The value of a home run

A home run is a base hit in which a person hits a ball and then runs all four bases (first, second, third, and home in succession) either by hoping over the field of play while in fair territory or staying in play without the fielders tagging the hitter out (inside the park home run)

Home runs are undoubtedly the most interesting part of the game. The tape measure shots, the distance how far a baseball (or softball) travels is amazing to the fans, visually. It is usually the pitcher's worst nightmare.

The rate of home runs at-bat is interesting too. If a person hits 30 home runs and has 16 at bats per home run, then that's considered normal, in my view. Now if a batter hits a home run every 8 at bats and collects around 65-70 in a season, then fans might wonder, how is he or she able to hit so far and so hard?

Lots of people assume that the person is either getting enough exercise, building muscle naturally, or taking unnatural means of becoming stronger usually with performance enhancing drugs.

Roger Maris of the Yankees hit 61 home runs in a season. He wasn't accused of using drugs. Mark McGwire of the St Louis Cardinals had 70 home runs and Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs hit 64, both of them hitting in 1998. Barry Bonds of the San Franciso Giants hit 70 home runs in 2001. Bonds, Sosa, and McGwire are accused of being cheaters, well unfortunately, McGwire has confirmed those suspicions. I don't know if Bonds or Sosa were high on steroids either, I'm just hoping that that's not the case.

I feel like the value of a home run is tainted, like that Mark McGwire's shot to pass Roger Maris. However, it's still a statistic, no matter, it's in the record books. I personally don't feel like it would be fair to take his home runs total away, based on the fact that he used drugs. He claims not to have used drugs for a performance enhancement. I don't know.

Barry Bonds refuses to ask questions regarding steroid use. His defiant attitude has made him look like the bad guy in this situation. When he finally hit his 756th Home run to pass Hank Aaron of the Braves, the fans were happy, but the baseball that he hit it, was stamped with an asterisk (*) by Mark Ecko, who brought the baseball from Mets' fan Matt Murphy who caught Bonds' historic ball.

Did Barry Bonds cheat? Only time will tell. For now he is the home run king with 762 home runs. The only time I'll ever believe that Bonds and any other player used steroids is if they admit to it or if news confirms that case.

How valuable is a home run? Today, fans assume that if you hit more than normal, then you must be using drugs. This is the world we live in.