juiced
Don't ask why, just wave goodbye, Baseball WeeklyBlame it on the juiced baseball. Blame it on the juiced players. Blame it on the shrinking strike zone. Blame it on the shrinking pitching talent pool. Blame it on the easy-to-hit new ballparks. Blame it on the easy-to-see baseball. Blame it on all the new bat companies. Blame it on all the underground steroid use. "Hell, blame it on global warming," Toronto Blue Jays manager Jim Fregosi says. "We're blaming all these damn homers on everything else, so why not?" Welcome to the era when major league baseball games start looking like your kids' T-ball games, when Jermaine Dye and Tony Batista become household names, and when we yawn at 40-home run seasons. Just wondering, but considering that Fregosi, 58, was a six-time All-Star who hit 151 career homers, how many would he hit in today's environment? "I wouldn't want to hazard a guess," says Fregosi, who saw 180 runs scored in the Blue Jays' recent 10-game homestand, "because the figure would sound ludicrous. "But you can't even compare players from the past anymore. You've got to judge the players by decades, not their overall stats.
"You look at the Hall of Fame, and there are guys today who are in there who hit 140 homers and drove in 700, 800 runs. "You do that now, and you'd get laughed out of Cooperstown. "It's a different game, a different time." Nowadays, we're seeing things we never thought possible. Just a week ago, Bernie Williams and Jorge Posada became the first teammates to hit homers from each side of the plate in the same game. Mo Vaughn, Tim Salmon and Troy Glaus of the Angels became the first trio to hit home runs in an inning twice in the same game. The Minnesota Twins, who hit just 105 homers all last season, hit six in one game. Kevin Elster of the Los Angeles Dodgers, who retired and didn't even play last season, hit three homers in one game. Jermaine Dye has hit 38 homers in the last seven months - eight more than Hall of Famer George Brett hit in any season. And the St. Louis Cardinals, who hit only 58 homers in 1986, hit 55 home runs in April, tying the 1947 New York Giants for the most home runs in a month in the NL. Where will it stop? Will it stop at all? "To me, Aaron Sele (of the Seattle Mariners) says it all," Fregosi says. "You look at his ERA the last four years - 5.32 ERA, 5.38, 4.23, 4.79. And he's one of the top free-agent pitchers in the game." If a pitcher put up those kind of numbers in Fregosi's time, he'd be released, not making $7 million a year. Then again, Fregosi says, one look at history should have shown us this would happen. "Look back, when did (Roger) Maris and (Mickey) Mantle hit all of those homers?" Fregosi asks. "Right after expansion. "And these homers being hit now? Right after expansion. "You're seeing pitchers rushed to the big leagues now who might have good arms, but have no idea how to pitch yet." There's no need to look past last Saturday's game between the Milwaukee Brewers and Houston Astros for evidence. Everett Stull, making just his third big-league start, walked nine batters. Reliever Matt Williams followed and walked five more, giving the Brewers a franchise-record 14 walks, including 25 in two games. And young Astros starter Scott Elarton felt right in place when he walked eight batters in just 4.1 innings and was pulled with a 10-3 lead. Can anyone outside the city limits of Atlanta, besides Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez, pitch anymore? Does anyone care? "They've got to do something," Hall of Famer Nolan
Some common words found in the essay are:
Shane Reynolds, Houston Astros', Blue Jays, Baseball WeeklyBlame, Gary Sheffield, Roger Clemens, Tony Batista, Whitey Herzog, Mickey Mantle, Fregosi ERA, hit homers, home runs, home run, homers hit, home runs april, runs april, blue jays, guys hit, jermaine dye, houston astros', blame shrinking, home run derby, field pitcher's park,
Approximate Word count = 1647
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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