How come no one is mad at the Babe?

Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Home Run hitting on steroids: 1920s?

For purposes of this topic, I'll consider the modern HR record to have been set at 24 in 1915 by Gavvy Cravath who had led the National League (NL) the previous two seasons with 19.

Along comes Babe Ruth who breaks both records in 1919 with 29 HR playing his final season for the Boston Red Sox.  The Babe hit only nine in his home Fenway Park.  Twenty-one years later the Red Sox brought in the right field fences ... after the rookie season of Ted Williams.

After joining the Yankees in 1920 and playing his first three season's home games in New York's Polo Grounds, Ruth twice smashes his own record with 54 (29 home, 25 road) and 59 (32/27), both more than double the old record of 24 set only five years earlier.  Ruth hit his famous 60 (28/32) in 1927 playing his home games in Yankee Stadium and out homering every other American League (AL) team as he had done in 1920.

While Ruth is playing like he's from another planet (You don't think ...?) he is not alone.  Including Ruth, the 1915 record of 24 HR was broken 43 times in the 1920s.
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The weeping and gnashing of teeth has already begun.  Random TV watching yesterday of the MLB Network had announcer Bob Costas and writer Bill Madden blathering about the Hall of Fame vote to be announced tomorrow with live reporting on that network.  Madden is one of the voters.  Madden got his turn at receiving the Hall of Fame Spinks award in 2010 when his peers designated him a de jure Hall of Famer.  The writers sort of take turns giving each other the award.  Costas is still waiting for his turn to receive the Hall of Fame Frick award for broadcasters; the Hall website gives no indication who decides that award.

Madden repeatedly used the word cheat in referring to Hall of Fame candidates Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens.  He ultimately expressed his outrage by saying that the records of Willie Mays and Hank Aaron had been obliterated by cheaters.  If he had thought about it even a little bit Madden could have reasonably concluded that Bonds would likely have passed his godfather Mays even without the steroids.  Has Mays been complaining?

As written in this blog many times the only thing that really concerns the steroid zealots is home run hitting.  Notice that Madden never mentioned pitching records or even other batting records.  It's all about the home run hitting.  Months ago Costas was decrying the "cartoonish" home run records set during the steroid era.  Bobby, you want cartoons?  Check out the 1920s.

So what about the Babe?  Where is the outrage?  Babe obliterated home run records: season of Cravath (24), career of Roger Connor (138).  Obliterate does not come close to what the Babe did.  The Babe initiated modern home run hitting and led the way for all those other "cartoonish" numbers in the 1920s.

You think there was juicing in the 1920s?  Not the players, who were taking illegal performance decreasing drugs: prohibition against alcoholic beverages had just become the law.  The ball.  How else could so many have been transformed so quickly?

Why aren't those records in disrepute?  Why pick on the current guys?  Records get obliterated all the time.  Walter Johnson had the career strike out record forever (1921-1982) ... until it was obliterated in part because batters were swinging for the fences.  And for at least one strike out record breaker, maybe a little juicing on the mound became as noticeable as that in the batters box if only the media showed a little imagination and/or put some effort into it.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010
More on possible steroid use by Nolan Ryan.

Ryan last had 10 SO per 9 innings in 1978 at age 31 in AL. Then at 40 in NL Ryan had his career high: 11.5! 270 SO in 211 innings. Second best in Ryan's career: 11.3 at age 42 with 301 SO!

And after all these years I'm the only one who has noticed?
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In case you haven't noticed I've been writing frequently about the home run surge of Hank Aaron at the ages of 37 and 39. I'll be comparing home run proficiency at various ages among batters with at least 493 home runs.

Temper your outrage.  You never know when it might be needed.