The Actual Top 20 Lifetime HR Leaders (OT)

[GregMitch34]

Maris's 61 partly explained by expansion teams that year--see other AL dingers that year......and Norm Cash hit .360 or something....

[Tabe]

Originally Posted by GregMitch34

Maris's 61 partly explained by expansion teams that year--see other AL dingers that year......and Norm Cash hit .360 or something....

Cash admitted using a corked bat that season - and detailed his process for corking the bat in a Sports Illustrated article.

[packs]

In my opinion you can't take anything away from Maris' 1961 season. 26 years old. Coming off an MVP season. Dealing with everything that came with eclipsing Babe Ruth.

After Mantle the next closest guy to him hit 46. It was an incredible year for him.

[sniffy5]

The entire situation is very sad. I just don't watch the game with the same enjoyment anymore. I'm a huge Yankee fan, and we come to find out that many players from those championship Yankee years were cheating. And a guy like Pettitte gets a pass because he apologized and admitted it. But he only admitted it after the Mitchell Report cited him. He never would have admitted it otherwise. The report came years after his initial use. Where's the integrity in that?
And many of the PED apologists point to previous generations taking greenies, etc.. But it's not the same thing. For starters, the PED users also are probably taking speed day game after night game. Speculation of course, but I'm certain if players are willing to pay for platelet-spinning treatments, they'd also be willing to pop a speed pill here and there. And where us the line drawn to begin with? What about the pain-killer injection Gibson got when he hit the shot off of Eck? Was that a performance enhancer? Well, the answer is no. Greenies and cortisone don't make marginal players into stars. They don't add 40 lbs of muscle. But what makes me most disturbed with the entire subject is this notion the certain players are clean and free of suspicion. Jeter for instance. Every fan "knows" he never took a single PED. Everyone else in the league, who knows? But not Jeter. But how do we know that? And what's more, how could we know that?. I'm not certain he did, but I don't understand why certain players get the pass. Hell, SF fans annoyed the baseball world with their absolute absolution of Bonds. And Larussa swore none of his Oakland players ever took steroids. Then Canseco wrote the book, and Larussa then admitted Canseco did but again swore McGwire didn't. He could not get his bold faced lies straight. McGwire does his pitiful congress thing, and next thing you know St Louis wins the World Series with McGwire as batting coach. All lies forgiven and forgotten. That what kills me.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by GregMitch34

Maris's 61 partly explained by expansion teams that year--see other AL dingers that year......and Norm Cash hit .360 or something....

Any NL batting records set when the Mets and Colts were added? This seems an unlikely explanation to me. I think he just had a career year, and it didn't hurt that it was impossible to pitch around him.

[refz]

Seeing how griffey is zeroed in on this thread, was frank thomas ever suspected? He also did alot of damage in the 90s. Just wondering.