whats your HOF philosophy???

[bn2cardz]

Originally Posted by z28jd

Just asking you since you brought up Hank Aaron, who admitted to trying amphetamines once in his career. Do you seriously believe his story? He claimed to have no idea what it was and he only did it once because it made his nervous/anxious. We all know now that the players from the 60's took them quite often and while it didn't have the effect of steroids, it helped them compile stats because they were up for every game, so that is an obvious help. I just didn't like the "peer pressure" and only tried it once story that Aaron concocted. I'm not sure how people just let that go without calling bull.

Not trying to single out Aaron, but he was the one that came out with the crazy story. If someone hit 40 homers at age 39 nowadays, that would send up huge red flags. Since amphetamines are illegal now in the game, you could easily make a case for Ruth still being the home run king, but no one does.

This wasn't a discussion for this thread maybe, but since it came up...

I would say that Ruth is still the Home Run King (if you exclude PED users). Ruth had 11.76 AB/HR. This ranks second behind McGwire, but had McGwire played another 6/7 years that definitely would have dropped, but he couldn't stay around. Aaron's AB/HR is only ranked 37 all time at 16.49. His career home run total is due to having 3319 more PA than Ruth.

If you look at people that had Game longevity (20+ years) and had AB/HR better than Aaron you are still left with 7 players.


Babe Ruth+ (22):11.76
Barry Bonds (22):12.92
Jim Thome (22):13.76
Harmon Killebrew+ (22):14.22
Alex Rodriguez (20, 38):15.01
Jimmie Foxx+ (20):15.23
Ken Griffey (22):15.56
Willie McCovey+ (22):15.73
Hank Aaron+ (23):16.38

Even if you take out the players convicted of PED (and played in the 90s, therefor guilty by association) you are still left with 4. Aaron only lead the league in home runs for 4 seasons. Of the other 4, Ruth led 12 times, Killebrew led 6, Foxx 4 times, and McCovey 3 times. So Killebrew and Ruth still led in HR more seasons and had better HR/AB. So it is hard for me to call Hank Aaron the Home Run King based off one stat, when a deeper look shows that Ruth dominated this stat in his era (as a side note even Bonds only led in home runs twice and McGwire 4 times).


I respect people not wanting to vote for people because of dislike, but if that were the case there are several people that wouldn't be in (Anson, Cobb, Hornsby...).