Does Steroids Lead to More Homeruns

Everyone has seen or heard the home run records being broken, players being called involved in certain investigations, before congress to testify or being named in tell-all books. It has created a controversy in baseball with the records that have fallen and players that have tested positive for steroids. When Roger Maris hit 61 homeruns in 1961 no one thought it would ever be broken. In 1998 that all changed, when both Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa both eclipsed that mark with McGuire hitting 70. That didn’t last long cause three years later Barry Bonds hit an improbable 80 homeruns. Now Bonds is treating to break Hank Aaron’s all-time homerun record of 755. It has been stated that there is enough of a major steroid problem in baseball that Congress needed to step in. When Albert Conte was indited in the BALCO case he named several players that he either gave steroids personally or gave them to the players trainers. Barry Bonds, Garry Sheffield, and Jason Giambi are just a few that Conte claimed were accepting steroids from him. Another rumor, are the players that were implicated in Jose Canseco’s tell-all book Juiced. Canseco claimed that steroid use was as high as 80 percent of all pro players. He claimed that when himself and Mark McGuire were teammates on the Oakland Athletics he personally gave McGuire shots of steroids.

There were several players called before Congress to testify about steroid use in many sports. MLB was one of these sports, and players from several decades were called. From senator Jim Bunting of the 70's to Sammy Sosa and Rafael Palmero of today were called to testify and with a different response about steroid use. Both Sosa and Palmero claimed they had never used steroids before. They went about it in different ways though, Sosa was speaking through an interpreter when he speaks good English. While Palmero pointed at the congressman he was testifying before, and strongly stated that he had never used steroids.

When baseball finally got a strong steroid testing policy in place, several players tested positive for banned substances. Many of the players were minor leaguers or from Latin America but there was one major player who tested positive. Rafael Palmero had just joined the 500 homerun and 3000 hit clubs which only seven players before he had done. It seemed he was an automatic first vote hall-of-famer but he tested positive for a banned substance and was suspended for ten games but his hall-of-fame numbers were now being questioned. Were his numbers helped by steroid use, which he claimed he had never taken. That was the question and a definite first vote hall-of-famer went to maybe a third vote hall-of-famer.

Steroids have been involved in sports for a long time now, and it is proven that they increase speed and muscle mass. In many sports steroids increase your performance and baseball is one of these. It has not been proven that steroids increase your ability to hit a homerun. For a player to have the ability hit a homerun, they have to hit the ball on the “sweet spot” of the bat. Yes, steroids allow the player to run faster and swing faster but not hit more homeruns. Although steroids allow a player to swing the bat harder, if you don’t have a great ability to put the bat on the ball the ball will not go out. There is steroid use in MLB to what extent I have no idea, but what I do no is that steroid use doesn’t increase a players homerun output.

When Barry Bonds was implicated in several rumors about steroid use, there were many baseball fans that wanted an asterisk put next to his single-season homerun record. The reason for the asterisk would be to show he was on steroids or it was in the “steroid era.” If Bonds ever does break Hank Aaron’s all-time record there will probably be a serious push to put an asterisk on his record. When Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa were involved in their home run chase, McGuire admitted he was on androstene and creatine and Sosa was probably on something also. This might show that the supplement’s McGuire was taking helped him. Androstene is now banned by MLB, at the time he was taking it andro was banned by every pro sport except for baseball and hockey. Many of the players that make into the Hall of Fame from this decade, their stats will be looked at with a question, did they take steroids, and did it increase their homerun numbers?

The weight of players that hit 30 or more homeruns has gradually increased but you might be wondering how this relates to the topic. Maybe the weight gain is a side affect of muscle mass gained from steroid use. Sammy Sosa has increased his home runs at a bizarre rate over his time in the big leagues but his slugging percentage has stayed the same, which means he is striking out more. So does this mean he is swinging for the fences. Sosa and many of the power hitters in the game have gained a decent amount of weight since the beginning