Play Ball!

April 8, 2002

Going, Going, Gone
This has become a familiar cry after the first week of the 2002 Major League Baseball season. And if week one is any indication of what is to come, then this year should be just as exciting as the last. Although the season opened with a dominant pitching performance by Cleveland hurler Bartolo Colon, the biggest stories of the week were home runs and Giants slugger Barry Bonds.

Last week, Bonds became only the second player in MLB history to hit two homers in each of his team's first two games (the first was Eddie Matthews in 1958). Several other players — Lance Berkman, Gary Sheffield, and Travis Lee — slammed homers in each of their teams' first three games. This is especially remarkable considering that only twice in MLB history has a player homered in each of his team's first four games (slugger Mark McGwire in his record-breaking 1998 season and career HR leader "Hammerin' Hank" Aaron in 1971). All three failed in their attempts to match this rare accomplishment.

Last week's events and the record-breaking performances of the last few years perhaps signify how much the game has changed over the years. In baseball's early days, it was not uncommon for a league home run leader to tally less than 10 home runs in a year. In fact, Frank "Home Run" Baker led the American League from 1911 to 1914 with totals of 11, 20, 12, and 9. Then the legendary Babe Ruth came along and changed everything. Ruth set the home run record in 1919, 1920, 1921, and again in 1927, with tallies of 29, 54, 59, and 60.

Only eight times in MLB history has a player topped 60 home runs. Six of the eight 60+ seasons have come in the last five years. Why do you think today's players are hitting more home runs than those of previous generations? Here are the main reasons:

Weight training makes today's players stronger.
The pitcher's mound is lower. (A higher mound makes pitches harder to hit because the ball flies in at a more difficult angle.)
Ballparks are smaller. It's easier to hit the baseball into the stands.
A smaller strike zone lets batters be more selective, and it also means that strikes are easier to hit.
Today's baseballs are made differently, so they are "livelier" and pop off the bat more powerfully than those of Babe Ruth's day.

Vital Statistics
Of all sports, baseball perhaps dwells most on the statistical performances of its players — during the current season and over players' entire careers. According to John Dewan, the CEO of baseball information company STATS Inc., statistics draw fans of all ages.

"You can get kids really interested in statistics," says Dewan. "Every year, I do a presentation to the Cub Scouts, 7- and 8-year-old boys. I bring baseball cards and make a game of it. I have a contest and ask them to come up with the card with the player with the most runs in 1998. This teaches them how to read a chart, the rows and the columns. It's a lot of fun for them."

Major League Baseball has cultivated these changes in the interests of enhancing offensive play; fans like the excitement of homers — the more homers are hit, the more tickets are sold. Who knows what a player like Babe Ruth would accomplish in today's game? He might hit far more than 60 home runs in a 153-game season; he may well smash Barry Bonds' 73-run record.

Do you think it makes sense to compare Ruth's achievements with those of today's players — or is it like comparing apples with oranges?

Greatest All-Time Slugger
The outstanding offensive performances of recent years has sparked renewed debate over who is baseball's greatest slugger of all time. Let's take a look at the statistics of some baseball legends and some current stars to see who is most deserving of the title. (Move your cursor over the abbreviations to see what each stat means.)

Seasons Games AB H 2B 3B HR

Babe
Ruth 22 2503 8399 2873 506 136 714

Hank Aaron 23 3298 12364 3771 624 98 755

Mark McGwire 16 1874 6187 1626 252 6 583

Barry Bonds 16 2296 7932 2313 483 71 567

Sammy Sosa 14 1725 6470 1795 278 41 450

Roger Maris 12 1463 5101 1325 195 42 275

Willie Mays 22 2992 10881 3283 523 140 660

For each of the sluggers in the table, determine the following:

Who has hit the most home runs per season?

Who has hit the most home runs per game?

Who has the lowest number of at bats (AB) per home run (HR)?

To see the answers to the above questions, click here.

Create Your Own Formula
According to David Grabiner, author of "The Baseball Manifesto," there are several questions to ask when thinking about baseball statistics: "Does the statistic make an important contribution to the goal?" and "How well does the statistic measure the player's own contribution?" Remember, the goal of each baseball game is to win it. Keeping these questions in mind, if you were a statistician, what formula would you use to determine the world's greatest batter?

Another way that baseball experts measure performance is with a statistic known as the "slugging percentage" (SLG). The SLG is important because it measures the total offensive performance of a hitter and not just the number of home runs. It's calculated using this formula:

SLG = TB (Total Bases) ÷ AB (At Bats)

To calculate Total Bases, use this formula:

TB = H + 2B + (2 x 3B) + (3 x HR)

Use the formulas to figure out which of the sluggers in the table above has the highest slugging percentage. Click here to see the answer.

So, now that you've looked at all these statistics, can you say who is the greatest slugger of all time? Is it Hank Aaron, who smashed 755 home runs in his career — more than any other player? Is it Barry Bonds, who has the most home runs in a single season with 73? Is it Mark McGwire, who hit a home run every 10.6 at bats? Or is it Babe Ruth, who has the highest career slugging percentage of all time?

As you can see, there are many ways of judging a player's track record. And while numbers matter, it's important to look at them in context. Barry Bonds' 73 home runs per season, while impressive, don't seem as awesome when you consider that other players were hitting 50+ in the same season. However, when Babe Ruth was leading the league, other players usually lagged far behind. (In 1927, when Ruth hit 60 home runs for the New York Yankees, the entire Boston Red Sox team hit just 28 home runs.)

Who would you say is the greatest slugger of all time? Let's see what this season brings.

Get statistics galore at Baseball-Reference.com.

Keep up with the latest baseball news with the Major League Baseball official Web site.


		Dividing Decimals For help with the math you need to work on the stats in this story, look no further than Destination Math.

		Life in the Negro Leagues Read about this important chapter in baseball history with this Riverdeep archive article.

		America's Pastime For teachers: Written on the occasion of last year's World Series, this article shows how to use baseball to teach science, math, and writing.