The Benching of Barry Bonds

Some have suggested that things have always balanced out, since it is now evident that there was widespread cheating among both hitters and pitchers. But clearly the home run numbers don't bear that out. Over the past decade the home run leader in the American League has averaged 50 home runs, in the National League 56. This year no American League hitter is currently on pace for 40 home runs; it could mark the first season since 1992 that a league-leader blasts fewer than 40. (In researching this, I came up with a nice bit of trivia. The last person to lead a league—the National in 1992—with fewer than 40 home runs was also, in 1989, the last player to lead the American League with fewer than 40. Who was it? Answer at column's end.)

Back in 2000 the average team hit a whopping 190 home runs. In 2006 teams still averaged 180. Last year that total dipped to 165, and this season, if the current pace continues, the average will be 147—with four teams hitting fewer than 100 homers. But it's not just home runs that are diminishing; it's all kinds of hits. While hitters tend to heat up along with the weather, the average team batting average in the American League is currently just .256 and in the National League .258. That is a decline of 14 and 8 points, respectively. Which helps explain why Monday night, in the five A.L. games on the slate, just 27 runs were scored, or three fewer than the Texas Rangers put on the board in their best outing last season.

Personally, I have been enjoying this new beginning, the start of the post-Bonds-and-Clemens era. Major League Baseball is proving once again to be every bit as unpredictable as the NFL. Putative contenders like the Mets, Yankees, Indians, Braves, Tigers, Rockies and Padres have been somewhere between disappointing and disastrous, while teams like the Marlins, Orioles, Rays and Twins that were expected to trail the pack are off to respectable starts. (And everyone should appreciate the healthy effect of the Torre tonic on the Dodgers.) Coming off the most wretched off-season of the modern era, baseball is enjoying a remarkably promising year. Why would anybody want to swallow a poison pill right in the middle of it?

Trivia Answer: Fred "Crime Dog" McGriff. In 1992 he hit 35 home runs with the San Diego Padres to lead the N.L. Three years earlier, with the Toronto Blue Jays, he led the A.L. with 36.

© 2008