HGH and the Top 20 Career HR Leaders
Barry Bonds
His 762 MLB Career HR Total Leads All Others.
The Top 20 Career HR Leaders in MLB History
| No. | Player | HR | HOF Status |
| 1 | Barry Bonds | 762 | HGH Guy 1 |
| 2 | Hank Aaron | 755 | HOF 1 |
| 3 | Babe Ruth | 714 | HOF 2 |
| 4 | Alex Rodriquez | 696 | HGH Guy 2 |
| 5 | Willie Mays | 660 | HOF 3 |
| 6 | Ken Griffey, Jr. | 630 | HOF 4 |
| 7 | Jim Thome | 612 | HOF Prospect 1 |
| 8 | Sammy Sosa | 609 | HGH Guy 3 |
| 9 | Albert Pujols | 595 | HOF Prospect 2 |
| 10 | Frank Robinson | 586 | HOF 5 |
| 11 | Mark McGwire | 583 | HGH Guy 4 |
| 12 | Harmon Killebrew | 573 | HOF 6 |
| 13 | Rafael Palmeiro | 569 | HGH Guy 5 |
| 14 | Reggie Jackson | 563 | HOF 7 |
| 15 | Manny Rameriz | 555 | HGH Guy 6 |
| 16 | Mike Schmidt | 548 | HOF 8 |
| 17 | David Ortiz | 541 | HOF Prospect 3 |
| 18 | Mickey Mantle | 536 | HOF 9 |
| 19 | Jimmie Foxx | 534 | HOF 10 |
| 20 tie | Willie McCovey | 521 | HOF 11 |
| 2O tie | Frank Thomas | 521 | HOF 12 |
| 20 tie | Ted Williams | 521 | HOF 13 |
Notes.
Because of the 3-way tie for 20th place, 22 men cover the top 20 spots.
There are 3 group categories for our 22 career Top 20 HR leaders: (1) HOF Members; (2) HOF Prospects: and (3) HGH Guys – those guys – proven or not – whose production has been suspected, at least, as helping the power hitting totals in each of their careers.
Hall of Fame Members = 13
Hall of Fame Prospects = 3 (including one still active man, Albert Pujols.)
HGH suspect Guys = 6 None of these six guys have been convicted of HGH use in a court of law, but there’s been enough suspicion in the Court of Public Opinion to hang each of them twice. Once suspicion convicts you in the public mind, it’s very hard to nearly impossible to ever again gain independence from that verdict in the minds of fans and other concerned members of the baseball public.
My questions remain: What do we do with the records of these guys over time? Are we going to punish the offenders by gradient offense – or simply paint them all with the same brush and treat all those large HR totals as being totally due to the powerful, but variable stuff they may have been using, consciously or not. In so doing, do we simply look past these record totals as though they never happened?
Look! We’ve learned a lot more about HGH since it starred twice – first as the savior of baseball through McGwire and Sosa in 1998 – and then as the destroyer of the game through the Bonds and Company numbers of the early 21st century that sprang up in the Big Mac and Sammy Show wake period of time.
We now understand better that HGH is associated with faster tissue repair – and with the increase in muscle strength. But we’ve also come to grasp – if only a little better – that there is no known HGH that improves eye-hand motor coordination in a way that directly turns any batter who uses it into Stan Musial, Ted Williams, Babe Ruth, or Willie Mays.
Will we ever give the HGH guys a little recognition for their statistical records – or shall we simply leave them buried forever – anonymously together – in baseball’s own purgatory for lost souls?
____________________
Bill McCurdy
Publisher, Editor, Writer
The Pecan Park Eagle
The Pecan Park Eagle 
May 10, 2017 at 6:11 am |
Bill, f.y.i. hgh is human growth hormone. DHEA, Clenbuterol, Tetrahydrogestrinone (THG), Primobolan (Methenolone), Stanozolol, and Androstenedione (Andro) are anabolic steroids that were in prevalent use in baseball during the juicing era. The only players on your list known to have used both are Bonds (from BALCO records and some witness claims), and Alex Rodriguez,
by his own admission. Although several of the others may have used both, I’m unaware of any verification of that. I know that Rafael Palmeiro tested positive for Stanzolol use, and at least one of Manny Ramirez’ dirty test results involved the use of a banned female fertility drug called human chorionic gonadotropin, or hCG, which was commonly used as a masking agent to conceal steroid use. Personally, I’m not in favor of honoring known or proven violators of federal drug laws and MLB drug policies with HOF membership, especially those who sneaked and connived to gain a competitive advantage over their colleagues while repeatedly lying about it. The Hall of Fame is a privilege, not a right. I paid my
hard-earned money for tickets to sporting events that I believed to involve athletes all playing by the same rules. I don’t think that future violations should be encouraged by rewarding past known violators with the honor of HOF enshrinement.
May 10, 2017 at 6:29 am |
Also f.y.i., # 17 on your list, David Ortiz, was one of three players known to have failed drug tests in the 2003 pilot testing done by MLB to assess use prevalence. This testing process was supposed to have been confidential, but the identities of Ortiz, Manny Ramirez, and Alex Rodriguez were leaked to the media as players with dirty test results. Ortiz, like Roger Clemens – who never had even a leaked negative test result – has always vehemently denied any use of banned substances, but apart from his leaked dirty test result, this article also begs the question effectively.
http://sports.cbslocal.com/2016/05/27/david-ortiz-ped-steroid-red-sox/
May 10, 2017 at 8:41 am |
This topic lights me up pretty good because of the selectivity being used on “rule breakers” and the admission to the HOF. I had a great conversation about this very topic last Saturday with Greg Lucas. Specifically, here is my gripe: Why are there admittted and known cheats in the HOF that are not removed from the HOF, if they are going to restrict entry to others who are known or suspected of cheating. We have multiple examples to consider.
If you are going to keep out PED’s, then what about amphetamins, uppers, greenies, etc…. and the players who were known to be abusers of them?
Digging even deeper, what about alcohol abusers, pain narcotics abusers, and even marijuana users.
These are all just as illegal, yet a blind eye was turned on them. You may argue they were not performance enhancing, but I beg to differ….in many cases, their use allowed the player to perform at all, maybe not at peak levels, but any benefit their numbers received were still benefits.
Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, to name a few, were known to abuse at least some of those substances on a regular basis. As far as the uppers era of the 50’s 60’s and 70’s there are too many to count and while there is no absolute numbers, I have talked to enough players to know it did go on, but wasn’t talked about. How can we differentiate the steroid use, which was at first condoned and even made available by the owners so they could bring the game back to popularity that had been lost due to the strike, only to have those very same owners act shocked when the revelation of the widespread use became public. They even chose to put one of the biggest crooks of this bunch, Bud Selig, into the HOF. What a crock!!
They say the steroid guys were cheats and they broke the rules. Why did they elect others who are cheats and broke the rules into the HOF?
Orlando Cepeda was convicted and went to prison on drug charges, but they put him in the HOF.
Gaylord Perry regularly employed doctored baseballs with Vaseline. He was caught several times. He even wrote a book detailing how he did it. Then they put him in the HOF. There are also several HOF pitchers who threw the spitter. This was illegal, yet we enshrine them into the HOF. How about the scuffles of the baseball? This is also against the rules, but there are members such as Hoyt Wilhelm who gouged balls to make their knuckler dance.
You have the case of Pete Rose, one of the greatest hitters of all time PERIOD. He is kept out because he bet on baseball. The funny thing is, all they can ever find is that he bet on the Reds to win while he was managing. I actually see no problem here. As manager, he was trying to win games. How can he influence the outcome any differently unless he bet AGAINST the Reds? He couldn’t make them win anymore. So then the argument is Joe Jackson isn’t in the HOF because he was associated with the Black Sox scandal. Has anyone looked at his performance during that series?? Where did he fail to produce?? His guilt by association is selective enforcement if you ask me.
But, if being associated with gambling as the primary reason for their exclusions from the HOF, then what about Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle who were just two prominent members of the HOF who were employed by Bally’s, the largest gambling outfit in the world? They were hired to schmooze it up with the gamblers and yet a blind eye is turned toward these icons. Why??
Then let’s examine the character aspect of the HOF admission that many claim have been breached. How many want to burn the Babe for being a drunken sloth and a womanizer. This goes down to Mantle and Ford. How about the spousal abusers? While these cases are not widely discussed, they did, and still do, exist. These character flaws did not keep members out. Ty Cobb was known to be one of the most loathsome individuals on the planet during his days. His own teammates hated the guy. But he is in the HOF.
How about those who broke Federal laws?? Federal Tax evasion charges were leveled on many players in the exploding era of memorabilia shows. Willie McCovey, Harmon Killebrew, Mike Schmidt among others were guilty of not reporting income. There are many more of them who have not been formally charged but were damn well not reporting income from autograph appearances at shows or private signings. I witnessed several players in the HOF carrying out satchels of cash from shows. They weren’t taking cash because they thought a check would bounce. Doesn’t this go to character? Yet they are still in the HOF.
On a bit of a side note, how come stealing bases is considered laudable, while stealing signs is not tolerated?
To sum things up, until everyone is willing to become pious enough to evenly nail ALL of those who have cheated, how can you sit in judgment on select individuals?
Then, answer the question of why Phil Rizzuto and Pee Wee Reese are in the HOF when their numbers pale in comparison to others such as Travis Jackson and Alan Trammell? Why is Jim Rice in the HOF and Dale Murphy doesn’t catch a whiff?
I suppose these are topics for yet another debate.
May 10, 2017 at 8:45 am |
Oh, and I forgot about Juan Marichal and his assault and battery (no pun intended) on John Roseboro, during a game no less. Ty Cobb sharpening his spikes and coming in cleats high cutting opponents to ribbons.
Ahhhh this should get them talking.
May 10, 2017 at 12:51 pm |
Dear Fred and Mark:
If your joint coverage of the issue waterfront doesn’t stir the pot, let’s all book a “room” at Forest Park Lawndale and check out on further discussion.
For whatever reason, I find myself growing less judgmental and less filled with odoriferous sanctimony about most human failures of the ego as time goes by. Except for my increasing intolerance for crimes of senseless violence, acts of sexual abuse toward children and defenseless adults. – the real bad guys in this world – as I see them – do not include ego-driven athletes who have used all those identified PEDs, plus all the others – like amphetamines – that Fred Soland so correctly identified as worthy of inclusion here in this discussion.
The Hall of Fame is no Good Ship Lollipop or gathering of Knights at the Round Table in which children can expect to find only excellent achievement and angelic character in the lives of those enshrined. If it were, the clean up and expulsion of those members who deserved expulsion for character reasons could have begun at the very start of its first 1936 selection class. – Ever hear of a fellow named Ty Cobb and all he did to serve the role model needs of youth?
The Hall of Fame should be a place in which greatest performance players and highest numbers in the record piles are not allowed to dangle at the door like so many judged-alike and look-alike orphans.
As a teaching device, we should use the accomplishments of HOF members to teach the kids what greatness looks like on a stat page. We use the players’ real life stories to teach the kids what probably helped and what probably got in the way of high achievement. After all, these players were not character robots. These HOF Greats are simply human.
And our message to the kids boils down to this: If you think you have both the ability and the desire to be the next Babe Ruth, then work to produce like he did on the field – without doing the things in your personal life that will only take away from how good you may actually have a chance to be.
“Do like him on the field. Be your own healthy self everywhere else.”
That should be our Hall Member study guide.
Kids today live through social media. By age 10, they already know more about what goes on in the adult world than most of us elders once knew at age 20. Do we really think we are protecting the kids by only inducting goody-goody guys to the Hall of Fame?
We need to wake up. It’s time to smell the 21st century.
May 10, 2017 at 1:16 pm |
Over time the HOF will admit many PED users. Our nation tends to forgive (and is not adverse to lowering standards in many areas of life and government.) In the old days the “sins” of players and celebrities was largely un-reported. Now that is not the case, but the concern is that too much IS reported that is actually incorrect or un-true. The move toward lowering standards will forgive.
May 10, 2017 at 3:10 pm |
Bill,
In the last sentence you wrote, “. . . shall we simply leave them buried FOREVER – anonymously together – in baseball’s own PURGATORY for LOST SOULS?”
I’m no theologian, but isn’t it true that according to religious doctrine, no one in Purgatory will remain in that state forever or be condemned to Hell?
So baseball’s purgatory should have no truly lost souls or if they are lost souls they should be prohibited from entering Cooperstown.
May 10, 2017 at 6:21 pm |
One curious aspect of purgatory from my own Catholic youth is the memory of being told that it may be located just outside Heaven’s Gate as an instilled “so close, but yet so far away” extra painful idea for its residents to ponder. To me, the Gates of Heaven are not out there at the Cooperstown city limits sign. They are just outside the member’s room door at the Hall of Fame.
As for some handle on how long the average stay in purgatory turns out to be, I once asked a priest that question when I was about ten years old. Here’s the crushing answer I received. He said:
First think of the earth as a giant iron ball. Next imagine that – only once – every 100 years – a gentle dove flies near the edge of that earth sized giant iron ball and gently rubs its wing across its side, returning next only another years beyond that first swipe to repeat the brush in the same spot again.
The time it takes at this rate for the dove to wear away the entire iron ball is – about the same as the time it takes for a resident to complete his or her time in purgatory.
I should’ve written down the date. Because that was the date my child’s mind was pretty much crushed by the despairing thought that there was no essential difference between hell and purgatory in the first place.
Fortunately, I was spared the death of hope by wizened elders who thought the priest who tried to lay this waste upon me was just as damn well deserving of such a place as the one he had tried to pour into my serious young mind.
May 11, 2017 at 7:31 am |
There undoubtedly already are PED users in the HOF. So because we have good reason to believe that is true, we should just toss out all standards and allow all future known users of banned substances with good stats to be rewarded with HOF membership? Two wrongs make a right?
We’re talking about a museum that honors great ballplayers here, not purgatory! In most cases of PED use, they’ve broken federal law and don’t go to jail. Proven and admitted PEDs users made more money in one year than I’ll see in my lifetime, they retire with full pensions, and they get to keep all their MVP and CYA hardware. Do they not have to be accountable at all for bilking their non-juicing peers and the public who pay to see them perform?
Greenies are stimulants, just like nicotine and caffeine, which have been around as long as baseball itself. Stimulants weren’t illegal until 1971, and some research shows that the short-term energy boost conferred by stimulants is eclipsed by slower reaction times with chronic use, meaning their performance enhancing status with sustained use is questionable. But even at their best, what they offer is energy, not increased bat speed and fast-twitch muscle fiber.
Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Mickey Mantle, and Whitey Ford used PEDs?
Since when has alcohol, sleep deprivation, and womanizing ever been shown to enhance athletic performance? Doctoring baseballs once was legal in MLB, and players who are caught doing it are penalized. But unless you can show me that doctoring baseballs is a federal crime or can cause serious health problems and would pose a risk for youngsters who seek to emulate athletic stars or have resulted in the demolition of hallowed statistical records, I would not suggest moral equivalence between those actions and the use of banned and illegal substances that increase muscle mass and facilitate fast-twitch muscle fiber growth at the expense of physical health, fair play, a level playing field, and worthy role models for our children.
And the issue of a manager betting on his own team to win is cut and dried. Let’s say that manager owes his gambling “pals” $50,000 and the note has been called in. He needs a big pay day. So he bets on his team to win, then runs his ace closer out there for six innings when the game goes into extra innings. The ace closer pops his ACL and there goes his career. Is that really okay?
Or maybe his creditors agree not to hurt his wife or kids as long as he sits two key players with pinch runners in the 7th inning of a close game. Is that really okay?
I don’t think so.
Ultimately, as I noted previously, the HOF is an honor, not a right.
May 11, 2017 at 1:30 pm |
Sorry Mark, I am going to disagree with you on several counts here. First, the greenies were always as illegal as PED’s are now. They both are perfectly legal with a proper prescription. However, most are obtained around those prescriptions.
Back when I played, there was a substance called DMSO which stood for dimethylsulfoxide (Or something like that). DMSO is THE BEST thing I have ever run across or used for quick healing. It is a real miracle worker. It is not an enhancer in any way, but a true healer. MANY pros and college athletes used it. Darryl Lamonica, the Oakland Raiders QB, couldn’t have lifted his arm without the stuff. It had some side effects though. You produce a body odor like a smashed garlic cloves, you had a taste in your mouth like sour milk all the time. They used to say you could smell Lamonica coming for miles. Over time, they thought it could cause problems to the eyes. But the stuff was illegal to purchase in pure form. The stuff is actually the highest grade of horse liniment. You can get it in prescription form from a vet for your horse, but not from a doctor for yourself. It is also used in a serious floor cleaner. The only problem with that is it was only 95% pure and you get the other stuff which isn’t so good for you. So, you acquired it from someone with horses. There was one little danger to applying the stuff though. You could not put it on and cover it with any clothing before it was totally dry, or it would suck the dye out of the clothing and put it right into your bloodstream, which would kill you. Believe it or not, that is NOT why it was illegal to use. The FDA would not approve it under government orders because drug users would place cocaine or powdered heroine on their body, top it with DMSO, and the drug would be absorbed directly into the bloodstream with no needles or track marks to prove you had taken the drugs. They were afraid the stuff would run the drug culture to be much worse than it was. But the stuff worked, and worked well.
Secondly, I never said greenies were PED’s. I said they were not legal. I was dealing with the “moral clause” and the “character” of the HOF players. You are confusing federal crimes with breaking the rules. Again, you failed to mention the tax evaders, which were federal crimes. You also didn’t mention the assault and battery which were federal crimes. Nor the drug possession and distribution charges that produced prison time.
Regarding the Pete Rose betting on baseball, your example is so far fetched that he would do this for one massive payday. You see from the records that he NEVER did this. Let’s stick to the facts of the case, not your fantasy “what ifs”. If he had done what you said, then I would not be as forgiving. I am basing my judgment on what actually happened though, and I don’t have a problem with it. And with the moral character flaws in the system that have been allowed for others, Pete Rose should be in the HOF.
May 11, 2017 at 1:26 pm |
Mark, My Dear SABR Friend,
As my capacity for forgiveness grows, my passion for self-righteous argumentation diminishes. I have no doubt that we could always find examples of those candidates who had earned the honor, but had also used up their grace for forgiveness due to the irreparable harm caused to others by their character actions.
I would still need to examine each flawed candidate on an individual basis to reach such a possible conclusion for their HOF rejection. My guess, based upon the way this dialogue is going, is that we would still come up with a few people that were OK by me, but not by you.
My world is not as perfect as yours, but that’s OK. We both have, as we shall always have, the right to see things differently from each other.
Have a nice Thursday,
Bill
May 12, 2017 at 5:21 am |
Fred, the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) was passed by Congress and signed into law by Richard Nixon in 1970, at which time amphetamines became a Schedule II controlled substance. Prior to that date, amphetamines could be purchased over the counter. Remember dexedrine (speed) and related so-called “diet pills”, often used by high schoolers in the 60s and 70s for their all-nighters? You can’t walk into Walgreen’s and buy them OTC anymore, and not since 1971.
Bill, I think you’ve misunderstood me somewhat. I have no problem forgiving players who violated the law and baseball’s drug bans. I still greatly admire Alex Rodriguez and I’m in awe of Barry Bonds’ athletic accomplishments. I just question whether it’s wise to honor them and their comrades in drug use with Hall of Fame membership. Failing to draw a line, somewhere, regarding what these fellows did, removes a potentially effective deterrent to others who would follow in their stead – especially young people who are apt to put themselves in harm’s way by emulating the elders they so admire. Without effective deterrence, we basically invite the problem to continue. In 2007 the Texas state legislature and Governor Rick Perry signed into law a bill that mandated random drug testing for all high school athletes in Texas public schools.
>>“We spent a lot of money. We raised awareness. We saved lives,” said Rep. Dan Flynn, a Republican who helped write the original testing law in 2007.<<
I don't accuse anyone who disagrees with me about this issue of being self-righteous or perfectionistic, and I hope my views about this can be evaluated in the absence of similar character attributions.
May 12, 2017 at 12:16 pm |
Mark, please have no fear of judgment from me. I have nothing but respect for your mind, your integrity, and your general goodness of will toward others.
Self-righteousness and perfectionism are the twin products of any modeling system for children that offers no breathing room for the deeper lessons people must absorb through the pain of their own personal experience. (That was the bugaboo of my personal life experience as a kid. As a result, those two traits show up as the usual suspects anytime I hear something that first sounds like their footsteps creeping into the home of my mind at peace,)
I was guilty of judgmental assessment in the presumption that you might be harsher in judgment than I might be on the character/track record issues of future HOF candidates, if they even let people like us have a vote. Let’s hope we never get to find out. Errors of ink or tongue are always easy for all of us.
May 13, 2017 at 4:19 pm |
We’re good muchacho.