The Best 'Roided Out Seasons In Baseball History

baseball steroid era it's kind of hard to know how to feel about it on the one hand it represented perhaps the most prolonged period of openly cheating in the history of professional sports most of those who participated and excelled in this era will also retain its scars and some of the best players in history will never be enshrined in Cooper's town as result on the other hand era vitalized a sport that needed it desperately in the wake of the 1994 players strike and a waning of Interest overall and what had once SP America's pastime it contains some of the greatest performances in baseball history some of the finest and most unforgettable moments and damn was it ever fun to watch so for the moment at least let's set aside our morals and our misgivings and let's relive the swollen magic and ripped Majesty of baseball steroid era in all of its ped infused Glory here are the best roided out seasons in baseball history but before we dig deeper into this concept I want to ask that if you enjoyed today's video please consider liking and subscribing if we hit 3,000 likes on this video I'll make a part two since there are so many roed out Seasons that deserve to be appreciated and I couldn't possibly put them all into one video anyway our first crazy season is actually multiple Seasons Barry Bonds 2001 to 2004 every one of these Seasons deserves mention as during this time he broke the OBP record twice the home run record the walk record the Ops plus record and countless other hitting records there were the historic moments of course like when he shattered Mark Maguire's single season home run record by blasting 73 in 2001 but records like that tell just a fraction of the story for what was undoubtedly the best statistical stretch in MLB history bar none during that four-year period bonds basically broke baseball's idea for what was possible at the plate and route to four straight MVP awards he slashed an insane 349 559 809 with 209 home runs his total F4 was 47.3 over this time which was actually better than five other teams entire offenses combined when it comes to runs created plus Bond's 2002 2001 and 2004 campaigns are the first third and fourth best offensive seasons of all time only Babe Ruth's 1920 campaign sneaks in there along with Barry here are some other jaw-dropping numbers from Barry's run on the record book in 2001 when he hit 73 home runs he had just 49 singles but who really needs them when you have 107 extra base hits and 177 walks speaking of bases on balls in 2002 he walked 198 times obviously a record he also hit 370 to win his first batting title at the age of 38 he also broke the OBP record with a 589 Mark in 2003 he took 65.9% of the pitches thrown to him and still managed to hit 45 homers and slug 749 but it was really in 2004 that Barry became a walking talking smashing outlier at age 40 he had four more home runs than strikeouts with 45 to 41 walked a record 232 times which included 120 intentional bases on balls surely a number we'll never see again and all those walks helped contribute to a mind-blowing 609 on base percentage which is not considering his own dominance in previous years by far the best a hitter has ever been at not making outs more than likely no major Leaguer will ever intimidate pitchers in quite the same way again hell since his run of 240 Ops plus Seasons only one player Aaron judge has even managed to break 200 in a season that saw him hit 62 clean dingers various records each of them are more than likely safe for the foreseeable future if not ever at this point Jose cono 1988 if Barry Bond's performance was the high water mark of the steroid era it was Jose Cano's 1988 season that really kicked it off hitting 33 home run and winning the AL Rookie of the Year award at age 22 the 6'3 230 lb cono Drew comparisons to Mickey mantel with his combination of speed and strength the musclebound youngster also had the physique of a Greek god and was not afraid to show it off he looked like a cannon about to explode in the Batters box he' almost dance before every pitch wiggling shifting and twitching and with what turned out to be performance-enhanced bat speed he left season veterans gawking A's Coach Dave Duncan once observed to Cano's bat it's not a blur it's invisible I've never seen bat speed like that that's how he can hit the pitch that jams other guys in right center field with power cono was also Moody brashy and cocky as hell perhaps that was the steroids as well before his sophomore season in 1988 he told reporters that he would be the first player ever to hit 40 home runs and steal 40 bases in a season and then he proceeded to back up this outlan prediction by doing just that baseball's first ever 4040 year also came with a 307 391 569 slash and League leading 170 Ops Plus at age 23 cono posted what turned out to be his career highs in batting average Ops plus stolen bases doubles and RBIs cono through his Congressional testimony and best-selling book juice would later prove to be an essential whistleblower in the steroid era but during that magical summer of 1988 he introduced us all to the stunning strength power and Agility of steroid AED play and we didn't even suspect he was doing them or maybe we just didn't want to know Roger Clemens 2005 a 40-year-old Barry Bonds had already blown baseball away most multiple Seasons By 2004 so in 2005 it seemed only appropriate that a pitcher would do the same a 41-year-old Roger Clemens was the losing pitcher for the Houston Astros in their game seven defeat to the St Louis Cardinals in the 2004 NLCS he thought about retiring after that season only to be given more than 18 million reasons to stick around for one more year the most annual reasons ever given to a major league pitcher at that point Clemens had been phenomenal 2004 going 18 and4 with the 2.98 ra taking home his seventh sa Young Award in the process but somehow despite his Advanced age he was even better in 2005 of course we now know that a huge part of that somehow was ped related Clemens posted the best ra plus and ra of his career that year at 226 and 1.87 this seemed impossible at the time especially coming off a six-year stretch where Clemens was more really good than truly great Clemens 1.87 Ra was the lowest by any national leager since Greg Maddox in 1995 and he also led the league in giving up just 6.4 hits per nine innings the 42-year-old rocket dominated baseball more thoroughly than he had ever done in his 20s he also led the league and adjusted ra Fielding independent pitching and War among hurlers but Clemens would go just 13 and8 thanks to some anemic run support in five of his eight losses he allowed three runs or less and in all 11 of his no decisions Clemens allowed two earn runs or less as a result Clemens finished just third in the saong voting behind Don TR Willis and Chris Carpenter despite having one of the best pitching seasons in modern history got to love that old school voting approach right but either way this kind of season honestly probably did more to harm his Hall of Fame case than help it no player had ever done what he did at the age he did it perhaps except for Bonds in the Box Mark Maguire 1998 okay let's go back to the other bash brother you knew this one was coming in March 1998 the cover of Sports Illustrated proclaimed get ready for a slugfest in previous Seasons baseballs had already started to exit ballparks at increasing rates and the players who were hitting them were already starting to look more like bodybuilders or wrestlers than baseball players most people at the time including Sports Illustrated Tom verduchi attributed these developments to increased weight training and supplements plus how expansion had thinned out MLB pitching staffs and the poster child for those revamped baseball Sluggers was Mark Maguire the Cardinal's first baseman had always been a home run hitter launching 49 in his rookie season with the A's in 1987 and route to winning the AL rookie of the year but it wasn't until 10 seasons later in 1996 that Mark Maguire 2.0 again flirted with 50 blasting 52 That season and then 58 in 1997 so coming into 98 it was definitely conceivable that Maguire could hit 62 eclipsing Roger maris's long-held single season record nobody dreamed that Maguire would break the record in early September or that the Cubs Samy Sosa and for a while the Mariners Ken griffy Jr would give him a run for it it became the year of the great home run Chase as an America that had been captivated by the Monica Lewinsky scandal turned back to its favorite pastime and it probably couldn't have been better timing after the 1994 player strike baseball was at its absolute lowest so this period of record chasing really did help bring the game back some have have even said that this period may have just saved the game entirely in terms of national relevance Maguire himself survived the intense pressure and Spotlight to hit a Godlike 70 home runs that season it seemed like a record that could stand for another 40 years but in the end it lasted only three taken down by the many times mentioned bonds the supplement fueled Slugger had a number of crazy seasons in the late 1990s but it was this year that took the crown that record-breaking 70 homers a 216 Ops plus a 752 slugging percentage and an NL MVP runner up he really should have won all at the age of 34 he would follow this up with two straight Seasons where he notched an over 170 Ops plus including a 203 Mark in 2000 Samy Sosa 2001 Maguire's Chief opponent in 1998 Sammy Sosa was no one hit wonder either as good as his 66 home run MVP winning performance had been the real summer of Sammy arguably came 3 years later in 2001 in fact Sosa's whole run between 1998 and 2001 is often overlooked at this point during that period he averaged 61 home runs a season and became the only player to ever hit 60 or more home runs three times and yet somehow he didn't win even a single home run Crown during those three seasons that crossed the 60 threshold if that doesn't perfectly encapsulate the roid fuel dominance of the era I don't know what does in 2001 as Barry Bonds was electrifying baseball with another home run Chase Sosa was having a career season blasting 29 home runs in the final two months to finish with 64 nobody really seemed to notice that year Sammy set personal best and run scored RBI walks batting average on base percentage and slugging percentage he had an incredible for anyone not named Barry Bonds 203 Ops plus another career high and 425 total bases Sammy also hit a career high in R War this season with 10.3 Samy despite always finding himself on the periphery of the spotlight ended up being overshadowed basically every season he was making his own assault on the record books by either Maguire or later bonds but still for a four to 5e window in the late '90s and early 2000 he was arguably the best Slugger on the planet at least until Barry launched himself into the stratosphere Eric G 2003 when closer Eric G entered the game at Dodger Stadium the PA system would blast Welcome To The Jungle by guns and roses and the words game over would flash across the scoreboard and for a multi-year period in the early 2000s this proved to be a plain fact for all Dodgers opponents when G entered the game it was as good as done as the intimidating reliever converted all 55 save opportunities in 2003 and rout to becoming the first pitcher to record saves in more than one season and the fastest pitcher to ever reach the 100 save Mark what's more between August 2002 and July 2004 g converted 84 consecutive saved chances a Major League record that will more than likely never be broke G was a beast and looked like no other relief pitcher before him his fast ball could hit Triple digits a rarity at the time and his vulcan change up griped the four finger and middle finger spread apart from the ring finger and Pinky was nasty playing off of it it often looked like the right-hander had somehow thrown a left-handed curveball one of G's catcher said that his change up spun so fast it would cut your jersey oh yeah and he mixed in a low to mid-70s buckling curve once in a while too good luck in that magical season G used his filthy repertoire in 77 games allowing just 49 total bases along the way that came on just 20 walked batters and 37 surrendered hits in 82 in the third Innings he had a 120 erra and ridiculous 337 ER Plus That season with a strike out to walk ratio of 6.85 G would quite unsurprisingly win the rol A's relief Man of the Year award while also becoming the first relief pitcher in 11 years to win the sa young he now stands as the most recent and with seemingly little chance of this feat being repeated going forward due to the evolution of our understanding of the value of relievers he'll probably be the last going into the 2007 season Alex Rodriguez's previous performance to the Yankees had been somewhat underwhelming to fans despite an enormous paycheck and some decent for him regular season numbers the Slugger hit just 240 with three home runs in 96 playoff played appearances Yankees fans were ready ready to call for his head coming into the campaign but A-Rod quickly silenced his critics with one of the hottest starts in MLB history in his first 18 games he smash 14 home runs including two walk-offs all while hitting over 400 along the way Rodriguez eventually slowed down but not before having arguably his best season hitting 54 home runs including the 500th of his career becoming the youngest player ever to reach that Milestone he also slashed 314 422 645 with a 176 Ops plus all ball driving in 156 runs scoring 143 both career highs Rodriguez was named the AL MVP for the third time in his career it later came out that not only had A-Rod used Peds during that season and many others but he had been given the express written permission of Major League Baseball to do so prior to that season Rodriguez had actually asked for permission to use testosterone which had been banned by the league since 2003 and two days before spring training his request was granted in a crazy Twist of legal cheating Rodriguez took full advantage and elevated his game to yet another level the Yankees would however ever again falter in the playoffs with Rodriguez posting good but not great numbers and their ALDS loss to Cleveland okay let's quickly go over a few honorable mentions as well Manny Ramirez 2000 That season it was just Manny being Manny with of course that extra boost of the juice despite playing just8 games due to some nagging injuries Ramirez posted a career-high 351 batting average along with 38 home runs and 122 rbii and what would later prove to be his final game in a Cleveland uniform that season before signing with the Red Sox Manny launched a home run in front of the tribe faithful at Jacob's field capping off one of the few seasons in MLB history where a player averaged more than one RBI a game for nearly 120 contests Ken cetti 1996 the NL MVP award Was Won in 1996 by a player who today is probably not known that well by younger Generations Ken cetti the bulked up third baseman who was more so seen as a glove first player up to that season performed at levels he had never sniffed before combining his usual dazzling plays at third with the career year at the plate batting 326 with 4 40 home runs 130 RB and 1,28 Ops the switch hitter set a Major League record by hom Runing from both sides of the plate four times in a game in one season he even hit two home runs after getting food poisoning in Mexico during historic series South of the Border Kevin Brown 1996 that same season a lanky but muscular Marlins pitcher was dominating from the mound Brown the team's Ace had a microscopic 1.8 RA in an ironclad 233 Innings pitched good enough for a league leading 7.9 war and 215 plus however in another instance of old school voting his 17 and 11 record paled in comparison to Atlanta hurler John smolts 24 victories who won the sa young over Brown despite having ra that was more than a run higher and an RA plus more than 60 points lower Rafael Palo 1999 fan favorite Palo returned for his second stint with the Texas Rangers in 1999 at age 34 with most hoping at the most for some decent production out of an aging vet he with the help of some extracurriculars turned in much more than that with the one skinny outfielder turned bulky dh/ first baseman hitting 324 with 47 home runs he finished fifth in the MVP voting and even won a gold glove at first base despite playing only 28 games in the field don't ask Juan Gonzalez 1993 palo's fellow Ranger and another formerly skinny outfielder Juan Gonzalez erupted for his own career season more than half a decade earlier in 1993 that year he led the AL with 46 home runs and a 632 slugging percentage in a home run derby Showdown with Ken Griffey Jr Gonzalez amazed the crowd by becoming the first player to hit a home run into the facade of the upper deck and left field at orial Park at Camden Yards a shot estimated at 473 ft balls just aren't supposed to go that far to left field in Baltimore they just aren't but they sure did that night so there you go a catalog of some of the greatest ped infused seasons of all time the tainted air of steroids will likely always cast a shadow over these accomplishments making it difficult to know how to feel about them overall but despite the controversy surrounding the steroid era it's important to remember that the a a vements of players during this time were at least entertaining in the extreme and certainly worth remembering even if we may not encounter most of them as we're making our way through the corridors of Cooper town now thank you for watching again if you enjoyed the video please consider liking and subscribing as I mentioned before if we get to 3,000 likes I'll make a part two with your top suggestions included have a great rest of your day

Channel: Made The Cut

Views: 79,498

Keywords: MLB, baseball, 2022, mlb baseball, baseball videos, braves, sf giants, mlbscores, stlouis cardinals, houstonastros, espn mlb, shohei ohtani, mlb schedule, babe ruth, ohtani, cubs schedule, red sox schedule, phillies schedule, yankees schedule, mlb rumors, dodgers, dodgers schedule

Id: XnaITeukzQI

Length: 16min 19sec (979 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 06 2024