When Barry Bonds was mystified by his ability to hit the ball farther late into his career
In 2001, Barry Bonds was hitting baseballs like nobody else could. His sky-scraping home runs left people watching in the stands and on TV stunned. They had no idea how he was hitting baseballs so far, and supposedly, neither did he.
He saw the hero's welcome that slugger Mark McGwire received in 1998 when he and Sammy Sosa took the world by storm with their home run race. He wanted that for himself and knew he was a better all-around hitter than both players, so he evened the playing field for himself.
As he would get hit with questions about his newfound power, Bonds didn't have an answer. He didn't rave about a new workout he was doing or a new batting drill that helped him get his bat head out in front more, it was none of that. He had no answers for how this ridiculous power surge came to be.
"The balls I used to line off the walls are lining out [of the park]. I can't tell you why" Said Barry Bonds.
All he knew was that he was finally seeing the appreciation he thought he deserved and loved it. He would go on to hit .328/.515/.863 with 73 home runs, which is the all-time single-season home run record (legitimate or not).
Barry Bonds hit absolute MOONSHOTS 🚀 https://t.co/ltllphVPs2
Barry Bonds would go on to have similar seasons the next couple of years when he was with the San Francisco Giants. He would often lead the league in batting average, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage.
Baseball fans will later learn the cause of his incredible power surge. In 2011, he was convicted of construction of justice in connection with a probe into his alleged use of PEDs. He was tied up in the BALCO investigation, the sports lab that distributed PEDs to various top-end athletes.
Barry Bonds and MLB's PED history has been a mess
Baseball fans were treated to one of the best offensive performances we have seen in some time with the season Aaron Judge just had. He broke the American League home run record with 62.
HE DID IT
All Rise Home Run Number 62 for Aaron Judge!
The 7th most HRs ever in a season! @short_porch https://t.co/r0jJvBAHYo
And with that record, there's debate. Some fans see Judge as having broken the all-time single-season home run record as the people above him are all a part of the steroid era. Many fans don't see Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, or Sammy Sosa as legitimate.
Other fans don't see it that way. They don't knock these guys for doing something that everyone else was doing at the time. If they didn't, they would have been left in the dust.
No matter what side you're on, we can all agree that this has been one of the biggest messes in professional sports.