BLS Roundtable: What’s the most infamous homer of all time?
As Alex Rodriguez knows well, baseball’s all-time home-run list is a delicate place to live. A-Rod hit homer No. 660 on Friday, tying him for fourth all-time with Willie Mays. It’s enough to bring out a new chorus of people calling him a cheater and fraud and other, meaner names.
As you climb that list, the scrutiny gets stronger — just ask Barry Bonds.
So while we still have tainted home runs on the brain, this week’s BLS Roundtable wonders: What’s the most infamous home run of all time? Baseball’s PED era makes this question trickier, but there are other infamous homers that have nothing to do with steroids.
Here are answers from the Big League Stew crew, leave yours in the comments.
BARRY BONDS PASSES HANK AARON
Maybe this is taking the easy way out, but you knew Barry Bonds’ 756th career homer was making this list. The home run record might be the most cherished of any sports accomplishment by fans, and many had their hot takes about Bonds. There was talk of adding an asterisk to the number, which would have forever changed the way we viewed baseball statistics.
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To add to the controversy, commissioner Bud Selig was not in attendance when Bonds hit the blast. In hindsight, this seems insane. Baseball’s biggest record was broken, and the commissioner wasn’t there to see it. Selig has always been a big supporter of Hank Aaron, and has even hinted that he still considers Aaron to be the home run king. With that in mind, his absence from Bonds’ big moment is even more scandalous. Whether or not you choose to support Bonds, this was undoubtedly one of the biggest moments in baseball history in the past 10 years. The controversy over this homer won’t die until someone passes Bonds, and that’s not going to happen any time soon. (Chris Cwik)
GEORGE BRETT, PINE TAR AND AUTHENTIC RAGE
In the grand scheme of things, one July game in 1983 between the Kansas City Royals and New York Yankees didn’t change the course of baseball. It doesn’t have the same lasting effect as some of the history-book homers discussed here. But the George Brett pine-tar incident is the most infamous in my book for this reason alone: straight up on-the-field rage. We all know how angry George Brett was when it was ruled his go-ahead, ninth-inning homer was nullified because he had too much pine tar on his bat.
This wasn’t something we spent weeks getting ready for, stroking our anger as we waited out each day. This was shocking, unexpected and a moment where sports got really really real. There’s a lot of posturing in baseball for the sake keeping the “integrity” of the game, and that’s why we worry about Bonds and A-Rod the way we do. But this was in-the-moment theatrics. If we’re talking about infamous home runs, give me George Brett and his rage any day. (Mike Oz)
DEREK JETER GETS A POSTSEASON ASSIST FROM A 12-YEAR-OLD
Most of the home runs listed here gained their infamy from the men who hit them. This one is different, as 12-year-old Yankees fan Jeffrey Maier potentially altered the outcome of Game 1 of the 1996 ALCS and the outlook of the entire postseason when he reached over the wall to take Derek Jeter’s fly ball away from Tony Tarasco of the Baltimore Orioles. Of course, there was no replay back in those days, so the original and unbelievable call of home run stood. If there were social media at that time, it would have absolutely blown up. We’re talking Yankees involvement, which is never not a big deal. And even in his first full season, Jeter was already a star on a major level.
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ROGER MARIS EARNS AN ASTERISK
Roger Maris’ run to 61 home runs in 1961 was shroud by controversy that resonated for 30 years after it was hit. Halfway through the ’61 season it became apparent that Maris, as well as New York Yankees teammate Mickey Mantle, had a realistic shot of breaking Babe Ruth’s single-season record of 60 home runs. Afraid that baseball’s preeminent star would be wiped from the record books, commissioner Ford Frick jumped into action. Frick declared that if Ruth’s record wasn’t broken in 154 games, it would be viewed as a separate accomplishment because Maris and Mantle had the benefit of playing a 162-game season. The American League had extended the season by eight games for the 1961 season with the arrival of two expansion franchises.
When Maris finally hit home run No. 61 in game No. 162 on Oct.1, 1961, it elicited a tepid response from the crowd at a half-empty Yankee Stadium. Frick stood by his word and Maris’ accomplishment stood separately from Ruth’s until 1991, when commissioner Fay Vincent decided Maris’ mark would be recognized as MLB’s official single-season record. There’s not another home run in big league history that was officially documented as being below standard more than Maris’ 61st in 1961. (Israel Fehr)
YOUR TURN: What’s the most infamous home run in MLB history? Sound off in the comments.
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