Ryan Howard / Roger Maris

[JimCaravello]

I found this article by Dan Wetzel on Yahoo - I personally think Howard is clean - love his point about Maris though, as that has been my opinion for a long time........Maris still holds the single season HR record. Jim




A question of mistrust

A question of mistrustBy Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! Sports
September 3, 2006
Is Ryan Howard juiced?
Don't blame me for wondering. It might not be fair, but it isn't my (or your) fault for asking before plunging headlong into another home run chase.

Blame baseball, blame society, blame a summer that has given us Floyd Landis, Justin Gatlin, Marion Jones, Barry Bonds and a host of other drug cheats who can make a cynic out of anyone.

The Philadelphia Phillies first baseman knocked home runs 50, 51 and 52 out of the park Sunday. So here on Labor Day he is within striking distance of Roger Maris' single-season home run record of 61, which means the attention, and the debate, will become sharper now.

There is no reason, no whisper, no allegation that suggests Howard is cheating. In fact, there is plenty of talk that he is clean. But how can you blindly trust anyone anymore?
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And by the way, yes, it's Maris' record. Or, if you want to get technical, the162-game record for players free from performance-enhancing drugs, which any intelligent, rational person agrees disqualifies Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Bonds, who all hit more.


But then again, who's willing to guarantee Ryan Howard is clean, too?
"With Howard, what he hits is legit, and everything about it is because he's totally dedicated to his hard work," Philadelphia manager Charlie Manuel told the Bucks County Times Friday.

It would be nice to take Manuel at his word, but haven't we heard these coach testimonials before?

All of this provides the backdrop for what could be the most bizarre home run chase in baseball history – and that's saying something.

The 26-year-old out of Southwest Missouri State is a likable star, and during a season when baseball finally began testing for some performance-enhancing drugs, a fresh faced and honest home run king would be perfect.
It would be like a bookend to the steroid era.

But only if you want to believe the steroid era is really over.
The reality is that while Major League Baseball is doing some testing, it isn't doing enough. It still isn't getting after human growth hormones, which the spring arrest of journeyman pitcher Jason Grimsley showed is the new drug of choice. And, as history has taught us, there is always a new concoction we don't know about.
Testing alone isn't enough of a deterrent to stop the natural motivation to cheat. There are still millions to be made and glory to be had by cutting corners. Human nature hasn't changed.

No reasonable person can believe baseball is out of the drug business, which means no reasonable person can believe the steroid era is over. The truth is that it will probably never end.

This brings us to Ryan Howard. At 6-foot-4 and 252 pounds, he has a booming, beautiful swing. He very well may be a natural. After all, he won the National League Rookie of the Year award last season despite playing just 88 games (he hit 22 home runs). He has already hit more homers in his second full season than anyone, ever.

So does that make him easier to believe than a proven slugger such as Albert Pujols or David Ortiz sitting on 52? Or is everyone under suspicion these days?

It would be a joy to watch Howard club 62, renewing the condemnation for McGwire, Sosa and Bonds. But even so, there is a spoiling effect here.

First, what does MLB do? The people and the press will celebrate it, but Bud Selig still recognizes Bonds' 73-home run charade in 2001. If Howard hits No. 62, do you hold a ceremony for what is, officially, the seventh-best single season total?
Meanwhile, the specter of suspicion means people probably won't get swept up in the excitement the way they did back in the summer of 1998, when McGwire, Sosa and their chemists originally passed Maris.

It is said that those two saved baseball after the 1994 strike that canceled the World Series. While their exploits didn't hurt, and certainly motivated the national media to focus on the sport, baseball was always coming back. The game itself is too compelling to wilt away.

More important to baseball were the late 1990s dynasty of the New York Yankees, which returned baseball to supremacy in influential Manhattan, and the Camden Yard-inspired stadium building boom, which made parks family destinations again. But the most important thing, as Salon.com's King Kaufman has pointed out, was the rise of fantasy baseball which the Internet made increasingly simpler and more popular, generating millions of die-hard fanatics.

McGwire and Sosa (and later Bonds) were quick fixes, shots across the sky. They couldn't, and won't, stand the test of time.

Whether Ryan Howard eventually can is a more important question for baseball. Virtually everyone would love to see this kid provide a September to remember – a chase for history powered by nothing more than Wheaties.

But baseball's decades of inaction and a long, hot summer of sporting scandal has to make you pause.

Ten dingers from the record and with 25 games to play, you want to believe, you really do. But you have to ask: Is this Ryan Howard guy for real?
Dan Wetzel is Yahoo! Sports' national columnist.

Send Dan a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.

[allstarsplus]

Interesting article and always open for debate.

Ryan Howard's signed and game used items are going crazy.

Check out this auction for a signed/inscribed Ryan Howard ball at over $400
http://auction.mlb.com/cgi-bin/ncomm...aunbr=73865244

Here is my list of the Top 5 up to 1961!

Roger Maris 61 Home Runs (L)

1961 New York Yankees AL

Babe Ruth 60 Home Runs (L)

1927 New York Yankees AL

Babe Ruth 59 Home Runs (L)

1921 New York Yankees AL

Hank Greenberg 58 Home Runs (R)

1938 Detroit Tigers AL

Jimmie Foxx 58 Home Runs (R)

1932 Philadelphia Athletics AL

[sportscentury]

Ruth hitting 60 in 1927, in that era and in the number of games that they played back then, is by far the most impressive single season homerun accomplishment in my eyes. Nothing else comes close to comparing.

With that said, the accomplishments of Bonds, Sosa, and McGwire do not compare to Maris' accomplishment in 1961 either.

On a related note, I am one of the few people who thought the hype about Ichiro's single season hit record was utterly ridiculous. Give me a season of 8000 games and even I would break the single season hit record. Ichiro's a tremendous hitter, don't get me wrong, but to me he is only the single season hit record-holder for the modern era.

Reid

[encinorick]

Reid: I think I can beat that one. I read somewhere that circa 1917, when Ruth was with the Boston Red Sox's, he hit more homeruns than most MLB teams (let alone individual players) and won more games as a pitcher (including against Walter Johnson) than anyone else, and, if I not mistaken, won a couple of games as a pitcher in the World Series, as well. The facts get a little hazy in this 100 degree LA weather, but I think that's right.

[sportscentury]

Rick,

There has never been anyone close to the Babe. You are preaching to the choir. I rank him above all other athletes from any sport, any era.

Best,

Reid

[encinorick]

Reid: Yup. Despite being a die-hard Dodger fan, I must admit it. And don't forget, he was always gracious to his fans and would sign anything. I'd take a drunk, overweight, hot dog ingested Ruth over a "juiced" Bonds any day.

[geoff]

I don't think Howard is fan friendly.When i was at the Orioles game at Camden Yards earlier this year against the Phillies where you go to get autographs on the visitors side Ryan Howard was warming up close too the field.There was a rope up too 3 rows so you could not even get close too the field.When he left without looking or giving away any autographs the usher walked over and took down the rope.I thought that was very strange as you can always walk up too the wall around there.It could have been for something else but i don't think so.Just a thought about Howard.He is a rising star and fun too watch.Geoff

[suave1477]

Well I have to play devils advocate on this one again!!!

I am a fan of Maris and Ruth. I think everyone tends to forget the record books and that the records have been broken a long time ago. If memory serves me correct Josh Gibson Broke Ruths Record along time ago with over 70 home runs and he is still know to this day to hit the longest home run out of Yankee Stadium.

Even though it was the Negro Leagues players such as himself played against a lot of the top picthers in Major League baseball when they were in there prime. Not when they were at a desending point of there prime in the Majors.

[trsent]

I'll chime in also.

A Season is a Season.



If you don't like it, find something else to do with your time.

[encinorick]

Yeah sure, Gibson hit home runs. But, he pitch? Did he pitch versus Walter Johnson and win 1-0? Did he pitch and hit homeruns in a World Series? Did he hit and pitch drunk? Did he hit and pitch after eating 24 hot dogs? I don't think so.