Baseball, America's pastime, is steeped in history and tradition. It's marked time as well as transformed our nation's society and history.  Baseball is a gift we pass down from generation to generation, parent to child.  It entertains, provokes thought and teaches life lessons.  

Baseball is a game with aspects that are both perfect and imperfect.  It has comforted Americans in prosperous and difficult times.  It is filled with heroes and villains who win our heart with triumphs and break our hearts with failures.  It's records that are held to the highest standard.

Over the past decade storm clouds have rolled over our treasured game.  The single season home run record and the career home run record both currently held by Barry Bonds have come into question.  It is alleged that Bonds used performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) to assist him.  

This website was created to provide Baseball fans with a forum to express views and opinions on this subject.

There are two achievements in Baseball that standout as crown jewels in the record books. First and foremost, Career Home Runs. Hank Aaron held this record since 1974 hitting 755 in his twenty-two year career. This record was broken by Barry Bonds in 2007 and now stands at 762.  The second, currently held by Bonds since 2001, is the Most Single Season Home Runs. The PED aided Bonds hit the ball out of the park 73 times that year.

Before the 1998 season (when Mark McGwire broke the record), the single season home record had belonged to Roger Maris. As a New York Yankee in 1961, Maris managed to hit 61 home runs, breaking the record formally held by Babe Ruth (60 Home Runs) going all the way back to 1927. Over a 71-year stretch, only two players managed to hit 60 or more home runs within a season. That speaks to the greatness of the achievement and the difficulty in achieving it.  Then came 1998.

In 1998 Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire both chased down and broke Maris' record; Sosa hitting 66 and McGwire hitting 70. And while people did wonder aloud if those two ball players had PED assistance, the frenzy of the chase made it too exciting to think about such negative thoughts. MLB was trying to pull up it's boot straps after the strike of 1994 and the McGwire/Sosa show was helping them resurrected fans all over the country. 

In the following year, Sosa and McGwire did what neither Ruth or Maris were able to do. Hit more than 60 homes runs in two consecutive seasons.. Sosa added 63 to his career total and McGwire added 65. In 2001, Sosa did it again hitting 64 more home runs; the same year that Bonds broke McGwire's record with 73.

Lets take this all in... During the first 122 years of baseball, a player was able to hit at least 61 home runs in a single season just once. In the four years spanning 1998 to 2001 it happened six times by three different players. The numbers just don't add up!

Sammy Sosa tested positive to PEDs.  Mark McGwire admitted in 2010 to using steroids and the proof against Bonds is evident.  McGwire's refusal to answer questions at the congressional hearing ("I'm not here to talk about the past") about PED use certainly brought his legacy into serious question. Then in 2010 when he admitted to using PEDs he claimed they didn't help him with hitting.  That is either denial or a fabrication.  All three players have startling before-and-after pictures of their physique from their early days to recent years.

Since Bonds became the single season home run record holder, Major League Baseball has banned PED use and has come under extreme pressure to improve methods of screening players. In that time, the most home runs hit by a player in a single season is 57, set by Alex Rodriquez in 2002. A-Rod admitted in February of 2009 to using PEDs from 2000-2003 while playing with the Texas Rangers after Sports Illustrated reported that he tested positive to PED use in 2003.

While MLB has taken steps to improve testing and increase penalties there is much ground to cover.  The MLB Player's Association remains steadfast in it's opposition to subject players to blood testing which would uncover substances not detected in urine testing.  However, this may be a moot point since PED makers seem to always be one step ahead of the curve creating designer PEDs that are undetectable in both urine and blood samples. The questions is... should the two home run records be reset back to the era when PEDs were not in use.  Let the debate continue...