Raffy: 380 Home Runs
Until 1994, Palmeiro Was On A Pace For A Career Total of 380
On August 1, Raffy, as his friend likes to call him, was suspended for ten days after testing positive for steroids. BUT, all his previous tests were negative.
Rafael Palmeiro hit more than 30 home runs once in his first eight full seasons in the major leagues, but starting in 1995, at the age of thirty, Palmeiro hit at least 30 home runs for nine consecutive seasons, breaking Babe Ruth’s mark of seven straight seasons. From 1986, when he appeared in only 22 games, through and including 1994, Raffy, as his fan likes to call him, hit 155 home runs for an average of about 19 a season. During the next nine years, Palmeiro hit 373 home runs for an average of 41 a season, with at least 100 RBIs in each of those seasons.
Palmeiro Was On A Pace For 380 Career Home Runs
Only Rafael Palmeiro, Willie Mays, Henry Aaron, and Eddie Murray have at least 3000 hits and 500 home runs. If Raffy, as his fan likes to call him, had maintained the pace of his first eight seasons, he would have hit approximately 380 career home runs with 3000 hits. Isn’t it interesting that the number of hits Raffy, as his fan likes to call him, averaged the first and second parts of his career were about the same. Only his home runs totals changed.
Increase Home Run Production By Fifty Percent
Roger Tobin is a physicist who has reviewed existing studies of the effects of steroid use, concluding that muscle mass, the force muscles exert, and the baseball bat’s kinetic energy could EACH be increased by about 10 percent by steroid use. "A change of only a few percent in the average speed of the batted ball, which can reasonably be expected from steroid use, is enough to increase home run production by at least 50 percent.”
Recent Home Trend Is Not Evidence of Cheating
Tobin states that athletes in many sports achieve at a higher level than past athletes and that the recent home run trend is not evidence of cheating. "Physics cannot tell us whether a particular home run was steroid-assisted, or even whether an extraordinary individual performance indicates the use of illicit means," says Tobin. "These results certainly do not prove that recent performances are tainted, but they suggest that some suspicion is reasonable.”.
Muscle Mass Increase Is The Key Factor
Muscle mass is the key factor. Who is to say HOW a player increases his muscle mass? Barry Bonds’ workout regimen is legendary, yet some cynical individuals question how Barry has grown so different from the lithe outfielder of the late 1980s. The same questions are asked about Mark McGwire and a few others who have hit many home runs, but only Jason Giambi has admitted that he had injected himself with human growth hormone during the 2003 baseball season and had started using steroids at least two years earlier.
Presumed Innocence: No Perjury Charges
We live in America. Our justice system is the fairest and most efficient in the world, as the O.J. Simpson criminal trial verdicts prove. There is proof against only Jason Giambi because he told the truth. Everyone else is presumed innocent by the justice system, at least until tomorrow.
On March 17, 2005, Raffy, as his fan likes to call him, told Congress, under oath, that he never used steroids, period. On August 1, he was suspended for ten days after testing positive for steroids. BUT, all his previous tests were negative. Palmeiro has never explained the contradiction between his positive test and his public statements, but this should not be a cause of concern. After all, the House Government Reform Committee did not seek perjury charges against Raffy, as his friend likes to call him.
References:
Jason Giambi Admits Steroid Use
