I’m not going to do the per at bat math, but in pure numbers, Aaron himself hit more home runs in the five year period from ages 35-39 than in any other five year period in his career.
So I did it for you – and you’re absolutely right. Only 1957, 1962-3, and 1966 are even close to what Aaron did from 1969 through 1973:
Year Ag HR HR/AB
1954 20 13 0.0278
1955 21 27 0.0449
1956 22 26 0.0427
1957 23 44 0.0715
1958 24 30 0.0499
1959 25 39 0.0620
1960 26 40 0.0678
1961 27 34 0.0564
1962 28 45 0.0760
1963 29 44 0.0697
1964 30 24 0.0421
1965 31 32 0.0561
1966 32 44 0.0730
1967 33 39 0.0650
1968 34 29 0.0479
1969 35 44 0.0804
1970 36 38 0.0736
1971 37 47 0.0949
1972 38 34 0.0757
1973 39 40 0.1020
1974 40 20 0.0588
1975 41 12 0.0258
1976 42 10 0.0369
Another interesting tidbit I missed until after I posted that: from 1969 on, Aaron never had more strikeouts than walks in a season (except for 1976, when he was 42 years old and definitely done). Prior to that, he’d only had three seasons out of fifteen when he didn’t have more strikeouts than walks – though he never had more than 100 Ks in a season, he came very close several times. Just to net it out:
BB K
Before 1969 866 991
1969 and after 536 392
Good work. Still, I think Aaron’s increase looks less marked, and was followed by a sharp decline from age 39 to the end of his career. Bonds is sustaining or improving in HR/AB - 2004 was his best year except for '01.
Cool, thanks. I’ve always thought that the comparisons of the numbers of home run hitters to Aaron at various points in their career was nonsense, due to the great finishing kick Aaron had. I never considered that someone would come along with an even greater finishing kick.
Yes, but players today are in far better shape than those 30 years ago (or at least a lot of them are, Barry in particular), and they have the ability to concentrate on baseball to the exclusion of everything else. Even someone like Hank Aaron had to work in the offseason in those days, whereas Barry has never had to have a job other than playing baseball. He’s able to spend the entire offseason working out, and his workouts are probably better designed for improving/maintaining important baseball skills than whatever jogging or tossing a medicine ball guys did 30 years ago. Anyway, Aaron continued to improve up until he was the age Barry is now – his 1973 season at 39 years old was also the best of his career in terms of HR/AB. And as I pointed out before, his plate discipline from age 35 - 39 was much better than during the earlier part of his career (not that it was bad before). The parallels with Barry are fairly striking when you begin to look closely. Aaron did decline sharply after that – but whether that’ll happen to Barry remains to be seen – I doubt it, for the reasons above.
Thats not true. The stronger you are the quicker a bat you have which means you hit more balls.
I am not saying all of Bonds’ improvement is from steriods, its possible that he both took steriods and became a better hitter through practice. The fact still remains is that he got very large very quickly and is connected to a source of steriods in Balco.
You raise some good points there, rackensack. Still, Aaron was a big-time home run hitter for his whole career. Bonds wasn’t. Something changed dramatically beteen 2000 and 2001 for Bonds, and it reflects in his stats and his body.
Bonds may well be on steroids, but I don’t think there’s anyone else on earth who could put up the numbers he’s putting up, no matter what drugs they took. Heck, for all we know, it’s quite possible that most of the other superstar sluggers are taking the same drugs as Bonds, and not coming close to his level of performance.
That’s all true also, but I don’t see how it affects the issue… if everyone is cheating, it doesn’t make him less of a cheat. It’s very likely he IS naturally as good as, or better than, everybody else. If he’s using steroids to augment that, he remains a cheater.
Bonds has been in the top 5 in HR every year since 1990, with the exception of 1991, 1998, 1999. He was 9th in 1998 (1 more would have put him in a tie for 6th), hurt in 1998 (still only 2 HR out of the top ten), and just missed the top 10 by 1 in 1991. Bonds has clearly been a ‘big-time HR hitter’ his whole career.
Granted, his numbers did jump from 2000 to 2001, but I tend to agree with what rackensack and Suburban Plankton have already said.
To anyone who wonders why Barry Bonds isn’t loved, the answer lies as much in the things he DOES say as in the things he doesn’t say. It’s not just that he refuses to speak to the press- it’s that he says a lot of stupid, offensive things on the rare occasions when he DOES! Barry Bonds is not just a surly introvert who’d prefer not to deal with the public- he’s a bitter, angry black man who views EVERYTHING through a racial lens.
Read over the Skip Bayless column the OP cites. Bonds obviously HATES Babe RUth (a man he never met) and speaks gleefully about erasing him from the record books. Now, IF Bonds had said similar things about Henry Aaron, I’d respect him. It would sound arrogant, but I respect ANYBODY who says “I want to be the best of all time. I want to hold every record. I want everyone to know I’m the best who ever played.” But Barry DOESN’T want to be the best ever- he just wants to be better than the most famous WHITE player!
This is typical of how Barry thinks. Not long ago, when he was asked what kind of monument he envisioned be raised for him, he snapped back “There ain’t gonna be any monument for me. I’m black. They don’t put up monuments for black guys.” This idiot drives past a huge monument to Willie Mays on his way to work every day, but he STILL has the nerve (or sheer ignorance) to say that!
He also rails frequently against the “white media” who he claims have treated him in an “un-Christian manner.”
Now, fans and reporters have never loved Bonds, but neither have they ever failed to give him his due. He’s gotten all the MVP awards he deserved, and the fans have always voted him onto the All-Star team. So, Bonds CAN’T complain about the way the press or the fans have dealt with him. Even people who don’t like him have always given him the credit he’s earned for his accomplishments on the field. But there’s no law anybody has to like him. Indeed, he’s gone out of his way to make sure almost nobody does.