[dfwgator]

Company Claims '98 Baseballs Were Juiced

Apparently so were the players.

[labette]

I still like to consider the endless variables when these discussions come up. {ball park dimensions, overall quality of MLB pitching, lack of "knockdown" pitching, batting order arrangement, the DH rule, etc, etc}

We were hearing "juiced" ball and "corked" bat stories back in the mid eighties, and for good reason IMO.

"Apparently so were the players. "

Of course, you're quite right. I searched for the most "muscled up" photo I could find of Roger Maris. Here it is.

Perhaps players conditioned more for flexibility instead of maximum strength back then? Maybe.
But then I look at pics of Barry Bonds taken a few years apart.

Not only is his body obviously bulkier, even his face looks like it belongs to someone else.