Two Records the Steroid Era Couldn’t Topple
June 30, 2009 · Walt Haley · Jump to comments
Article Source: Bleacher Report - New York Yankees
We have all read about the Steroid Era in baseball.
Every angle of it has been exhausted.
Barry Bonds used steroids to topple both the single-season home run mark and the career home run mark. That great moment was on the heels of the 1998 Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa magical season, in which they set the single-season home run record.
We all loved it.
Everyone turned a blind eye to the cause of their dominance.
Now, we all cast judgment on them.
Sammy was named in the Mitchell report. Not too shocking considering he went from 112 lbs. soaking wet to 225 of solid muscle, rice, and beans. Barry has been in legal hell over his alleged and admitted “use” of the illegal substance, which appears to appease many people.
Everyone has their suspicions over McGwire’s use (“that’s my Andro”). Jose Canseco exposed everyone, trying to make some money out of the process since he was a broke bastard.
It was all supposed to even itself out.
The baseball elitists were praying that Alex Rodriquez would shatter Bonds’ record and all would be right and forgotten.
A-Rod got exposed for the cheater he was, and now we are left with not much faith in records and pride. It is a shame that Ken Griffey Jr. couldn’t stay healthy; he may have had the stuff to top Bonds.
Roger Clemens and his 48 Cy Young Awards are now a joke.
But, there are two things that the era couldn’t take from us!
The 56-game hit streak and the two consecutive no-hitters.
Jolting Joe DiMaggio’s hit streak is still alive and probably won’t be topped in my lifetime. Some future star or kid out there may have it in them, but I don’t think I will see it. The record is awesome and is something many can hold on to.
It’s kind of nice knowing that even the cheaters of the Steroid Era couldn’t take it from us.
Pete Rose made a charge at it, and he was one of the greatest of all time. He still didn’t come close. When a current player gets to 30 consecutive games, it’s all over the news.
They are just over HALFWAY there!
That is amazing. Thirty games is crazy.
I am not one of those crazy writers who thinks the records are haloed and should be reserved with asterisks. They are what they are, and it is Bud Selig’s and the players union’s fault for letting it happen.
While I think the 56-game hit streak is one record that will not be topped in my lifetime, one record that I think will never be topped is the two consecutive no-hitters.
Johnny Vander Meer did it way back in 1938 for the Cincinnati Reds. First off, his name is awesome; my next kid’s middle name may be Vander.
That is simply amazing. Not even Roger and his “alleged” pill-popping, steroid-injecting, and child-eating ways could even sniff doing this. Some stud would have to throw three in a row to beat it.
Throwing one no-hitter can define a career. It is a rarity.
Throwing two in row?
That is unheard of.
The Steroid Era couldn’t take that away from us, and I am forever grateful that it didn’t.
The other crazy thing about Vander Meer’s run at magic?
It was his rookie year!
The same summer that Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa were chasing Roger Maris, I was doing the same in wiffle ball.
I hit approximately 102 homers that season (one farther than the next) up at Shawmont grade school in Philadelphia. I hit 10 in one night. That record still stands up there too.
No one can take that away from me, even if I am the only one that remembers it.
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