Barry Bonds has had an amazing career, with or without steroids. However, even a casual glance at his statistics reveals that something strange happened during the two years before his staggering 73-home run season. In 1999 at the age of 34, Bonds hit 34 home runs, with a batting average of .262. 34 years old is usually considered part of the downside of a player's career.
Instead, the next year (2000), Bonds hit an amazing 49 home runs, 3 more than he hit at what most people would consider the height of his physical prowess at the age of 28.
That was wild enough. But then the next year, his home run total skyrocketed from 49 to 73, obliterating the record recently set by Mark McGuire, another ballplayer whose musculature some people considered, shall we say, exaggerated. 24 more homers than the incredible year before, and 27 more HR's than he hit at his natural physical peak, way back at the age of 28.
Now, I'm not here to call Barry e-vile. Selfish, sure. But lots of bodybuilders take steroids (as do football players, let's be honest), and nobody really thinks it's wrong - it's just how people get that certain "edge" on the competition. When you hear an athlete talk about "giving 110 percent," you should realize that they're trying to be honest. They're talking about 100 percent of what's humanly possible, plus steroids and stimulants. Really they should call it "giving 130 percent," because the degree of advantage is not merely marginal, it's completely overwhelming.
Anywho, Bonds decided to conduct a kind of experiment: What would happen when a splendidly skilled, but aging power hitter pumped his body to ridiculous proportions with drugs and supplements to increase his physical strength by about 30 percent?
The answer was impressive. Fly balls that normally would have been caught at the warning track suddenly traveled 30 to 40 feet farther, safely over the fence. Touch 'em all, Barry!
There's nothing mysterious about it. His increase in strength could be measured directly (curls, bench presses, etc.). The average distance of a fly ball off his bat could be measured from one year to the next.
Conclusion: Steroids work. On the other hand, Bonds could not hit so many home runs without the skill to make the proper contact to send the ball outwards with the right trajectory to carry the fence. Of course, given a few extra mph of speed, he could hit the ball a little flatter or a little higher and it would still clear the fence. And if he connected just right, well then the ball would carry right out of the park and land in McCovey Cove.
Barry was happy. The fans were happy. Heck, even the Commissioner was happy. So, what's not to like?
A lot, actually. A few points to consider:
- If it's okay for Bonds to break home run records because he juiced up his already powerful body, then why not allow other major leaguers to do the same, or more?
- Ken Griffey, Jr. He was the one who was projected to break Hank Aaron's record, but he got injured and his totals fell to nothing for a few years. Meanwhile, Bonds juiced up and left Junior in the dust. Kind of an insult to the idea of an historic rivalry, eh?
- When you're physically 30 percent stronger, you can actually ease off on your swings and the ball will still clear the fence. This means you are actually LESS likely to injure yourself. Heck, your average will even go further up, because you can afford to hold off on more pitches, then flip your powerful wrists at the last instant, converting an easy out into a hit. In fact, Bonds saw his average jump from a pre-steroids career high of .336 at the age of 28 to .370 the year after his 73 HR's. Leading up to his steroid years, his averages were .291, .303, and .262. These results reflect an aging superstar in decline. Bonds could see that. He also saw Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa cranking out 65 and 70 home runs after juicing up. What to do?? We all know what he did.
- Roughly 80 home runs. That's my VERY generous estimate of the minimum number of HR's that a juiced-up Barry Bonds added to what would otherwise be declining totals towards the end of his career. I arrived at this number by allowing for 35 home runs for each non-injury year that he was taking steroids. Of course, normal human beings (even superstars) would probably taper off more quickly, and he would have had to swing harder to hit that many balls over the fence, thus increasing his chances of late-career injury.
- If you remove 80 homers from Barry's total, he would be sitting at about 676 HR's right now, with about 3 more impressive years before he catches up to Aaron. So, Barry would have to last to at least the age of 45 before he set a new record. Possible, but less and less probable.
- Barry's final total. If he plays for another few years, he may amass a final total of 850 homers. Does that still seem fair? Not to me.
Fortunately, I have a solution to that: Call it the Bonds Option. Establish a rule that allows any major league player to take performance enhancing drugs for a total of four full years without any penalty from MLB. That lets A-Rod and Albert Pujols juice themselves up right now and put on a power display for the ages. Anybody that thinks Barry's new record is legit couldn't possibly object to a couple of his compadres trying the same chemistry experiment. It's all good, right?
Oh, and don't forget Ryan Howard, Justin Morneau, and of course Sammy Sosa. Oh, wait, Sosa has already used up his Bonds Option. Even so, baseball's been berry berry good for juiced-up Sammy and his corked bats. In fact, baseball can be Barry Barry good for lots of people, with the right cocktail of drugs.
PS: I wonder how many home runs Babe Ruth could have hit if he had been a health-conscious body builder and juiced himself up with steroids? A thousand? Kind of a scary thought. Or Reggie Jackson? Or Joe DiMaggio, Hank Aaron, Ted Williams, etc? Some of the things we do today seem rather insulting to those who went before us. We should try to be more respectful.