Bonds quickly breaks Ruth's homer record, a very obscure one

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 9/25/2005 | Mark Camps

[TommyDale]

Baseball purists will never accept any of the modern records.

[Red Badger]

It'sa bidnez.........

[Red Badger]

AL or NL?.........

[playball0]

I don't care about steroids. Bring on the moonshots. It's the big media that wrings its hands.

[SpringheelJack]

Willie Mays would have hit more home runs than Hank Aaron if he had played in Milwaukee and Atlanta. Babe Ruth would not have hit as many either, had he not played in Yankee Stadium with a very short and low right field fence.

Overall Ruth lost 20 home runs by the home parks he played in (he hit 347 at home, 367 on the road). Mays may have hit more home runs than Aaron if he'd played in an easier park, though he sure as hell wouldn't have deserved it. Lifetime, Mays hit 335 at home, 325 on the road.

[SpringheelJack]

What about most home runs by a pitcher?

I think Wes Ferrell holds it with 35 (he hit a handful more as a pinch hitter).

[ActionNewsBill]

The game is not the same since the introduction of the Designated Hitter, the juiced ball, and the juiced players.

"I believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. I believe there ought to be a constitutional amendment outlawing Astroturf and the designated hitter."

[Red Badger]

Isn't there a "Designated Spitter" rule?...........

[Red Badger]

There should be a "Designated Spitter" rule and a "Designated Crotch Scratcher" rule.............

[cynicom]

Babe did his on beer, hot dogs and sheer talent. These present day steroid users should not even be in the record books.

[freedomson]

No, no, I meant that it was Babe Ruth.

[T. Jefferson]

Babe Ruth would not have hit as many either, had he not played in Yankee Stadium with a very short and low right field fence.

Thanks for the laugh. Aaron and Bonds have played in Little League parks by comparison. Bonds' posing 410 ft. HR's to center would be embarrassingly short popups in Ruth's home field.

For Ruth's entire career at home games, center field was 487 ft, deepest left-center 500 FEET,(1923), 490 ft (1924). Yankee Stadium

[Red Badger]

I thought Babe used Candy Bars..............

[ChicagoHebrew]

Babe still holds the record for most HR's WITHOUT help from STEROIDS>.............

Uh... what about Hank Aaron???

[WL-law]

How come no one ever accuses pitchers of use? 100+mph fast balls and all.........

I'm getting tired of Freepers knocking Barry. He's the greatest hitter of his generation.

He sees less than 1/2 the number of hittable balls than any other hitter. Ruth had Gehrig hitting behind him, after all.

In Ruth's day (and in Aaron's day, for that matter) pitchers were expected to pitch complete games. As a result the pitchers paced themselves, and they didn't throw with 110% velocity on every pitch. Now they only need to go 5-6 innings, and there's no let-up for the batters as the relievers throw just as hard.

Don't you think that Roger CLemens et al juiced just as much as Bonds may have? The same pattern of weight/muscle gain, performance improvement is apparent.

To sum it up, the "asterisk" question may have been clear with Maris, as it was a matter of a longer season than had, 7 extra games. With Bonds and the juicing, the justification for 'asterisk' is really based on the fact that Bonds is unpopular -- although I don't understand the real basis for that.

I'm still amazed that the bum, Wade Boggs, a selfish, worthless, empty non-team player who's stats amounted to nothing in terms of his team's performance, got into the Hall of Fame!!

[dead]

How come no one ever accuses pitchers of drug use? 100+mph fast balls and all.........

Oh, I've heard plenty of rumors about Roger "Roid Rage" Clemens.

[TommyDale]

To fairly compare these home run hitters, you need a computer program to take into account atmospheric density, winds, distances, and percentages of home games. Taking all that information together, there were definite advantages for Aaron, and Ruth's right field distance (was it 295 feet to right field and a 3 foot fence?) would definitely stack up as favorable to them. What they hit on the road is more of an equalizer than an advantage, since they all had to play half their games on the road.

[Red Badger]

That's just it, rumors.............No press "investigations"...........

[Red Badger]

Was he any kin to Hale Boggs?............

[TravisBickle]

Not only did Babe Ruth play in much larger fields, his power numbers towered over the other hitters. For example in 1919 his 29 homers not only smashed the home run record, he almost doubled it (from 16 to 29), and he had almost three times as many homers as the 2nd place HR hitter- George Sisler had 10. Then the next year, he almost doubled his HR production to 54, while the next guy (Sisler, again) had 19. The Babe dominated the game in ways that Bonds couldn't even dream of.