- 2 days ago
May not be responsible, but they helped
IG: aj_mckenzie416
Twitter: AJMckenzie94847
IG: aj_mckenzie416
Twitter: AJMckenzie94847
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00:00Oh, it's on the line!
00:01It's five up there!
00:03Michigan can't take a timeout.
00:10No good.
00:12Line right.
00:20Hi everybody, I'm Brian Kenney, and welcome to ESPN Classics' Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame.
00:25From 1995 through 2002, there were as many 50 home-run seasons as in the preceding 100 years.
00:33Roger Maris' record of 61, which had lasted a generation, was eclipsed six times in just four seasons.
00:40Whispers of the use of steroids turned into widespread charges after an investigation into Balco and congressional hearings.
00:48Were some of the game's sluggers cheating? Were there other factors at play?
00:52Before we start our countdown of the Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame Steroids for the home-run explosion,
00:57let's examine why the performance enhancers are credited for the outburst.
01:03Breaking ball, and he hammers it to deep left field!
01:06This one is going to go into the upper deck!
01:10There's something universal about the home-run that people love.
01:12Well, chicks dig the long ball, they say.
01:15Back and forth! Back and forth!
01:17I tell me, I believe!
01:19The Giants love the power! The Giants love the power!
01:22People want to see power. That's what amazes people, is power.
01:27Long drive! Deep left field!
01:29The best hit! And the run!
01:33Oh!
01:34Home run is a knockout punch.
01:38There it goes! Long drive! If it stays fair, home run!
01:44It is the alpha and the omega.
01:48Swing it! It's gone! It's 7-15!
01:51We sit at the edge of our seats at baseball games until they're over,
01:56because at any moment, everything could be turned upside down.
02:02From Eckersley, Gibson, swings, and a prime ball to deep right field!
02:06I don't believe what I just saw!
02:09It's the bomb!
02:12It's the bomb!
02:14Although he didn't invent the bomb, the Sultan of Swat was the first player to use it with frequency.
02:20And baseball was never the same.
02:23The popularity of the home run...
02:25Before then, people only hit a home run when they had to.
02:31Or on accident.
02:33It goes back 80 years.
02:36I think when Babe Ruth changed the face of baseball by hitting home runs,
02:40by single-handedly out-homering other teams,
02:42that brought fans into the park.
02:44Ruth, in a lot of ways, created the home run.
02:47And the home run became this pivotal point in our mind
02:52as an incredible moment in baseball, in sports, as a metaphor for the country.
02:59Ruth's single-season record of 60 homers held for 34 seasons,
03:03when it was broken by Maris.
03:05And not until 1974 was the Babe's career total of 7-14 eclipsed by Hank Aaron.
03:12Other than Ruth, who did it four times,
03:14only 10 players hit 50 or more between 1920 and 1993.
03:20And they literally hit like super old-time Greeks,
03:23like Greenberg, Mayo, Mays.
03:28Who else was on their list?
03:31Jimmy Fox.
03:34Not when he's just...
03:36Regular guy can hit 50 home runs.
03:41Then, seemingly overnight, home runs began flooding the market.
03:46Before 1994, there was an average of two home runs per game
03:51in only one season in Major League history.
03:54Since 1994, there's been an average of two home runs or more per game every year.
03:59Sammy Sosa is the only player in the history of baseball
04:02to hit 60 home runs three times.
04:04Swap out, there she goes!
04:07In none of those seasons did he win the home run title.
04:10In 1998, the home run reached new heights,
04:14as Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa chased Maris' mark set 37 seasons earlier.
04:22Quick! And a shot into the corner!
04:24It might make it!
04:25There it is!
04:2662 votes!
04:27And we have a new home run champion!
04:33The breaking point, sort of, was the discovery of Andro in Mark McGuire's locker.
04:38And I guess at that point, you started to really question what was going on.
04:43While the words performance enhancers entered the national sports dialogue,
04:47the home run derby continued.
04:50He's done it again!
04:51McGuire broke Maris' record by hitting 70 homers.
04:55And three years later, in 2001, Barry Bonds surpassed Big Mac.
05:01Oh, it's in the right field!
05:03Put him back!
05:04He's listening to the world!
05:05There were no record homers!
05:08By the time Barry Bonds hit 73, you had to know.
05:13And if you didn't, you were really looking the other way,
05:15or you believed in Santa Claus still.
05:18Steroid use in baseball leaped on the media's front burner in 2004,
05:22when a federal investigation revealed that Balco,
05:26a California-based drug distributor,
05:28had provided performance enhancers to major league players.
05:32Then in 2005, a book by ex-slugger Jose Canseco
05:36blew the whistle on himself and others.
05:39Everyone was doing it.
05:4080% of the league was doing it, and growing.
05:44There's every evidence that enormous numbers of players
05:46were on steroids during this period.
05:49So that hangs over everybody who's in the period.
05:52Can you blame steroids for the power of them in baseball?
05:55More than anything else, without question.
05:57Because so many guys were using, baseballs were flying everywhere.
06:00It was just a huge, huge, huge, huge, huge factor.
06:02There are many aspects of the baseball game
06:05which can be impacted upon by steroids.
06:08First of all, home run.
06:09When lean body mass increases,
06:11back comes around with more acceleration,
06:13the ball goes further.
06:15Players were always going to look for that next edge,
06:17and I think that's where steroid use really became more prominent.
06:21Oh my gosh!
06:23The home runs were flying out of the park.
06:24If management is paying you to hit the ball out of the park,
06:27if they know you're taking steroids and winking at it,
06:31and by the way, the guys you're up against
06:33and the other team are doing the same kind of thing,
06:35you need to do it just to stay even and to keep up.
06:38Not since Pete Rose was accused in 1989 of betting on games
06:43had baseball come under such scrutiny.
06:45In March of 2005, Congress held hearings
06:49on the use of steroids in sports,
06:51requesting the testimony of several players.
06:54I have never used steroids, period.
06:59That summer, Palmeiro was suspended for using steroids.
07:04Rafael Palmeiro was the talk of baseball
07:06just a couple of weeks ago
07:07with hit number 3,000 of his career,
07:09but news of a positive drug test Monday
07:11could threaten his legacy.
07:13Clearly you can blame steroids for the home run explosion.
07:17It's been proven through grand jury testimony,
07:20through Balco investigation,
07:22through a book that has yet to have any libel problems.
07:27I think that the steroid scandal today
07:30is the biggest crisis,
07:31the biggest mess baseball has had to confront
07:35since the Black Sox scandal.
07:37I think you have to throw out all the home run records.
07:40I don't trust one of them.
07:41And not only that,
07:43but I think that they were put there
07:45with long-term, premeditated, coordinated cheating.
07:49The steroid scandal of the 80s, 90s, and today,
07:53I believe, will go down as the greatest scandal
07:55in baseball history, maybe in sports history.
08:03In 2005, Major League Baseball implemented stricter testing for steroids,
08:08though it did not include blood testing
08:10or testing for human growth hormone.
08:12Here now are some reasons that didn't make our top five.
08:15It's the best of the rest.
08:20The iPod technology has made hitters smarter.
08:24The more knowledge you have in hitting,
08:26the easier it becomes.
08:28I think the hitters today have an advantage because of technology.
08:31They can go in after every at-bat
08:32and look at the at-bats on video.
08:35Hitters can take every split-fingered basketball thrown in a game,
08:38break it down inch by inch by inch,
08:40see what they did wrong in their swing in that game,
08:42come back next time,
08:44and knock that splitter out of the ballpark.
08:45They've all got the physical talent,
08:48but if you can make yourself better mentally
08:50and know what's going to come in,
08:52you have a better shot at hitting it hard and far.
08:55All of the technology favors the hitter.
08:58They can make you hit the ball farther and hit the ball longer
09:01and obviously hit the ball out of the bar.
09:04This one's gone.
09:06Our other best of the rest.
09:09Power for profit.
09:10Owners, in an effort to restore the game's popularity,
09:13which fell after the strike in 1994,
09:17encouraged the proliferation of the home run.
09:19There's no question that Major League owners were complicit in this whole,
09:24let's get some more offense,
09:25let's get some more people in the stands,
09:27let's make some more money.
09:29Everything that could possibly be done to help hitters was done,
09:32just as in the 1930s during the Depression.
09:34Baseball said,
09:35we've got to jack this sport up,
09:36so you do it with home runs.
09:37Everybody was profiting by the new home run generation.
09:41Nobody wanted to tip that over
09:42because they'd all lost their share of dough during the strike.
09:46Maybe if we hit more home runs,
09:48more people are going to show up
09:50and we're going to make more money
09:52and the game is going to get healthier.
09:53That's exactly what happened.
09:57Dennis Tankersley.
09:58With the addition of four teams to the majors in the 1990s,
10:02the talent on the mound...
10:03A lot of poor...
10:06A lot of expansion pitching.
10:10...was to the point where hitters had a distinct advantage.
10:14Tankersley, like dozens of other young prospects,
10:17got a rude awakening.
10:18From 2002 to 2004 with the Padres,
10:22Tankersley had a 1-10 record
10:24with a 7.61 ERA.
10:28Dennis Tankersley kind of embodies
10:30this whole dilution of pitching
10:32over the last, you know, 10 or 15 years.
10:34And there are a million Dennis Tankersleys out there.
10:37I think expansion had an awful lot to do
10:39with the dilution of talent
10:41and the fact that there were more mediocre pitchers
10:43giving up an awful lot of home runs.
10:45Since these last four expansion teams
10:47have come into the game,
10:49you've seen, you know, guys hit 50 homers
10:51like it's nothing.
10:53And even 60 and 70.
10:5515, 20 years ago,
10:57nobody had a chance to hit that many.
10:58It's too much good pitching in the league.
11:00Here's the pitch to Torre Alba.
11:02It hit him right in the middle of the back.
11:04I think there's only so many guys
11:06that can rise up
11:07to the talent level
11:09of the big leagues.
11:10And the pitch to Goodwin.
11:12And it's outside.
11:13Ball four.
11:14He walks Goodwin.
11:14A run comes in.
11:15And I'll tell you what,
11:17about 80% of the pitching I could see
11:19might not even make double A.
11:20And here comes Bochy.
11:22Time for a change.
11:23You have pitchers that are rushed through a system
11:26because there is a lack of quality pitching.
11:28If you have a left arm
11:29and you can throw over 90 miles an hour,
11:31you're going to be in the middle
11:32before your 21st birthday on most teams.
11:34There's a lot more younger pitchers in the league.
11:37They make a lot more mistakes
11:38than the veteran guys.
11:39The pitch to Bonds.
11:41And Bonds, it's a long one.
11:43Hadid Wrightfield.
11:44This one is a monster.
11:46It is out of here.
11:48Off the scoreboard.
11:50When Barry Bonds is hitting a monster
11:55500-foot home run against Dennis Tankersley,
11:57there's a reason.
11:58And it's not because Dennis Tankersley
11:59is having an off day.
12:00It's because Dennis Tankersley
12:01is a triple A pitcher.
12:02I've never seen a guy hit one
12:04off the scoreboard here.
12:08Did reason number five help convince you?
12:10If not, here's reason number four.
12:13Honey, I shrunk the strike zone.
12:16Size of the zone matters,
12:18especially if you're a pitcher.
12:19I think if you want to make
12:21what gated more power,
12:22what created more home runs,
12:24you might look at the strike zone
12:25shrunk between the 1960s and the 1990s.
12:28I've noticed a change in the zone.
12:31I definitely think it's smaller
12:33than when I first came up in 1989.
12:35It's definitely not smaller.
12:36I mean, the umpires have destroyed the game
12:38with the way they're controlling the strike zone.
12:40The strike zone is between above the knees
12:43and just above the belt,
12:44and that's wrong.
12:46You're going to have this monster thing
12:48going on with home runs
12:49as long as this continues.
12:51Oh, my goodness!
12:53How far is that one good?
12:54It's getting more difficult to pitch,
12:56and if you have to get an extra strike
12:58in the big leagues,
13:00you're going to pay the price.
13:02He got all back!
13:05While umpires had squeezed the strike zone,
13:08batters were encroaching
13:09on the inside part of the plate.
13:12The pitchers own the inside part of the plate.
13:14Make no mistake about it,
13:15they always have and they always will.
13:17But the body armor that a lot of players use
13:19on their arms or elbows
13:21frequently is in the strike zone.
13:23When you get batters up there
13:25with three levels of armor on,
13:27it's going to take that part of the plate away
13:29a little bit from the pitcher
13:30because the batter has no qualms whatsoever
13:32about getting hit with a pitch.
13:34And once they take the inside part
13:35of the plate away from you,
13:37you're actually out there.
13:39You're exposed to the power hitters.
13:43You're going to take it on the deep right field.
13:46That is...
13:48If you...
13:49You kind of dismiss...
13:51Kurt Schilling, too.
13:52You kind of dismiss, like,
13:54uh...
13:55Maybe they're not that good.
13:57Pedro Martinez says it's difficult
13:59to pitch under these conditions.
14:01It's difficult.
14:04If you don't establish the inside part of the plate,
14:07you give up home runs on pitches
14:08you shouldn't give up home runs on.
14:10These guys who played 25 and 30 years ago
14:13were every bit as good as these guys are today.
14:15It was a different strike zone,
14:17different era.
14:18Mickey Mantle hitting 500 home runs back then.
14:21He'd have hit 700 with the strike zone.
14:23And I mean, maybe more.
14:28Bats and balls.
14:31Harder wood and tighter leather
14:32add up to more home runs.
14:34You look at the equipment,
14:36from the old-timers to what they're using today,
14:39the bats are very hard, very well-made.
14:42Well, I think the equipment is better these days,
14:43and maple bats are used throughout baseball,
14:47and maple is a very hard wood.
14:49The maple bat,
14:51the bat has been dipped many times,
14:53so it's more, it's bringing in powerful.
14:56If you hit that, the ball on the screws
14:58with a maple bat,
15:00it jumps off that maple bat
15:02like you're hitting it
15:02with a brand new title-ish driver.
15:06How hard are today's bats?
15:08Hard enough to do the job,
15:10even when they break.
15:13Busted his bat,
15:14and Carnacion is back.
15:16Can you believe that?
15:18Shattered the lumber and hit a home run.
15:20Oh, I've seen that a lot of times.
15:22Not just once.
15:23I've seen that 10, 15 times.
15:25Guy will hit a ball right on the screws,
15:27and the bat will break,
15:29and the ball will still go 30 rows deep.
15:31Beyond the merits of maple over ash,
15:34the balls appear to be increasingly more resilient.
15:37Don't let nobody ever kid you or try to say to you,
15:43oh, no, this is the same ball we had, yeah?
15:47If it's the same ball,
15:48I'll take that ball that they're using today
15:51and put it right up under the light for you
15:53and show you the strings against the leather.
15:57In the old days,
15:58I used to back up behind a picture,
15:59and for fun,
16:00I'd rub the leather and make it loose.
16:02Ha, try rubbing this.
16:04He ain't gonna rub nothing.
16:05I went to Penn State University,
16:07and they used the same equipment they used
16:09to look into the earth to find oil,
16:11and they analyzed baseballs throughout the century,
16:15and you can see the core is different.
16:18It's more rubberized.
16:19The density of the ball is different.
16:21And I've talked to players that played in the 80s and now
16:24that are still playing,
16:25and they say,
16:26you don't even need to hit these balls now to get them out.
16:28I don't think there's any question
16:30that the ball's wound tighter myself.
16:32I just wish we wouldn't kid ourselves about it.
16:36Yes, it's a live ball.
16:37Well, if you have a harder ball and a harder bat
16:40and those two forces meet,
16:41you're gonna get a greater force,
16:42and the ball's gonna travel further.
16:45He got all net, baby.
16:50With three strong reasons now in the books,
16:53here is reason number two.
16:55Friendlier confines.
16:56Baseball's retro architecture.
16:59The new stadiums are designed to produce more home runs.
17:03You know, every sport wants more offense,
17:06and baseball did it without changing rules.
17:08They just built smaller ballparks.
17:10Well, really, in the 90s,
17:12we really saw an explosion of new stadiums,
17:14which was wonderful.
17:15Many of these stadiums were hitter-friendly.
17:18Starting with Camden Yards,
17:19everybody wanted a Camden Yards.
17:21Well, Camden Yards was a better hitter's ballpark
17:24than the old Memorial Stadium in Baltimore,
17:26a much better home run hitter's ballpark.
17:29They keep building these parks smaller and smaller.
17:32I hate Camden Yards.
17:33Sorry, Baltimore,
17:34but I hate Camden Yards
17:35because it's a little band box of a ballpark.
17:37I mean, you're getting new stadiums.
17:39Balls just jump out.
17:40But pitchers hate Camden Yards
17:43if the Orioles are any good.
17:46Those stadiums,
17:46they don't have to be a big guy
17:48to hit them out of those parks.
17:51There are certain parks
17:52that pitchers don't want to go into.
17:54Number one's Colorado.
17:56Colorado, I mean, that's the poster child.
18:02Scene level.
18:03Of hitter's parks.
18:04You just hope you can sneak through
18:06a four-game series out there
18:07and get out without getting, you know,
18:08your brain damaged too much.
18:09And this ball checks.
18:12Takes a good look.
18:13You won't see it for long.
18:15Balls fly out of that stadium.
18:18I'm thinking of making a comeback myself.
18:21Flying to left field
18:23and there's another home run.
18:25Look at the ballpark in Houston.
18:27The left field home run alley is minute.
18:31I mean, a decent fly ball is a home run.
18:34Definitely Texas.
18:36Back is Kutie.
18:38Go!
18:39It's just an easy, easy ballpark
18:41to hit home runs in.
18:42You use the ball, it's gone.
18:44The Yankees have just cracked
18:45their fifth home run of the contest.
18:47The game has changed.
18:49It's a new era.
18:49These new ballparks that are built
18:51are more hitter friendly.
18:53Fans like home runs.
18:55People are designing parts
18:56have made them small, but they've gone way too far.
19:00Smaller stadiums are absolutely to blame
19:04for allowing balls that would either be outs
19:07or doubles landing in the seats.
19:09I can't predict number one.
19:12Pitchers would use two.
19:15Bo Jackson.
19:16He knew that home runs come out of the weight room.
19:20Oh, the two-run homer his first time up here tonight
19:22and hits this ball deep to right center field
19:25way back.
19:27Forget it.
19:28I think that baseball took a turn with Bo Jackson.
19:32I think Bo Jackson changed the way the game was played.
19:35He was the one who came out of football
19:37and started pumping iron
19:39and in doing so,
19:41really cast away the idea
19:43that players could not lift weights.
19:46And this is in the mid-80s.
19:48This is really before the weightlifting kick
19:50really came in.
19:51And I think players looked at him and said,
19:53look how big he is.
19:55Maybe if I start to lift,
19:56I can look like him
19:57and I can hit balls to where he hits them.
20:00And I think that started a real craze
20:02of guys getting bigger and stronger.
20:04Bo was among the first to change the old school notion
20:07that weightlifting was bad for baseball players.
20:10I came up in 1970, Harmon Killebrew.
20:13I never saw Harmon Killebrew lift the weight.
20:14We weren't allowed to have weights.
20:16I mean, our exercise was a cut-up inner tube
20:18and you'd tie them together
20:19and be a rubber band and you'd exercise.
20:21Weights used to be a no-no.
20:23Now you go in every major league clubhouse,
20:24they have a weight room somewhere
20:25with the Nautilus machines and everything.
20:27You never saw players in the old days working with weights.
20:30To me, this is a tremendous thing
20:32that has come into baseball,
20:33is the weight programs.
20:34You know, I think that's what's happening in baseball today.
20:37I don't think it's all steroids.
20:38I don't think that you can necessarily say
20:40that steroids are a direct correlation
20:42of the size and the strength of people
20:45now versus 20 years ago.
20:47But I definitely think that you can say
20:48the increase of home runs
20:49is in direct correlation with the availability
20:51of different weight training techniques.
20:53Guys are pumping higher and getting bigger
20:55and stronger to beat home run hitters.
20:57You take steroids out of the equation
20:59and guys are still stronger.
21:00Guys work out more nowadays.
21:02They work out year-round.
21:03The training is better.
21:05The medical attention is better.
21:06So you take all those factors into play
21:09and it's not surprising that home runs
21:10are up the way that they are.
21:12Runner goes.
21:13Hit well to left field.
21:15And that one is done.
21:17When you start to add bulk to that,
21:19start to add muscle mass
21:21and add torque to that skill already,
21:24then you're going to have more home runs.
21:27Woo!
21:28That thing left the ballpark in a hurry.
21:33Many of you will still think
21:35we've come out of the golden era
21:36of better baseball through science.
21:38And perhaps we were.
21:39And still are.
21:40But hopefully we've pointed out
21:41a confluence of forces
21:43that have led to the record books
21:44being rewritten.
21:46I'm Brian.
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