Can’t Blame the Baseball for This Juiced-Up Season

I called the office and asked to go to Costa Rica because that’s where I thought sportswriters were supposed to go when there is an extraordinary year for home runs.

This year is extraordinary, isn’t it?

I mean, only two players in history had ever hit 60 or more home runs in a season before this one and now two players, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, have done it this season alone. Another, Ken Griffey Jr., has hit 51 and at least two others, Greg Vaughn and Albert Belle, probably will reach 50.

Seamstresses in Costa Rica’s factories, I theorized, must be winding baseballs tighter than ever. They’re probably taking androstenedione.

No, the office said, you can’t go to Costa Rica because, no, this season isn’t all that extraordinary for home runs.

In fact, according to STATS, Inc., in Skokie, Ill., this season reflects merely the continuation of a trend.

Before 1994, there had been more than two home runs a game only once. Since then, it has happened every season, with an all-time high of 2.19 in 1996. The number so far this season is 2.09, actually down from 2.18 last season.

Jim Callis, a statistics analyst for STATS, Inc., listed a number of reasons the ‘90s will be remembered as the power decade, beginning much closer to home than San Jose, Costa Rica:

1. The term “friendly confines” is no longer confined to Wrigley Field. The newer, so-called “retro” ballparks were designed for hitters.

2. Coors Field deserves a category unto itself because of Denver’s thin air.

3. Expansion has created four more teams since 1993 and big league jobs for at least 44 pitchers who should still be Durham Bulls.

4. Aluminum bats have made pitchers at the college level and lower timid, causing them to rely more on breaking balls instead of learning how to challenge hitters.

5. Shrinking strike zones allow hitters to virtually ignore pitches above the belt.

6. Hitters are emphasizing weight training more than ever, leading to suspicion that more are using steroids than ever. “You’d be naive to believe otherwise,” Callis said.

7. The simplest explanation of all is that hitters such as McGwire, Griffey, Belle, Frank Thomas, Barry Bonds and maybe even Sosa, now that he’s become more disciplined, would have excelled in any decade. “This is the golden age of hitting,” Thomas says.

For pitchers, that makes this the depression.

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I don’t understand the controversy because McGwire received more accolades for hitting his 62nd home run than Sosa did. . . .

Sosa didn’t break the record with that home run. . . .

Besides, maybe it’s McGwire who should feel slighted. So what if Bud Selig was there for McGwire’s 62nd? Bill Murray was there for Sosa’s. . . .

Chuck Finley is scheduled to start for the Angels on Wednesday night in the first of their important two-game series at Texas. . . .

That’s not as much a cause for optimism for the Angels as it sounds. Their ace has a 7-14 lifetime record against the Rangers. . . .

The San Bernardino Sun reports that the Oakland A’s might be playing in a new ballpark in San Bernardino County by 2001. . . .

The Raiders could be in Southern California even before then. They had the NFL’s smallest crowd Sunday, 40,545. . . .

Then again, maybe their neighbors across the bay in San Francisco will beat them here because of complications with their proposed new stadium. . . .

If they came next season, we could rename them the 99ers. . . .

Three weeks after undergoing arthroscopic surgery on both knees, jockey Gary Stevens is working horses at Santa Anita. . . .

He should be ready to return to racing in time for the start of Santa Anita’s Oak Tree meeting on Sept. 30. . . .

Silver Charm is expected to race next on Sept. 26 at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky. That could result in a rematch with Touch Gold, who prevented Silver Charm from winning the Triple Crown in the 1997 Belmont. . . .

Bob Arum had plenty of critics telling him that another fight between Oscar De La Hoya and Julio Cesar Chavez wouldn’t sell. . . .

But it appears now that Arum will have the first sellout for one of his promotions at Las Vegas’ Thomas & Mack Center on Friday night and pay-per-view sales are rivaling De La Hoya vs. Pernell Whitaker, the highest ever for non-heavyweights. . . .

One of Tijuana’s most popular fighters in recent years, super-bantamweight Eric Morales, drew a sellout crowd to the old, 15,000-seat bullring there for his victory Saturday night over Junior Jones. . . .

Now Arum is trying to arrange a fight for him against Kennedy McKinney in the more modern, 25,000-seat bullring in January. . . .

Morales’ mother gave birth to him in the Tijuana gym where he now trains. . . .

Jeanie Buss, president of the Great Western Forum, is looking into the possibility of bringing a minor league hockey team to the building. . . .

If the Kings don’t reach an agreement with Rob Blake, she’ll have one.

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While wondering if women’s tennis can survive without one of the Spice Girls as the U.S. Open champion, I was thinking: I never appreciate Pete Sampras enough until he’s not in a Grand Slam final, Felipe Alou deserves a chance with a team that’s trying to win, I’m pretty sure I used to have an accountant named Bronswell Patrick.