Alex Rodriguez hits 600th home run

[Hawkeyeop]

@Really_Not_All_That_Bright

His numbers clearly dipped from 2004 on, 2007 notwithstanding - and it wasn’t his best year for home runs. He hit 57 in 2002.

Nothing a normal aging pattern wouldn’t explain.

[septimus]

@Marley23

And Babe Ruth was on sheep testosterone. And hookers. Lots and lots of hookers.

And Tiger Woods is already a legend almost as big as Babe Ruth.
… And many would pick JFK as the best President in a half-century.

Is there a lesson here?

[Munch]

@Really_Not_All_That_Bright

His numbers clearly dipped from 2004 on, 2007 notwithstanding - and it wasn’t his best year for home runs. He hit 57 in 2002.

What? His 2005 season was spectacular - probably his second best of his career, behind 2007. How do you say his numbers clearly dipped when his two best seasons were during that “decline”? As Hawkeyeop said - it’s nothing a normal aging pattern can’t explain.

As for comparing 57 HRs to 54 HRs…

1. That’s silly.
2. In 2002, A-Rod was hitting in the 5th easiest park to hit a HR in.
3. He was also 26 years old.
4. In 2002 he was in the AL West, in 2007 he was in the AL East. I hope I don’t have to explain the significance.
5. It’s a difference of 3 HRs.

[Yookeroo]

@Marley23

@Yookeroo

Were they? Were they a greater distortion than the color line? Do we have any idea just how much of an impact they had?

I’m not saying it’s objectively true, and it certainly had a much smaller effect than did the ban on black players. But I think there was a large blacklash against steroids in part because the history of the game and records and players people had cherished for a long time were suddenly being eclipsed by these guys who were juicing. Not that everybody who hit 50 home runs was an immortal, but when Brady Anderson did it and doubled his career high for home runs in the process, when the season record went from 61 to 70 to 73, I think people started feeling that something was very much out of alignment. I still remember the top of the home run chart used to look like this:

Aaron – 755
Ruth – 714
Mays – 660
Robinson – 586
Killebrew – 573

That’s three guys with 600 home runs ever, and in about 10 years four more guys have done it. Six guys have passed Killebrew. It’s not that this means anything objectively, but I do think people started feeling that these were video game numbers and it was going too far. That and a lot of lying, and sensationalist press coverage.

I understand that the people are feeling this way. But this issue is somewhat hysterical for very many. I find the claims of massive distortion overstated.

Before 1920, the number of players with 40 HR seasons numbered 0. A decade later there were half a dozen. Massive distortion?

[BlankSlate]

Well, this article by Joe Posnaski, for SI, that references this website is interesting.

Especially the “power surge” from 1976 to 1977 when MLB changed baseball manufacturers. As always, it’s hard to know what to think about the so-called steroid era.