Abstract
Background: The “steroid era” in Major League Baseball (MLB) was a time when drug testing for performance enhancing drugs (PED) was not routinely performed. Purpose: To determine if there was a correlation between the steroid era and home runs, batting average, and isolated power (ISO) in MLB players. Methods: Home run, batting average, and ISO data from 1973 to 2012 was collected and analyzed. The data from the steroid era 1993-2002 was compared to the pre steroid eras 1973-1982, 1983-1992, and post steroid era 2003-2012. Results: There was no statistically significant increase in the number of home runs (HR) hit by the American League (AL), National League (NL) or overall in MLB. There was no statistically significant increase in the ISO or highest yearly single player HR total during the steroid era. There were significantly more players who hit 40 or more HR per season during 1993-2002 compared to each of the other time periods (p<0.002). Throughout all time periods, there was no significant change in batting average. Conclusion: There was a significant increase in players who hit more than 40 HR in a single season during the steroid era compared to before and after this time period.
Highlights
Anabolic steroids, which fall under the general category of Performance Enhancing Drugs (PED), have been a banned substance for Major League Baseball (MLB) players since 1991
The following performance data was collected using baseballalmanac.com and analyzed: number of home runs (HR) hit by the American League (AL), National League (NL), and total number of HR hit by MLB in each individual year from 1973-2012, number of players who hit more than 40 HR in a single season for each season 1973-2012, highest number of HR hit by a single player in a single season for each individual season from 1973-2012, average isolated power (ISO) for MLB for each season from 1972-2012, batting average, and batting average for players who hit more than 40 home runs in a season
There were no significant differences between the number of HR hit per year in the American League (AL) and National League (NL) (Table 2)
Summary
Anabolic steroids, which fall under the general category of Performance Enhancing Drugs (PED), have been a banned substance for Major League Baseball (MLB) players since 1991. In the years leading up to 2003, there were many steroid derivatives and precursors for which players were not tested (Table 1) [1]. With the release of the Mitchell Report on December 13, 2007 and the surrounding media coverage in years prior to this, PED testing in MLB became stricter (the number of steroid derivatives tested for increased, the number of mandatory tests per season for each player increased from one to two, as well as random tests) and penalties for testing positive became more severe [3,4]. The “steroid era” in Major League Baseball (MLB) was a time when drug testing for performance enhancing drugs (PED) was not routinely performed.
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