Who is the rightful single season MLB Home Run Champ?

[Joe_G.]

ESPN's take on Roger Maris:

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=7040052

[tbob]

Roger Maris will always be the legitimate holder of the single season home run record and Hank Aaron the career home run record.

[MacDice]

Like it or not it is Barry Bonds. The bottom line is what he was taking at the time was not banned by MLB. MLB knew about it but they were to busy making money to do anything about it.

[HRBAKER]

Isn't it interesting how these folks that were not doing anything that was banned by MLB still won't admit what they were doing that wasn't banned?
The shine is off the record.

[ChiefBenderForever]

Originally Posted by MacDice

Like it or not it is Barry Bonds. The bottom line is what he was taking at the time was not banned by MLB. MLB knew about it but they were to busy making money to do anything about it.

Hate to say it but it is true and the powers to be did everything they could to praise McGwire and Sosa as the saviors of baseball, then stabbed them and everyone else in the back when they decided enough was enough. If Bonds wasn't so anti social and such a prick you have to wonder how much different everyone would think of him and the whole situation. Bottom line is they didn't break any rules at the time so it is what it is, a giant cluster F*&^

[ls7plus]

Originally Posted by tbob

Roger Maris will always be the legitimate holder of the single season home run record and Hank Aaron the career home run record.

+1. I give Bonds and McGwire credit for being the best of their era, in which literally hundreds of players were juicing (see the book written by Kirk Radomski, the Mets' clubhouse attendant, who was supplying them!), and by all accounts, those two were the hardest working (it takes more than just injecting the juice to maximize the results). But the fact remains that what they were doing was a felony offense under the laws in effect at the time (although it was seldom policy to prosecute illicit users, as the criminal justice system focused upon dealers), and the fact that major league baseball had no rules against it is totally irrelevant. That having been said, for any of us who have, like me, stood out there at the plate, 60'6"
away with bat in hand from even a good college pitcher, or former pro throwing 90+ and good breaking stuff, it is readily apparent that the achievements of Bonds and McGwire were truly amazing, regardless of the tools employed. But by no means do they stand on an equal footing with Maris and Aaron.

It is also interesting to note that Roger Maris and Babe Ruth had an almost identical number of plate appearances: Maris had 590 at bats plus 90 walks, for a total of 680, while the Babe had 540 at bats and 138 free passes, for a total of 678. I don't know the number of HBP's or sacrifice flies, but would think that would not make any significant difference. Maris also faced one heckuva lot more pressure than the Babe in accomplishing his feat, since the Babe was only surpassing his own previous record of 59.

Finally, the Babe was clearly the GREATEST homerun hitter of all time, despite the fact that his totals have been surpassed (Aaron, as fabulous as he truly was, had more than 3,000 more at bats than the Babe, by my recollection).

Josh Gibson was certainly great by all accounts, but remember that in the days of the Negro Leagues, these teams also played a number of games each year against semi-pro teams. His greatness simply cannot be ascertained with any degree of certainty at all, and must consequently be based on speculation and conjecture.

Just my $2.00 worth!

Interesting thread, as it will probably always be.

Best wishes,

Larry

[quinnsryche]

Originally Posted by tbob

Roger Maris will always be the legitimate holder of the single season home run record and Hank Aaron the career home run record.

I agree 1000% Bonds is a cheat, always was, always will be. Anyone who votes for Bonds cares nothing for the game only numbers.

[martyogelvie]

My vote was for Maris.
I don't think there is a better story, at least a better HR story than Maris'.

I certainly do not begrudge what Bonds and big Mac did. But its just not as great a feat as Maris'.

61 forever!

[tedzan]

I was in the Air Force during the 1961 season stationed at a B52 bomber base in Bangor, Maine. That September, I followed the day-by-day HR contest
between Mantle & Maris. First, it looked as if Mantle was on track to break Ruth's record. When Mickey became sick, the pressure shifted to Roger Maris
to break the record. When Roger hit his 61st HR, I was really excited. It was a tremendous time to be a Yankees fan.

But in this poll, I voted for Babe Ruth. Simply because of the difference in the # of games played. Ruth was unbelievable in September of 1927. He hit an
unprecendented 17 HR's to achieve his 60. Given 8 more games with the momentum he had, Ruth might have hit 70 HR's that year.

Having said all that....let's not forget that Roger's 61 HR's are still the best in the American League. All those "steroid dudes" with more than 61 HRs were
in the NL.


TED Z