48 Home Runs today. Juiced Ball? Media HR hype?

[Chocolate Milk]

Honesly, couldn't this be proven/disproven pretty quickly? I'm sure that a ball from this year could be tested and compared to balls in previous years. It's can't be that hard to do. Are they just not doing this so they can have something to talk about on sports radio?

 

Who do you mean by "they"? Surely some Ordinary Joe could round up a ball from last year and a ball from this year, do some testing, and confirm or put to rest the "juiced ball theory".

 

They was referring to the media there. A little misleading, my apologies.

 

Doesn't it strike anyone as amusing that the media is chattering on endlessly about something they could confirm or debunk in less than a day? Grab two balls(heh) and check them out. Case closed.

 

Instead of interviewing all these wrinkly baseball men about how fast the ball is getting through the infield, ball trajectory of homeruns (All these popups are going out!!!), and all the other silly subjective evidence people are using to try to prove the balls are juiced, just check the balls.

 

Why would MLB make all these juiced balls when tons of them end up in the stands every day and could easily be tested? I think they'd be found out pretty quickly.

[K-Town]

Honesly, couldn't this be proven/disproven pretty quickly? I'm sure that a ball from this year could be tested and compared to balls in previous years. It's can't be that hard to do. Are they just not doing this so they can have something to talk about on sports radio?

 

Who do you mean by "they"? Surely some Ordinary Joe could round up a ball from last year and a ball from this year, do some testing, and confirm or put to rest the "juiced ball theory".

 

They was referring to the media there. A little misleading, my apologies.

 

Doesn't it strike anyone as amusing that the media is chattering on endlessly about something they could confirm or debunk in less than a day? Grab two balls(heh) and check them out. Case closed.

 

Instead of interviewing all these wrinkly baseball men about how fast the ball is getting through the infield, ball trajectory of homeruns (All these popups are going out!!!), and all the other silly subjective evidence people are using to try to prove the balls are juiced, just check the balls.

 

Why would MLB make all these juiced balls when tons of them end up in the stands every day and could easily be tested? I think they'd be found out pretty quickly.

 

I agree with you. Doesn't seem to add up.

[Gunned]

I'm not going to go so far as to say that there's no such things a "juiced ball" and that there are no players using steroids. However, I do believe that there are other reasons that balls fly further. Personally, I think that athletes today are better conditioned and more prepared than athletes of the past (steroids or not). There are more perfectly legal "enhancers", better fitness technology, better equipment, video equipment for analyzing what you're doing right and what you're doing wrong, etc., kids learning the intricacies of hitting at younger and younger ages...... and so on. I think it's just a more advanced game than it used to be.

 

Wouldn't all of the training, conditioning, analysis and supplements also apply to the pitchers as well?

[ltb]

funny story:

 

in one of my classes yesterday, one white sox fan was telling another white sox fan the score of their game. he also mentioned that shelton hit another bomb. the guy immediately says "yeah, i agree with hawk on this one. that ball has to be juiced. no way a guy can have a start that hot." i asked him, "well, what about jim thome then?" he replied, "thome is just that good."

 

apparently hawk has said that the ball is juiced ON THE AIR? i can't stand to listen to him for more than 10 seconds so obviously i haven't watched a white sox broadcast. that would be interesting.

[K-Town]

I'm not going to go so far as to say that there's no such things a "juiced ball" and that there are no players using steroids. However, I do believe that there are other reasons that balls fly further. Personally, I think that athletes today are better conditioned and more prepared than athletes of the past (steroids or not). There are more perfectly legal "enhancers", better fitness technology, better equipment, video equipment for analyzing what you're doing right and what you're doing wrong, etc., kids learning the intricacies of hitting at younger and younger ages...... and so on. I think it's just a more advanced game than it used to be.

 

Wouldn't all of the training, conditioning, analysis and supplements also apply to the pitchers as well?

 

Of course it would. Personally, I think that the pitching today is better than it's ever been. However, hitters have advanced at the same rate, and when they make contact with a pitch, the fact that they're more well-conditioned and have more refined swings will likely result in the ball going further. Maybe..........

[CubinNY]

I think it is a combination of a number of things:

 

-Stronger players

-Delution of pitchers

-Smaller ballparks

 

I think it would be hard to "juice" the balls, intentionally. I think they are hand made somewhere in Lating America.

[FergieJ31]

I think it is a combination of a number of things:

 

-Stronger players

-Delution of pitchers

-Smaller ballparks

 

I think it would be hard to "juice" the balls, intentionally. I think they are hand made somewhere in Lating America.

 

I tend to agree - Hawk Harrelson's theory is a bit far-fetched:

 

http://www.suntimes.com/output/couch/cst-spt-greg14.html

 

"They have different shifts down there, and they take out the baseballs at different times,'' Harrelson said the other day on "Silvy and Carmen'' on WMVP-AM (1000). "When the workers come on, the first hour or two of their shifts, their fingers and their hands are strong.

 

"And then the longer, obviously, they work, they get [more tired], so those balls are not wound quite as tight. So you take the balls that are wound in that first hour or so...''

[K-Town]

I think it is a combination of a number of things:

 

-Stronger players

-Delution of pitchers

-Smaller ballparks

 

I think it would be hard to "juice" the balls, intentionally. I think they are hand made somewhere in Lating America.

 

Delution of pitchers?

 

Care to elaborate?

[soccer10k]

And I personally think that's okay. A lot of fans say that they'd rather see a great pitching duel, but a lot of them only say it because that statement seems quaint and makes them sound like a real baseball purist. Those people aren't any more astute than the folks who ooh and ahh at a long home run.

 

I'm not ashamed at all to say that I like seeing home runs. If you gave me a choice between seeing a 2-1 pitcher's duel between Peavy and Pedro, or a Red Sox-Yankees game where A-Rod, Manny, Ortiz and others combine to hit seven home runs, I'm probably going to opt for the homers. Call me a stupid baseball fan if you wish, but that's just my preference.

 

And I can watch either. A 16-12 game is fun, a 1-0 game is exciting.

 

Agreed. I'm a big time soccer fan (stating the obvious) so I don't mind a 1-0 game. I just care that the Cubs win.

[CubinNY]

I think it is a combination of a number of things:

 

-Stronger players

-Delution of pitchers

-Smaller ballparks

 

I think it would be hard to "juice" the balls, intentionally. I think they are hand made somewhere in Lating America.

 

Delution of pitchers?

 

Care to elaborate?

 

Expansion

[K-Town]

I think it is a combination of a number of things:

 

-Stronger players

-Delution of pitchers

-Smaller ballparks

 

I think it would be hard to "juice" the balls, intentionally. I think they are hand made somewhere in Lating America.

 

Delution of pitchers?

 

Care to elaborate?

 

Expansion

 

There's been some expansion, but that has been more than made up for by the inclusion of Latin players in the last couple of decades. There are scouts for every team looking for the very best pitchers in the entire world, not just North America. I think that there's as much pitching depth available now as there's ever been.

[ThePenguin11]

There hasn't been expansion in ten years.

 

Great pitchers are being pounded for homeruns leading to blown up ERA's. It also seems like the pitchers with typically good location of their fastballs and less than stellar " breaking stuff" are the ones getting pounded deep over and over. So, what I'm saying is that guys who's pitches are hard to even make contact with are doing fine. Guys who rely on location without movement are getting smashed.

 

As for the 'why can't anyone just grab two baseballs and compare them?' idea; it would seem to make sense that it could be that easy, but by what process would you compare two baseballs? How can you really check how much tighter a ball is wound? Is there a machine for that? Chemical or liquid displacement? Who even knows? And who even knows if baseball is throwing 'normal' balls into the mix to screw up the findings. I'd say that would be a pretty easy way to make it inconclusive. You'd have to test a sample of anywhere between 100 and 1000 baseballs. Now show me a beat writer or any other media type who is willing to do that kind of extra work.

 

Can't we just agree that there are an INSANE amount of home runs leaving ball parks. Is it not blatently obvious? Haven't you noticed how easy swings that should result in pop-ups are going ten rows deep into the bleachers? Doesn't it seem weird that every one of Jim Thome's home runs is traveling 450 feet?

 

:oops:

[YearofDaCubs]

I personally think this thing is overblown. When Rusch or other pitchers throw balls down the middle, pitcher or not if the contact is good they are gone.

[ThePenguin11]

It was only a matter of time before MLB came out with BS comments like these:

 

Bombs away

Detroit's Chris Shelton, Chicago's Jim Thome and Cleveland's Travis Hafner all had six homers through Thursday, Oakland's Eric Chavez had five and a gang of folks had four. Perhaps something of a disappointment to those who thought the new policies in place would lead to a renaissance for small ball, but let's face it: We still dig the long ball. That we've now got a sense that they are being legitimately launched isn't just good for ball, it's good for the soul.

 

Do we really know that? Or is garbage like this being mandated on high?

 

Who's swinging whom?

That's the question you might be tempted to ask yourself when you see rail-thin Reds right-hander Bronson Arroyo mosey on up to the plate with a bat in his hands. Then you see the 6-foot-5, 190-pounder go deep twice in a six-day span. Good for ball.

 

How? Will pitchers hitting 5-10 homers every year make baseball better, somehow? Idiots.

 

http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article_perspectives.jsp?ymd=20060414&content_id=1399848&vkey=perspectives&fext=.jsp

 

Keep the P.R. machine rolling baseball. What a load of crap. Every time I look around, I'm more convinced that baseball's exec's are twisting the knife in our backs again. I fell for it the first time. They need to clean house in New York and get someone who cares in there.

[Ding Dong Johnson]

McGwire.

 

This is only a test.

[ThePenguin11]

McGwire.

 

This is only a test.

 

Guilty.

 

EDIT: Message changed to be more provocative.

[Geech]

http://www.galleryone.com/images/gustafson/gustafson-don-quixote.jpg

[ThePenguin11]

http://www.galleryone.com/images/gustafson/gustafson-don-quixote.jpg

 

I don't get it. My girlfriend is the art history student in the household.

[ZiggyTaxi]

Don Quijote thought the windmills were giants.

 

I guess the relation would be that the media is oblivious to reality???

[stitchface]

global warming.

[Roast]

http://www.galleryone.com/images/gustafson/gustafson-don-quixote.jpg

 

I don't get it. My girlfriend is the art history student in the household.

 

Its Don Quijote.

 

He's a spanish mythical figure who ran around on, more or less, a wild goose chase, under the beleif he was a knight. Basically, he was chasing something that wasnt there.

[Geech]

He's a spanish mythical figure who ran around on, more or less, a wild goose chase, under the beleif he was a knight. Basically, he was chasing something that wasnt there.

 

Right, I'm expressing the opinion that proponents of this juiced ball theory are tilting at windmills.

[soccer10k]

Did anyone ever consider that it could just be a coincidence? What's next? What if there is a day when only 20 HR's are hit; are you going to ask should the mound be raised again? No. It was one day with a lot of home runs and nothing to make a big deal about. If the pace continues over the course of the season, then you have a legitimate question to ask. But we aren't even 2 weeks into the season. Everybody is feeling good and hasn't suffered the normal wear-and-tear of the baseball season yet.

[ThePenguin11]

Did anyone ever consider that it could just be a coincidence? What's next? What if there is a day when only 20 HR's are hit; are you going to ask should the mound be raised again? No. It was one day with a lot of home runs and nothing to make a big deal about. If the pace continues over the course of the season, then you have a legitimate question to ask. But we aren't even 2 weeks into the season. Everybody is feeling good and hasn't suffered the normal wear-and-tear of the baseball season yet.

 

Raising the mounds would only make it harder to hit the ball. Not sure what you mean. You guys give baseball executives way too much credit. By the way, I'm not basing my opinion on what some may call a wild goose chase, and personally I find some of the comments in this thread condescending and insulting. I was making an observation based on what I've seen after personally watching parts of nearly 50 different games on mlb.tv. If it keeps up all year and certain pitchers end up with say 5-10 homeruns can I post a painting of an ostritch with his head in the sand? Would that be appropriate?

[Geech]

If it keeps up all year and certain pitchers end up with say 5-10 homeruns can I post a painting of an ostritch with his head in the sand? Would that be appropriate?

 

Possibly. I doubt that happens, though, unless Hampton returns to Colorado.