Players are hitting the ball out of the park at a record setting pace in 2017, yet their achievements are not receiving the attention some would have expected
Baseball is in the midst of a power explosion the likes of which historically has filled stadiums, driven ratings and created a new crop of home run-bashing American sports legends, yet the reaction this time around has been a little more ambivalent.
Yankees rightfielder Roger Maris led the original power explosion in 1961 when he slugged a then-record 61 home runs to pass Babe Ruth’s long-time single season mark. There were 2,717 home runs in baseball that season, which set an all-time MLB mark for 0.95 home runs per game. There was some discussion at the time about whether the ball had been “juiced” – that is, manufactured in order to travel further. But if baseballs were jumping more in 1961 it was not because the ball had made quite the transformation it had undergone in 1911. Back then a new cork-centered ball, as opposed to the rubber core ball of the “dead ball era,” saw scoring (and ticket sales) skyrocket. And so the sudden increase in home runs in 1961 was primarily pinned on the American League expanding by two teams and the subsequent watering down of the pitching talent.
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.@TheJudge44 leaves his mark. https://t.co/mOPsNBbgbE pic.twitter.com/hiNUM3Dw9I
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