Other Crap

Time to restore 61 as HR standard

• By the time anybody got around to making that decision, the record would be broken. The presumably steroid-free Ortiz and Howard are on pace for 59 and 58 this year! One spurt for either of them, and 62 is well within reach.
• Baseball is a game contingent on the competitive balance between pitching and batting, and that balance is determined by small rule changes. You want batters to hit more homers? Legalize aluminum bats. You want fewer homers? Enlarge the strike zone and/or raise the mound. Baseball's run production in the 20s and 30s was as high or higher than now, but it was down to deadball levels by the late 60s. There is as much offense as baseball's rulers allow, and they allow as much as the fans respond to. Offense is currently dominating the game, as it did in the 20s and 30s, because the current philosophy says that offense fills the seats, and record-chases are good for the game. (Remember the excitment over Sosa-McGwire.)
• Plus, look at the size of those mofos. Stan Musial weighed 175 pounds, Willie Mays 180, Yaz 182. Those guys would be anemic shortstops in today's world. Ryan Howard admits to 252 pounds (up 22 pounds from what his card originally said). Ortiz still claims 230, but I suppose he weighed more than that in eighth grade. I'm thinkin' he's pretty damned close to 300. Is it surprising that they can hit the ball farther than Mays could.
• The weights of the biggest baseball and basketball players are always understated for some reason. Do you remember when the Lakers used to claim that Shaq weighed 299? He now freely admits to 338 in interviews, and that is probably when he's in his best mid-season shape. And that's now, when he's in comparatively good shape, gets back on defense consistently, and looks slim compared to a few years ago. I suppose he's now 350-360 in the off-season. In his last year with the Lakers he was about 370 in the season, and had to get very close to four bills in the off-season. Ortiz can't match that of course, but get that lad on the scale in December, after Christmas dinner, and my over/under is three bills.