MLB Tickets - The Home Run: What It Meant and What It Means Today

For more than a century, fans of the great American pastime have been purchasing MLB tickets to see players hit home runs. While home runs didn't truly become prominent until George Herman "Babe" Ruth began hitting more dingers in a season than entire teams, the home run quickly grew into one of sports' most exciting plays. When Ruth hit 60 homers in 1927, people considered it a record that would never be broken. The Babe was the home run king, totaling out at 714 by the time his career was over, and his accomplishments, as well as his persona, seemed larger than life. Something about the home run just draws people to the ballpark. The phrase "chicks dig the long ball" is essentially a modernized sentiment that transcends generations of baseball fans. One of the beautiful things about baseball is that one swing can significantly alter the course of a game and the roar of the crowd is never louder than when a ball sails into the seats.

The evolution of the home run is an interesting one. It went from a rarity to a sensation thanks to the Babe, but then hit a general plateau. The home run's popularity could not rise much higher, only doing so briefly when a player would threaten to surpass 60 in one season. The home run was big news when Jimmie Fox hit 58 in 1932, and when Hank Greenberg did the same in 1938. However, in 1961 two New York Yankees, Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle, both made a run at the historic mark. Maris ending up breaking the record, hitting his 61st home run on the last day of the season. Though there was considerable controversy surrounding the fact that it took Maris 162 games to hit his 61 home runs, while it took the Babe a mere 151 to hit his 60, eventually people came to accept Maris as the true single season home run king. Even before the asterisk was removed in the record books in the '90s, 61 had long stood as the accepted pinnacle of home run hitting for a single season.

During that historic season, Maris' stress level went through the roof as a result of the constant stream of death threats and hate mail he received for challenging the record. Henry "Hank" Aaron would receive similar, probably worse, treatment in 1974 leading up to his record-breaking his 715th career home run. Why would people go so far as to threaten an athlete's life just for reaching the pinnacle of their sport? Sure, the almost universal adulation of Babe Ruth certainly played a role in this behavior, but so did the baseball world's love for the home run and the records associated with the long ball. People did not want a record that they considered to be so sacred and untouchable to be broken. The man, the myth, the legend, Babe Ruth, has been bested in both categories, making 61 and 755 (Aaron's career total upon his retirement) the most recognizable numbers in baseball statistics. When it came to these two milestones, the home run became larger than baseball in a sense.

For 37 years the number 61 held as the mark that baseball fans associated with home run greatness, a number that people, again, were sure would never be broken, though it had lost some of the sanctity it once had. Then, in 1998, two men, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, both hit more than 61 home runs. These men were not bombarded with the boos and harassment that Maris and Aaron were subjected to, but were treated as heroes. The home run record was considered unreachable at the time, but it was not as sanctified as it had been in the past. Baseball was also entrenched in the gallows of relative unpopularity, and McGwire and Sosa's pursuit of 61 gave fans something to cheer about again. In this way, the home run may have saved baseball. McGwire ended up topping out at 70 home runs that season, establishing the new benchmark of the power hitting profession (Sosa finished with 66). McGwire quickly became a living legend, and the home run had regained its luster, but as quickly as he'd become the single season home run king he was dethroned by Barry Bonds in 2001. Bonds again brought the home run to the forefront of baseball and the front pages of newspapers with his historic season. Bonds hit 73 out of the yard that year, establishing yet another "unbreakable" record.

But, when something seems too good to be true, it probably is. The legitimacy of the gargantuan home runs that the likes of Bonds, McGwire, Sosa and other power hitters of their era hit have come into question due to the role of steroids in baseball. It's a certainty that baseball players have used performance enhancing drugs, resulting in inflated statistics. Precisely which players used those substances, we'll probably never know. With the dark shadow of steroids cast upon the American pastime, how do we view these home run numbers? The mark of 61 home runs was bested six times during the steroid era, once by Bonds, twice by McGwire and three times by Sosa, all of whom have come under the suspicion of using performance enhancing substances. Though it has not been proven that any one of these three players have used performance enhancers, the perception of their accomplishments has changed dramatically since the steroid question has come up. In 2006, Bonds surpassed Aaron as the all-time home run leader with his 756th home run. This accomplishment, however, was not met with the adoration and awe that he or McGwire's single season marks were, but with a mixed reception by the general baseball public. People didn't know whether to cheer or boo. Was this one of the most impressive feats in the history of the game, or was it simply a guy who cheated trying to steal a record away from someone who is now considered an American hero?

People are unsure how to view the steroid era as a whole because there is minimal proof concerning the biggest power hitting names of the time. Mark McGwire has not been elected to the hall-of-fame, despite being on the ballot now for multiple years. His numbers suggest that he should probably have been a first-ballot member in Cooperstown, but the cloud of suspicion that looms over him has been too much for the voters. Barry Bonds spent all of the 2008 season as a free agent even though he produced at a high level the season before. It's clear that these athletes are being viewed as guilty before proven innocent by the masses.

Thanks to the steroid era, the admiration of the home run deflated in the mid-2000s. Sluggers like Bonds had made it look so easy to hit the ball out of the park that fans came to expect home runs, rather than appreciate them. It wasn't just the record breakers that seemed to cheapen the home run, but the general surge in power that the entire league experienced as well. For a period, home runs were a dime a dozen. But now, with more comprehensive and effective testing and stiffer penalties, performance enhancing drugs in baseball have essentially become a thing of the past. Baseball has gotten back to a game based on natural physical ability, but where was the home run left in the aftermath of this storm?

These days, the home run is starting to regain its prominence in the mind of the general public. Though the record of 73 home runs in a single season still stands, and there's no concrete reason it should not at this point, 61 is starting to regain its status as the benchmark for home run hitting. Still, it's not considered the definitive mark that it once was, and it may never be. Ryan Howard hit 58 home runs in 2006 and while there was some buzz about him potentially surpassing 61 (even the Maris family acknowledged that they would have considered Howard the single season home run king had he eclipsed 61), it was not the same kind of buzz that such an act once commanded. Alex Rodriguez hit 54 the following year and we didn't hear a whole lot about 61.

It's unfortunate that the perception of the home run, and the number 61, is not what it used to be. I remember when Cecil Fielder hit 51 home runs in 1990 and the fuss people made over it. Those are the days I long for, when people can again realize what an accomplishment hitting that many home runs truly is. In 2008, Howard led the major leagues in home runs with 48, and Adam Dunn was the only other player to reach 40. Perhaps, with more seasons like this, the home run will again regain the respect and admiration that it deserves. I think we're on our way there, but it may take some time for us to recover from all that has happened.

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