Steroids in baseball

[Herb_The_Perb]

Ace, although much of it was true, none of your long rant addressed my question. Most of it was irrelevant to the issue, and some of it, like Dave Kingman, was a red herring. If home runs are so bad, why are/were the 5 best hitters of all time outstanding home run hitters?

Also, I suggest you see the team trainer about the shoulder you dislocated patting yourself on the back so long and hard. Until you get it treated, you won't be able to get the ball out of the infield.

 

[ace85]

Answer Me this Fool

Why is the greatest homerun hitter of all time not on the list? Barry Bonds is near the top of the list

The answer it is simply not the only factor and likely the less important factor.

Dave Kingman is not a Red Herring nor is ROB Deer or RON Kittle or Reggie Jackson all men that led the league in homeruns. Simply it isn't the defining stat.

I never ever discounted hitting for power (extra base hits). But those people can get on base in different ways.

The whole point is based on the fact that despite not helping you make contact with the ball. Steroids will make you a better hitter, becasue more of your hits will leave the yard and not be potential outs.

In some cases as we look back it makes some very average hitters much better hitters. MCGwire used to do one of 4 things Home Run, Strike Out, Deep Fly Ball or Ground out to Second or Short Stop (often into double plays).

Being stronger because of steroids took 1 of those problems away (deep fly ball as 30 more each year became hits-albeit homeruns) and also put him on base more frequently through walks taking away the requirement for him to manufacture hits when he wasn't getting good home run pitches.

Which is the point of this thread anyway. Steroids in Baseball.

 

[JustAGuy]

Dave Kingman is not a Red Herring nor is ROB Deer or RON Kittle or Reggie Jackson all men that led the league in homeruns. Simply it isn't the defining stat.

Well that's definitely a first, Ace. Putting Mr. October, Reggie Jackson, in a grouping with Dave Kingman, Rob Deer and Ron Kittle. Up till then, I was actually convinced you knew a little something about baseball.

 

[Herb_The_Perb]

Answer Me this Fool

That's a really good way to insure a response.
Especially when you make a habit of that kind of talk.
Only a fool would answer a note that starts off like that.

How old are you, anyway?
Does the 85 in your handle mean that you were born 20 years ago?

 

[Herb_The_Perb]

Hank only has the most HRs because he's had SO many more ABs than his pursuers.....

Ruth's the greatest HR hitter ever, though Mc Gwire and Bonds (in their best years) were right up there.....

Yep, Aaron is only 30th in HR per AB.
His 6.11 rate is very respectable, but nowhere near good enough to put him among the select few.
This list is through the end of 2004. Thome's, Sosa's, and Piazza's numbers are now a bit lower.

HR% HR%
1 Mark McGwire 9.42
2 Babe Ruth 8.50
3 Barry Bonds 7.73
4 Jim Thome 7.39
5 Sammy Sosa 7.16
6 Ralph Kiner 7.09
7 Harmon Killebrew 7.03
8 Manny Ramirez 7.00
9 Alex Rodriguez 6.82
10 Ken Griffey Jr. 6.79
11 Ted Williams 6.76
12 Carlos Delgado 6.71
13 Juan Gonzalez 6.62
14 Dave Kingman 6.62
15 Mickey Mantle 6.62
16 Jimmie Foxx 6.57
17 Mike Schmidt 6.56
18 Jose Canseco 6.55
19 Mike Piazza 6.51
20 Albert Belle 6.51
21 Hank Greenberg 6.37
22 Frank Thomas 6.36
23 Willie McCovey 6.36
24 Vladimir Guerrero 6.24
25 Todd Helton 6.20
26 Cecil Fielder 6.19
27 Jay Buhner 6.18
28 Darryl Strawberry 6.18
29 Lou Gehrig 6.16
30 Hank Aaron 6.11
31 Willie Mays 6.07

 

[Herb_The_Perb]

Also don't forget that Babe and Mac spent most of their careers in pitcher friendly parks......

In Babe's day, some parks did not have reachable fences.

There were some tough left fields in Ruth's day (Yankee Stadium, Cleveland's League Park and Washington's Griffith Stadium,), but that didn't really affect him. Generally, RF in the AL was pretty reachable:
258' Polo Grounds (Yankees' home park for Ruth's two best seasons.)
290' Cleveland
295' Yankee Stadium
310' - 320' St. Louis
328' Washington
331' Philly

The exceptions were Chicago (362') Detroit (370'; may be erroneous) and Boston (ranging from 314' to 358' down the lines at various times, but falling back to 380' or more pretty quickly.)

 

[The Lizard King]

Just watching the Yankees - Red Sox game...GO YANKS!...but could there be anything better than being at that game, sitting in the seats on top of the Green Monster, cathing some rays and downing some serious beverages?