The Comeback of the Longball
As the wise Jose Canseco once said, “Chicks dig the longball.” Wait, did I just call Jose Canseco wise? No, that doesn’t sound right – let’s rewind a little bit…
As the MEATHEAD, Jose Cansaco once said “Chicks dig the longball.” Yeah, that sounds much better. He may not have been the brightest guy to ever step on the diamond, but he definitely wasn’t wrong when he said that. If there is one thing that all baseball fans can agree on, it’s that we all love home runs. They are the most exciting part of a game, whether it’s for your team or against. When a ball flies into the bleachers, fans of both teams are fighting each other to catch it as it makes its slow fall back down to earth. Doesn’t matter if it’s an A’s fan getting ready to catch yet another Mike Trout homer at the Coliseum, or an Angels fan in Orange County standing up to be the one to go home with yet another Khris Davis dinger.
No matter how you slice it, us fans love us some home runs. Baseball historically has had its highest ratings when home runs are consistently flying. This unfortunately has been something that has been lacking since the legendary home run race between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa back in 1997. Since then it has been a pitchers league and because of that we have seen the emergence of some great pitching talent like Clayton Kershaw, David Price and Max Scherzer. But something amazing has happened the past two MLB seasons, the home run is back!
The past two seasons we have seen more home runs then in the past 25 including the home run race of 1997 and Barry Bonds, though controversial, record setting year of 73 in 2007. Last season, the MLB had a total of 6,105 averaging 1.26 home runs per game. In the 2016 season, we saw 5,610 averaging at 1.16 home runs per game. Not only did 2017 see more dingers than any of the Steroid Era seasons, it set the record for most ever hit in a season in the history of the MLB. Then, next closest after that was 2000, and then after that 2016, if you can believe it. I think that evidence proves that the longball is definitely back.
As a result of the high quantity of homers the past couple years, we have seen a rise in TV ratings as well. 2016 saw the highest rated World Series in 12 years – averaging 22.8 million viewers per game with a jaw-dropping 40 million viewers tuning into Game 7, arguably the greatest World Series game every played. Now you could argue one big reason that series had such high ratings was because the Chicago Cubs made their first World Series appearance in over 100 years, but I don’t think you can deny that the increase in home runs that season had to play a part in it, and the 2017 World Series is evidence of that. It wasn’t too far behind in ratings, either – averaging 18.7 million views per game.
Now all these numbers I’m throwing at you are all good and dandy, but I think the real question we’re all thinking is, why are we seeing so many home runs? This is a fantastic question. This isn’t the steroid era anymore, and times have changed. Performance enhancing drug testing has gotten much better, and we see a handful of players each year get suspended for part of the year as a result of this. Steroid use can’t be the reason...so, what is it? Here are some reasons that have crossed my mind as I’ve thought hard about this recently:
Analytics
Analytics have completely changed how sports are played nowadays, especially baseball. Baseball is a numbers game – so what can be more helpful than having more numbers, stats, and data available? Nothing. Players and coaches have more information available these days than ever before. These stats and data can help a batter transform his swing to best benefit the way he approaches the plate.
One of my favorite active players and someone I mentioned early on, Khris Davis, is a great example of this. His swing is designed to maximize his home run output. He has a short stroke swing. Instead of holding the bat high up behind his shoulders, he holds it below his shoulders with the bat facing more or less straight up and down. This takes some well needed torque off of his swing, giving it less power, but it makes for a faster motion all the way through. This gives him just a little more time from when the ball leaves the pitchers’ hand to the catchers’ glove, allowing him more time to decide to swing or not.
Now naturally you are probably thinking, “Then how does he still hit 40 home runs a season?” Davis works very hard on his upper body strength to give him a faster swing, allowing him to have more power behind his bat. This allows for him to have his short and quick swing but with the same amount of power as so many other guys in the league. He may not be able to hit them 500 feet like Aaron Judge or Giancarlo Stanton, but he can get them over the fence and often. For him, it’s not about how far he can get them. It’s about putting as many runs on that score board as often as he can. Now if that isn’t the benefit of modern day numbers and data, then I don’t know what is.
Steroid Era Nostalgia
Look: I hate steroids, I think they ruined the game, I don’t support anyone who used them, and I definitely don’t think those guys deserve to be in the Hall of Fame. But I have a great amount of love and nostalgia for that era of baseball because that was the era I grew up watching. This is our generation – I’m talking about us millennials. I know we are all sick and tired of hearing about all the stupid stuff we do, but this also relates to baseball.
Most of the big stars of the MLB right now are millennials and they’re the ones who are ripping it out of the park so often. Bryce Harper, Anthony Rizzo, Mike Trout, Josh Donaldson, Giancarlo Stanton and so on: all millennials. These guys grew in the steroid era watching guys like A-Rod and Barry Bonds crush homers thanks to the use of performance-enhancing drugs. They can’t help but want to be like their heroes growing up and now they get that chance. All they saw was dingers as kids, so you can bet all they want to do now is take that leisurely trot around the bases.
Manufacture Change In The Making Of Baseballs
This one is just a rumor, so I don’t want to get too in-depth with it, but it’s pretty straightforward. The manufacturing of the baseball has made them lighter, thus making them fly farther distances. Rumor has it that the type of wood used for the cork has changed to a lighter wood and less rubber is added to the formation of the cork center. Again, this is all speculation and rumor, so I’m just not going to dive too far into it.
Any way you slice it, the home run is back and it appears it is here to stay. Baseball is much more fun when balls are flying off bats over the fences. A pitchers’ duel is fun and all to watch from time to time, but it’s the excitement of seeing runs scored at a high frequency that really gets us excited to watch this great sport. The best and easiest way to bring runs in is hitting one out of the park. Not even a baseball purist can argue that he doesn’t like seeing runs go up on the scoreboard.