This One Time…Luis Gonzalez Hit 57 Home Runs in a Season

My sentiment has been communicated here in the past – it’s mostly just sadness. Sadness that I now must question everything and believe no one. The history of the game is impossible to assess (yes, it always has been to a degree but this really screws things up), as the playing fields were tipped far, far away from level during the “Steroid Era.”

All that said, I still love the game. I will still watch, and cheer and debate it. However, I experienced a perfect example of the phenomenon above yesterday. Over at Yardbarker, they have a whole host of these little sports quizzes. They start the clock, you fill in the blanks and try to impress (mainly yourself) with your own sports knowledge prowess. You may have rocked a few of these. Well, yesterday, I stumbled upon the following YB quiz: Top 20 Single Season Home Run Leaders.

Not to give away the quiz (go take it), or laud my encyclopedic knowledge (17), but I missed a few of the old-timers (Hack Wilson and Jimmie Foxx) and one individual who made the list with the 14-th greatest single-season home run total in the history of Major League Baseball. 57 blasts…142 RBIs…how could I’ve forgotten…Luis Gonzalez. Sure, he’s wedged in between two ‘roiders in A-Rod and Big Mac, so I guess what’s the big deal, right? But something about it just made me incredibly depressed. Gonzalez was a very nice player, and nothing has ever surfaced (to my knowledge) about his use of PEDs.

And that’s the part that’s so disheartening..either way. If he did juice up to hit those 57 (his next best season was 31 and averaged 19/year over his career), his name is now etched in the record books among the all-time greats (regardless of the value we now put on those lists). If he did put up such a season “naturally,” he will never ever get the credit for it that he would justly deserve.

Not sure where I was going with this, but another one of those “roids stink” moments for a baseball fan.