WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2005
SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN 7B
MLB
this colley at and for before the filman became
Home runs decrease with steroid testing
BY RONALD BLUM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK Baseball power dimmed this season, with home runs dropping to their lowest level in eight years and some linking the power outage to tougher steroid testing.
An average of 2.06 homers per game were hit through Monday, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, down 8 1/2 percent from last season's final average of 2.25. The figure hasn't been so low since it dipped to 2.05 in 1997.
"A lot of guys who were hitting them haven't been hitting them." Florida's Lenny Harris said. "I think the drug policy had a lot to do with it. It changed a lot of guys' diets. There are too many people having off years."
eers
Some players point to the first year of steroid testing with penalties for first offenders. Nine players have been suspended for 10 days each for violating the major league policy, including Baltimore's Rafael Palmeiro.
"I think it's cyclical," baseball commissioner Bud Selig said. "It's very hard to determine what variables are at work here. I don't think anyone really knows."
Gene Orza, the chief operating officer of the players association, said linking steroid testing to the home-run average is too simplistic and pointed out that this year's level is only slightly lower than the 2.09 average for 2002.
Chicago White Sox's Paul Konerko reacts after popping up in the ninth inning to end the game against the Cleveland Indians on Monday in Chicago. The Indians won 7-5.
"You might want to consider other possibilities for home run production: the players are bigger because of training regimen, the ballparks are smaller, bat manufacture and design is different. There can be a slew of reasons."
2002.
"The numbers are essentially the same as they were three years ago, before there was testing, and in those three years players have been tested a massive number of times," he said.
Boston center fielder Johnny
Damon cites better pitching.
"We haven't really faced too many chumps for pitchers this year," he said. "Young guys coming in have got some unbelievable stuff."
Several stars had huge power drops, many because of long-term injuries. San Francisco's Barry Bonds went from 45 to two, Philadelphia's Jim Thome from 42 to seven and St. Louis' Scott Rolen from 34 to five.
"If I hit 12, the ratio would still be down," Bonds said.
Among those players who've been mostly healthy, Seattle's Adrian Beltre has fallen from 48 to 18, the New York Mets' Carlos Beltran from 38 to 15 and Washington's Vinny Castilla from 35 to 12. All three were free agents last winter and switched teams — and home ballparks.Texas has done its part to ensure the home-run average topped 2.0 for the 12th straight season — a figure reached only once in 25 years before the current boom began in 1994. The Rangers have 152 homers at Ameriquest Field, a record for a home ballpark, and lead the major leagues with 252 overall — 12 shy of the mark Seattle set in 1997. Bucking the trend are Houston's Morgan Ensberg, who has gone from 10 homers to 35 and Atlanta's Andruw Jones, up from 29 to 50.
MLB
White Sox in danger of missing playoffs
Brian Kersey/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BY RICK GANO
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CHICAGO — Down at Jimo's, the mood is decidedly different these days.
"It's like they lost their chemistry." patron Sarah Gradry said.
Jammed earlier this season with families and friends pumping up the White Sox, the barrestaurant just two blocks from U.S. Cellular Field is now full of worry warts.
rally, parental support.
Rarely do baseball fans on the South Side dare to dream. Resigned to being second place in their own city, and without a World Series title since Sheoled Joe Jackson helped them win in 1917, they believed this season was going to be different _ until the White Sox headed toward a record collapse, the kind usually seen by the crosstown Cubs.
Leading the AL Central by 15 games on Aug. 1 and on the verge of a runaway, the White Sox find themselves hanging on with two weeks to go, trying to hold off the hard-charging Cleveland Indians.
Chicago still tops the league in wins, but a 7-5 loss to the Indians on Monday night cut its edge to 2 1/2 games. It was the eighth loss in 11 games for the White Sox and suddenly, instead of the playoffs, there's talk about them blowing the biggest lead ever.The 1951 Brooklyn Dodgers squandered a 13-game lead on Aug. 11, beaten when Bobby Thomson's homer doomed them in a playoff with the New York Giants for the NL pennant. The 1978 Boston Red Sox wasted a big edge over the New York Yankees and the 1964 Philadelphia Phillies blew it in the final week.
White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen can tell how things have changed from the tone of the emails he gets. After guiding Chicago to the best record in the majors for much of the season, he's under assault from angry critics and frustrated fans.
"A lot of nasty ones," Guillen says. "It's your fault. You stink. I know you are going to choke."
The Indians, meanwhile, won for the 13th time in 14 games Monday night.
"Everybody wants to put the blame on us and say this and that. We haven't played our best
Sounds like a collapse that usually happens on the other side of town, where the Cubs — under the so-called curse of
in the second half or since August or whatever," White Sox first baseman Paul Konerko said. "But at the same time, I tip my hat to them."
the Billy Goat — haven't been to a World Series since 1945 and haven't won one since 1908.The Cubs led most of the 1969 season before a late swoon — and, some say, the appearance of a black cat on the field — helped the New York Mets win the pennant.
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