History of Baseball in The United States - The Steroid Era - The Power Age

The Power Age

While the introduction of steroids certainly increased the power production of greats there were other factors that drastically increased the power surge after 1994. The factors cited are: smaller sized ballparks than in the past, "juiced baseballs" implying that the balls are wound tighter thus travel further following contact with the bat, "watered down pitching" implying that lesser quality pitchers are up in the Major Leagues due to too many teams. Albeit that these factors did play a large role in increasing home run thus scoring totals during this time, others that directly impact ballplayers have an equally important role. As noted earlier one of those factors is anabolic steroids which have the capability of increasing muscle mass, which enables hitters to not only hit "mistake" pitches farther, but it also enables hitters to adjust to "good" pitches such as a well-placed fastball, slider, changeup, or curveball, and hit them for home runs. Another such factor is better nutrition, as well as training and training facilities/equipment which can work with (or without) steroids to produce a more potent ballplayer and further enhance his skills.

Routinely in today's baseball age we see players reach 40 and 50 home runs in a season, a feat that even in the 1980s was considered rare. Many modern baseball theorists believe that a new pitch will swing the balance of power back to the pitcher. A pitching revolution would not be unprecedented—several pitches have changed the game of baseball in the past, including the slider in the 1950s and 1960s and the split-fingered fastball in the 1970s to 1990s. Since the 1990s, the changeup has made a resurgence, being thrown masterfully by pitchers such as Tim Lincecum, Pedro Martinez, Trevor Hoffman, Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, Johan Santana, Justin Verlander and Cole Hamels.