Just Another Tainted Home Run Record

A friend of mine was watching an Atlanta Braves telecast a few days ago and texted me the daily trivia question from the broadcast. The question said Chipper Jones hit 433 career homers under manager Bobby Cox, which player has the most career home runs under one manager?

The first answer that popped into my head was Albert Pujols under Tony La Russa. Pujols hit 445 homers with La Russa as his manager, but that wasn’t the correct answer. Some other player/manager combinations that popped into my head were Babe Ruth and Miller Huggins, which ranks second all-time on the list with 467 homers, and Jimmie Foxx and Connie Mack, who combined for 302.

Then the correct answer hit me. I texted my friend, “I figured out the answer, but I don’t like it.” He responded: Mark McGwire and Tony La Russa? I said, “Yep.” He responded with an expletive, obviously not liking the answer much himself.

Mark McGwire hit a record 494 home runs under La Russa’s management, which is 85 percent of his career total. When you think about it the answer is actually quite simple, because Big Mac played the majority of his career under La Russa in both Oakland and St. Louis.

My friend and I didn’t care much for the answer though because those numbers were obviously tainted with McGwire’s use of performance enhancing drugs throughout his career. That wasn’t all we despised, but more so the fact that it seems nearly every important home run record in baseball is tainted.

Most career home runs tainted by Barry Bonds. Most single season home runs tainted by Bonds, after previously being tainted by McGwire. Most career grand slams tainted by Alex Rodriguez. Most Major League Baseball stadiums homered in tainted by Sammy Sosa. Most consecutive seasons with 30-plus homers a tainted tie between Bonds and A-Rod.

If you are a big baseball fan, like I am, you probably consider the home run to be the most majestic thing in all of sports and for the longest time baseball home run records like Roger Maris’ 61 homers in a single season or especially Hank Aaron’s 755 homers for a career were the greatest records in sports. The most treasured records in sports. Then came the steroid era and Bonds, McGwire, Sosa, Rodriguez and numerous others just utterly and thoroughly trashed and made a mockery at of these sacred records. It’s something a baseball purist like me can’t get over and probably never will. And, when I see the answer to a trivia question on yet another big home run record is tainted it steams me a bit.

Oddly enough one of the greatest baseball home run records for most in a single game (four) has been done by 16 different players and none of them, at least to my knowledge, has ever been accused of using performance enhancing drugs. So, for now maybe most home runs in a game remains the purest of all of the great home run records in baseball history.

Bobby, Tommy & Greg

Names I used to hear so much in my youth

In my dreams, my fantasies and on television

Bobby, Tommy, and Greg

Played a huge role in the sports fan I am today

Played a huge role in the man I am today

With every dazzling pitch, every precise decision

So many smiles, so many cheers, and even tears of joy

Enshrined right where they ought to be

With names like Aaron, Mays, Ruth, and Robinson

Heroes from the past mingling with heroes from my past

Someday soon to be joined by John and Chipper too

In Cooperstown the halls where legends never die

It's Time to Stop Villainizing Baseball Players Without Real Proof

Last night I was enjoying some of the best sluggers in the game of baseball like two-time champ Yoenis Cespedes, Giancarlo Stanton and Jose Bautista competing in the Home Run Derby and following along with what experts were saying about the derby on Twitter.

Shortly after Toronto Blue Jays slugger Jose Bautista put on quite the show by hitting 10 homers in the first round I saw a tweet from ESPN’s Max Kellerman more than insinuating that Bautista was or had been at one time a performance enhancing drug user. This isn’t an opinion that’s rare; back when Bautista went from unknown to 50-plus homer guy in 2010 it was an opinion that was quite prevalent among people, just as it was last year when Chris Davis of the Baltimore Orioles also went from relatively unknown to a 50-plus homer guy.

Kellerman seemed so certain that Bautista was a PEDs user because he went from a 15 homer a year guy at age 25-28 to 54 homers at age 29 and 43 homers at age 30, when Kellerman was certain his numbers should’ve been on the decline instead of a sharp and dramatic rise.

Kellerman’s flat out accusation of Bautista as a cheater irritated me because the slugger has never failed a drug test. I will also add that Bautista looks the exact same now as he did when he was a 15 homer a year player for the Pittsburgh Pirates, whereas Bonds, McGwire and Sosa all got noticeably bigger. But, I’m not sure how high and mighty I can really get on the topic, because I can understand the skepticism of a player going from 15 homers a year to 50-plus, because I was somewhat skeptical of Chris Davis last season.

A home run jump of nearly 40 home runs in a season’s span seems like something that should be accusatory because it seems so unlikely and borderline impossible, but then again we have seen players before who hit late maturity growths or made minute changes in their swing that resulted in becoming almost completely different players. The problem is it’s hard to determine these changes from performance enhancing drug induced changes and they also seem a little less likely to result in such mass differences.

Still, the accusations of Kellerman rubbed me the wrong way and I can’t help but thinking that players like Bautista and Davis deserve to be treated fairly and innocent until proven guilty. Bautista and Davis have never failed steroid tests, so why should we treat them as cheats? 

Maybe it’s because we’ve been made so skeptical of home run inflations by proven cheaters like Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa who saw home run numbers fly to astronomical rates with the help of steroids that we just can’t trust the game and it’s most glamorous play anymore.

I understand why someone would look at Jose Bautista’s career and scratch and shake their head. I really do. But, I think it’s time to stop publicly slandering or defaming someone who’s never been attached to cheating before … especially when we’ve allowed players who have been connected with performance enhancing drugs and are cheaters, like Nelson Cruz, to start right beside them in the All Star Game. 

You Report Back on How That Paint is Drying, I'll Just Be Here Watching the World Cup

How's that paint drying coming along? 

The 2014 World Cup has been going on for around three weeks now and I’ve already lost track of exactly how many times I’ve heard people say in many different ways that they find the sport to be boring or uninteresting. Not only that, but that can’t seem to understand how anybody else would find the sport either exciting or interesting.

I’m here to tell all of those people complaining about the World Cup with statements like “I’d rather watch paint dry” to shut up and go watch some paint dry.

Now, I’m not what you would call a soccer fan. It’s not something I’ve watched a whole lot in my life and I don’t particularly find it to be one of the more exciting sports, but I have enjoyed the little snippets of games that I’ve caught during this World Cup, particularly the penalty kick shootouts between Brazil and Chile and Costa Rica and Greece.

But, I can understand how soccer fans feel when they’re bothered with statements about how one of their favorite sports is boring, because like them I am a rather huge fan of other fringe sports like auto racing and golf.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to defend my fandom of both auto racing and golf from people who either didn’t understand it or, in most cases, never wanted to. I find that most people who claim they don’t like a sport or that it’s boring have never actually taken the time to watch the sport. This is obviously ignorant, but ignorance has never stopped anybody from running their mouths off whenever they see fit.

Basically what it boils down to is that people should just let other people enjoy whatever sports they enjoy. Why do you feel the need to try to convince us that soccer or auto racing or golf or anything else is boring? We’re not going around trying to make you feel bad about yourself or stupid because the only sport you seem to see fit for watching is American football.

So, you think soccer is boring? That’s fine. You have the right to that opinion, but spouting it every two seconds during the World Cup is a nuisance and doesn’t do anything more than make you look like an idiotic fool. You may get away with that in the good old US of A, but take a little trip to Brazil or Germany or England or practically anywhere else in the world and tell ‘em that. Then make sure you have a nice pair of sunglasses to hide that black eye they’re going to give ya.