Didn't McGuire and Sosa save Baseball?

Question

I am against steroid use but is it quite possible that steroids saved baseball? I know it sounds crazy and I can't believe I am saying it but if it wasn't for that homerun derby where would baseball be now?

Answer 1

Well, that's the popular myth the writers like to promulgate, but... no.

Ripken's final chase of Gehrig in 1995 didn't "save" baseball, either.

What saved baseball from the 1994-95 nuclear winter was -- and it really was this simple -- settling a new CBA and getting games back on the field. Baseball fans LOVE baseball. Put nine men on the diamond, give 'em a ball and a bat, and we're there to watch it.

Witness, attendance per game, all of MLB:

1990 - 26045
1991 - 27003
1992 - 26529
1993 - 30964 -- Florida, Colorado expansion
1994 - 31256 -- boom year! oops...
1995 - 25022 -- strike aftermath; Cal passes Lou
1996 - 26510
1997 - 27877
1998 - 29030 -- HR derby! Arizona, Tampa expansion
1999 - 28888
2000 - 29378
2001 - 29881 -- HR derby part II, Barry soloing it
2002 - 28007

Attendance was already recovering; McGwire and Sosa's chase of Maris certainly energized baseball, but it wasn't in need of saving. And this doesn't even factor in the many new parks that opened during the 1990s, and any new park gets a free, two-year "honeymoon" of boosted attendance. (Just to review: new Comiskey, 1991; Camden Yards, 1992; expansion parks, 1993; The Ballpark and Jacobs Field, 1994; Coors, 1995; Turner, 1997; expansion parks, 1998; Comerica, Safeco, Minute Maid, and Pac Bell (whew!), 2000; Miller and PNC, 2001; and four more since then, but I decided to cut off at 2002 as the data makes the point.) Also not considered: the postseason expansion and the creation of the wildcard berth, which keeps more teams in contention later in the season, helping those September games bring in crowds when, before, they might have been of much less interest.

Mac and Sammy put on a great show, but attendance was climbing back up anyway. They may have provided a little boost, but "saved" baseball? Nah. That's sportswriter mythology, and it can be useful as it makes for a good (if not necessarily accurate) story and it's a lot more fun to assign positive influences (like increased attendance) to heroic doers of great deeds than to mundane things like new parks or the general tendencies of the unwashed masses. I loved the chase they made, I loved how it ended, but baseball would have been just fine without it.

And consider the 1994 strike -- Matt Williams and, trailing but in position, Ken Griffey were on pace to assault the Maris mark. How exciting would the 1998 duel have been had McGwire and Sosa been going after a four-year-old record instead of one that had stood for 37 seasons?

Answer 2

!n 1998 McGuire hit 70 homeruns and Sosa had 66. That chase all year long created a lot of fan interest in baseball. It was also at a point in time before this whole steroid issue came up to the extent it is today. To say that it saved baseball is an over statement because baseball was doing fine at that time, but it certainly did help. A bigger problem was the need for a new stadium for many of the MLB teams and fans were just getting use to the new three division leagues. Baseball has had a steady increase of fans since 2000 and very few, if any, of the new fans that are coming to the park now are coming because of Sosa and McGuire.

Answer 3

Wow i never erally thought about that. it is quite possible. McGuire and Sosa's race is was got so many people back into it. good point i guess steroids sort of did save the sport. i love baseball more than almost anything and im totally against steroids but wow that was a really good point.

Answer 4

No, no longer fairly. the sport went in decline after the late-ninety's. The worst part of the steroid era did no longer even come till after 1998. the guy who could be credited for preserving activity in substantial league baseball is Michael Jordan for retiring. i think you provides a splash credit to John Elway too and the decline of the Dallas Cowboys. The 1990's became the NBA. Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa made the sport exciting for a speedy time. It lost it is way even with the undeniable fact that. technologies is what incredibly saved baseball because of the fact because of the fact the early-2000's, just about fairly everyone has had it.

Answer 5

I have absolutely nothing against steroids in baseball.

Do you go to a game to watch 1-0 games? To see pop-flys to your favourite outfielder or balls almost make it to being a homerun and then in the glove of the opposing fielder?

OF COURSE NOT!

You want to see the big fly... the mac daddy of 'em all! When a homerun is hit -- you stand up from your seat, go to your feet and scream at the top of your lungs, while slapping your hands with your buddies. Regardless of how it's done -- the excitement of a home run is what drives attendance and makes baseball so exciting.

When Sosa and McGuire were in the home-run chase a few years back, the excitement that they brought saved baseball. It saved us from the futility of the strike and made us watch again.

There's no discounting that it was cheating -- but it was exciting to watch.

When someone who hits a homerun on steroids versus someone who did it au-naturel does the same, you don't say to yourself:
"Hey... he did it using the 'Roids, therefore it wasn't exciting and made my team grab a lead or close the gap"

It's the same thing and it's just as exciting. Without steroids, the NHL might be a more popular sport than MLB -- but that's not the case.

So - thank you Sammy Sosa, Mark McGuire and Barry Bonds. Thank you for saving the game that we all love to watch.


Visit us on the web. Talk baseball and BlueJays. For your source of BlueJays information, visit www.bluejayfever.com!

Answer 6

I'd have to say the 2004 ALCS & World Series. The news everywhere broadcast how people were tuning into baseball to see if the SOx could pull off a victory after being down three games. I was living in New England at the time and around 7pm there wouldn't be a car in sight for miles EVERYONE was home watching the Sox.

Answer 7

Baseball was not doing fine, it needed the casual fan to survive. The HR attracted the casual fan and thats why steroids saved baseball. The 98 season was a great season to watch.

Answer 8

You are right, but it was the fact that they weren't supposedly cheating at the time. No one really knew. Then, when baseball was back, and millions of fans loved it, they discovered the steroids, and now fans are starting to dislike it. However, there are still more fans today then in say, 1995.

Answer 9

The "REFUSE TO LOSE" Mariners of '95 saved baseball after the debacle of 1994 with its cut off season and no playoffs.
The home run chase by Big Mac and Slammin' Sammy helped in bringing the casual fan back into the baseball conversation for a while.

Answer 10

Steriods did not save baseball. In fact, it hurts baseball. Back in 1998, no one knew Sosa and McGwire might have taken steriods. Look what steriods have done to both of them now. How is that saving baseball and them?