In recent years several baseball players have hit a remarkable number of home runs, and there has been speculation that their achievements were enhanced by the use of anabolic steroids. Basic mechanics and physiology, combined with simple but reasonable models, show that steroid use by a player who is already highly skilled could produce such dramatic increases in home run production. Because home runs are relatively rare events on the tail of a batter’s range distribution, even modest changes in bat speed can increase the proportion of batted balls that result in home runs by 50–100%. The possible effect of steroid use by pitchers is briefly considered.
REFERENCES
1.
The chemicals of interest are considered anabolic-androgenic steroids because they affect both muscle development and sexual characteristics. In the context of sport they are often simply called “anabolic steroids” or just “steroids.” In this article the terms are used interchangeably.
2.
S.
Ungerleider
, Faust’s Gold: Inside the East German Doping Machine
(St. Martins
, New York
, 2001
).3.
R.
Cohen
, “Johnson is banned for life after testing positive for drugs a 2d time
,” New York Times
, March 6, 1993
;J.
Longman
and L.
Robbins
, “Sprinter barred from Olympics as U.S. doping scandal grows
,” New York Times
, May 20, 2004
;J.
Macur
, “2nd test failure starts to separate tour and winner
,” New York Times
, August 6, 2006
;S.
Brenkley
, “Pakistan pair face two-year bans after failing drug tests
,” The Independent (London)
, October 17, 2006
.4.
H.
Bryant
, Juicing the Game: Drugs, Power, and the Fight for the Soul of Major League Baseball
(Viking
, New York
, 2005
);J.
Canseco
, Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ’Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big
(Harper Collins
, New York
, 2005
);W.
Carroll
, The Juice: The Real Story of Baseball’s Drug Problems
(Ivan R. Dee
, Chicago
, 2007
);M.
Fainaru-Wada
and L.
Williams
, Game of Shadows: Barry Bonds, BALCO, and the Steroids Scandal that Rocked Professional Sports
(Gotham
, New York
, 2007
).5.
J.
Curry
, “Congress fires questions hard and inside, and baseball can only swing and miss
,” New York Times
, March 18, 2005
.6.
M.
Fainaru-Wada
, “Grand jury probes nutrient company; Burlingame firm boasts of ties to star athletes
,” San Francisco Chronicle
, October 14, 2003
.7.
A search of New York Times articles including the words “steroids” and “baseball” in the headline or lead paragraphs yields 478 hits for the years
2005–2006
.8.
Baseball statistics from Sports Reference, ⟨baseball-reference.com⟩. Data presented are current through the
2006
season.9.
10.
Historical records for many sports can be found at Hickok Sports, ⟨www.hickoksports.com/⟩.
11.
12.
A. J.
George
, “Androgenic anabolic steroids
,” in Drugs in Sports
, edited by D. R.
Mottram
(Routledge
, London
, 2005
), 4th ed.13.
G. R.
Hervey
, “What are the effects of anabolic steroids?
,” in Science and Sporting Performance: Management or Manipulation
, edited by B.
Davies
and G.
Thomas
(Clarendon
, Oxford
, 1982
).14.
S.
Bhasin
, L.
Woodhouse
, and T. W.
Storer
, “Proof of the effect of testosterone on skeletal muscle
,” J. Endocrinol.
170
, 27
–38
(2001
).15.
C. M.
Kuhn
, “Anabolic steroids
,” Recent Prog. Horm. Res.
57
, 411
–434
(2002
).16.
I. M.
Ferreira
, I. T.
Verreschi
, L. E.
Nery
, R. S.
Goldstein
, N.
Zamel
, D.
Brooks
, and J. R.
Jardim
, “The influence of of oral anabolic steroids on body mass and respiratory muscles in undernourished COPD patients
,” Chest
114
, 19
–28
(1998
).17.
J. D.
Elashoff
, A. D.
Jacknow
, S. G.
Shain
, and G. D.
Braunstein
, “Effects of anabolic-androgenic steroids on muscular strength
,” Ann. Intern Med.
116
, 387
–393
(1991
).18.
S.
Bhasin
, T. W.
Stoerer
, N.
Berman
, C.
Callegari
, B.
Clevenger
, J.
Phillips
, T. J.
Bunnell
, R.
Tricker
, A.
Shirazi
, and R.
Casaburi
, “The effects of supraphysiological doses of testosterone on muscle size and strength in normal men
,” N. Engl. J. Med.
335
, 1
–7
(1996
).19.
T. A.
McMahon
, Muscles, Reflexes and Locomotion
(Princeton University Press
, Princeton
, 1984
).20.
S.
Vogel
, Comparative Biomechanics
(Princeton University Press
, Princeton, NJ
, 2003
), p. 454
.21.
R. G.
Watts
and S.
Baroni
, “Baseball-bat collisions and the resulting trajectories of spinning balls
,” Am. J. Phys.
57
(1
), 40
–45
(1989
).22.
A. M.
Nathan
, “Dynamics of the baseball-bat collision
,” Am. J. Phys.
68
(11
), 979
–990
(2000
).23.
G. S.
Sawicki
, M.
Hubbard
, and W. J.
Stronge
, “How to hit home runs: Optimum baseball bat swing parameters for maximum range trajectories
,” Am. J. Phys.
71
(11
), 1152
–1162
(2003
).24.
25.
J.
Longman
, “Steroid-assisted fastballs? Pitchers face new spotlight
,” New York Times
, May 18, 2005
.26.
27.
Acta Sports, “
Are pitchers who throw harder better?
” August 30, 2006
, ⟨actasports.com/sow.php?id=101⟩.© 2008 American Association of Physics Teachers.
2008
American Association of Physics Teachers
AAPT members receive access to the American Journal of Physics and The Physics Teacher as a member benefit. To learn more about this member benefit and becoming an AAPT member, visit the Joining AAPT page.
