsets that balance.

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Permalink Reply by Steve on May 24, 2014 at 5:34pm

William, actually there is quite a bit of evidence that HGH improves reaction time. It also enabled older players, such as Bonds, to increase the speed of their swings. Players who were found to be using these substances are the only players their age who increased their bat speed as everybody else over the course of the past 50 years or so had the bat speed decrease. Aside from recovery time, the ability to work much harder and longer during a workout, the ability to gain muscle mass at a much faster rate, an advantage?

Permalink Reply by Randy on May 24, 2014 at 5:36pm

Every player ever to hit over 61 home runs has clearly been established as a steroid user and no player has approached that total since the steroid ban has been clearly enforced. Coincidence?

Permalink Reply by Dane on May 24, 2014 at 5:53pm

There are numerous studies, however, that indicate that hitting HRs are more about fast-twitch muscle fiber, anyway. Since genetic predisposition tends to determine the fast-/slow-twitch ratio, those whose bodies are predisposed to higher fast-twitch percentages would likely gain the most from steroid use, since the increase in muscle mass would decrease catastrophic tears, while allowing the players to still direct their swings at the same speed.

Steroids won't make someone without the ability to generate bat speed magically able to do so, however, it will allow someone who is capable of generating bat speed to increase their momentum imparted onto the ball. So, while the cream and the clear wouldn't have turned Derek Jeter into the next HR king, they would have allowed players with lollipop (fastball in the center of the zone) HR power to drive balls that would otherwise turn into popups, fouls, or hard grounders.

As much as I like Bonds, I know that he would never have been able to be the HR king without some sort of medical help, be that through surgical procedure or some type of chemical support. Mostly, I find it sad that someone who could have done something no one else would dream of (600 HR and 600 SB over a career) ended up being the pariah of the sport, thanks to MLB's "chicks dig the long ball" campaign glorifying all things HR, while ignoring the fact that the new power surge was clearly the result of PEDs.

And, yes, power pitchers used PEDs, too. The difference is that a pitcher using PEDs might increase flight path velocity of the ball, but it wouldn't be likely to increase rotational velocity imparted by the pitcher by a significant amount, unless the pitcher trained for a while on perfecting the wrist motion. As a result, pitch velocity increased, but location of those pitches were still in a part of the zone where batters could get to them.

An era dominated by power would see upticks in HRs and broken bats, coupled with overall lower BABiP numbers. The reason is that pitches that are contacted will be imparting more force on the bat, and the batter will have fractionally less reaction time to catch up to the pitch. However, those times when the bat is able to overcome the baseball's momentum, the bat's momentum would impart such strong force on the ball that it would have a greater chance of being hit hard.

The uptick in pitching injuries and overall pitching ability probably has two sources:

1) More training. Pitching year-round means prep pitchers have more experience today than in any recent era. It also means that they have more wear on their arms by the time they reach college and the pros.

2) PED use among prep pitchers. If we assume prep pitchers use PEDs to support their muscle structure due to the longer schedule in high school, it would stand to reason that once they hit the pros (where PED use is heavily scrutinized), they would no longer have PEDs to support regrowth of torn fibers, thereby increasing their chances of injury.

If MLB cared about the future of the game (meaning kids playing baseball), they would give high schools the resources necessary to implement stringent PED testing protocol during the amateur period of these students' (and future athletes') careers. Unfortunately, MLB won't do that, either for fear of violating the terms of their anti-trust exemption, or simply not wanting to take on that additional expense.

Permalink Reply by Steve on May 24, 2014 at 2:27pm

William, there is a difference between breaking a record based on the rules of the league (switch to 162 games from 154), then there is from cheating. There should be a 154 game record that is recognized, Ruth 60, and 162 game record , Maris 6. They should both be notated as Ruth should not be punished for having played when 8 less games were played. We could go on and on about how rule changes have had an effect on records, like in the early 1900's, they used to have something like 7 strikes for a strikeout and 10 balls for a walk. We could talk about the DH, turf, heavy flannel uniforms, quality of equipment, training and medical techniques, dietary knowledge, and the difference between travel now vs. travel on a train. It'
s all relative to the era, but cheating, that's a different story completely.

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Permalink Reply by Steve on May 24, 2014 at 5:35pm

I agree. This would be a great in person discussion. Too bad it has to be online.

Permalink Reply by Steve on May 24, 2014 at 2:29pm

He may not be the only one, but he was the first and that can never be taken away from him. Are you referring to blood doping?

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Permalink Reply by Mike Kaminski on May 24, 2014 at 3:05pm

The use of greenies really doesn't come up as often as it should

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Permalink Reply by Steve on May 24, 2014 at 5:42pm

"All being equal" rarely happens. Even NHL hockey arenas were not the same size until the last 20 years or so. The Boston Gardens had a smaller ice surface, less room behind the nets. NFL stadiums, indoor vs. outdoor, dealing with weather. Too bad there isn't a way to equalize the stats. Playing in New York when the monuments were on the filed, the Polo grounds at about 500 ft. to center, Ebbets Field with the short left field, Fenway for a lefty compared to a right handed hitter. We can only imagine what would have been if certain players played in different parks or in different era's. Or, for that matter if they had the surgical techniques they do now when Mantle played.

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