I think it is a combination of improved strength training, some bat technology advances and mostly performance enhancing drugs. Steroids have the most profound impact on activities that rely on strength. Hitting home runs, more than any other aspect of baseball, stands to benefit the most from increases in strength. While improved training, more professionalism, better coaching and video analysis will all help, they should lead to advances in pitching, batting and fielding, and as such should not give batting/home run hitting a disproportionate advantage in recent times. Lets face it - Baseball does not have ANY random drug testing. Cliff Floyd was recently quoted as saying he believed 40% of players used steroids. To exclude drugs as a leading cause of the increase in home runs is laughable. Just another reason to get disenchanted with baseball.
Barry Bonds is the greatest baseball player I have ever seen. He doesn't like journalists. Bobby Knight is the greatest basketball coach I have ever seen. He doesn't like journalists. Larry Bird is a might fine basketball player. He doesn't like Bill Laimbeer. If Bill Laimbeer were a journalist . . . . . . Do you see the pattern.
1987 was the year people started talking about a juiced up baseball. McGwire and Andre Dawson both hit 49 that year.
yeah...and there was a year in there where Eric Davis was on a really good pace and the attention towards the long ball started heating up, if i remember right....
I think the homerun issue has a lot of factors involved. The strike zone for example is much smaller than it used to be called. The padding the players wear which Barry Bonds is still wearing even though Bob Watson assured everyone that his new rule would be enforced... what a joke. You take that big ass elbow pad away from Barry and we'll see if he's still standing on the plate after he gets nailed with a couple fastballs. Players just aren't afraid of getting hit like they should be. Then there are the bats which have tiny tiny bat handles which makes them so much lighter. If you look at the bats that old time sluggers used they look like logs compared to today's bats. Then there's the ballparks where nearly every park has had it's fences brought in a lot plus you have the Coors factor that screws up statistics royally. You could even talk about the 5 man rotation. Think of all the crap pitchers who would get few innings if we had 4 man rotations. Of course the weight training is also significant because pitchers can't improve from it like hitters can. No pitcher is going to start throwing 110 because of weight training. Plus nobody cares about striking out any more. Strikeouts are higher than they've ever been. When Roger Maris hit 61 he struck out 67 times in 590 at bats which would be totally unreal for a power hitter today. It used to be that when you had 2 strikes you tried to make contact but that's not the case anymore. Homerun records are completely meaningless to me right now.
I don't understand why other players thinking Barry Bonds is a jackass would make people not respect what he has done as a player. Has Bonds broke the law? Has he assaulted somebody? Has he beat his wife? Has he trashed a teammate? Has he done anything wrong other then be short to the media?
Am I seriously the only one who thinks steroids are a major contributing factor to the homerun increase or am I on everyone's ignore list?
Hell, Brady freakin' Anderson hit 50 in '96; his next highest season total is 24. Wonder who has the biggest drop-off all-time?
He does it again! I know its happening on regularity now, but Barry Bonds just hit a 2 run walkoff homer in the 10th inning to beat the Padres 3-1.
Was i trying to start a thread for each one, no. I just figured the title was appropriate considering it was a game winning shot.
Even though he hasn't hit one tonight, Berkman is only two back. Just throwing in some Astro optimism there.
