Mcguire's 70th Homerun Ball Also Juiced!!!

[brewcrew/chisox]

Found this on Baseball Think Factory http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/

Here is the actual article http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/01-03-2007/0004498891&EDATE=


Highlight:
Mark McGwire's 70th home run ball from his record-breaking 1998 season contains a synthetic rubber ring or spring ("the ring") -- a material not outlined in official Major League Baseball ("the League") specifications. The ring and enlarged rubberized core of the baseball are clearly visualized in a computed tomography (CT)scan of the baseball conducted by Universal Medical Systems, Inc. of Ohio(UMS), a worldwide innovator of diagnostic imaging technology for various industries.
"The synthetic rubber ring of the modern-day baseball, in this case that of Mark McGwire's prized 70th home run ball, acts as both a spring and a 'stop,'" says Zavagno. "Much like a sling shot pulled back 10 or 20 degrees farther than normal, the subsequent restitution or rebound allows an object to fly faster and farther. The changes to the center directly affect the restitution and energy distribution within the ball."


It looks like a pretty credible source as well
David R. Zavagno, president of Universal Medical Systems, Inc., has non- destructively tested and documented the content of Major League baseballs covering almost 100 years.
Let the MLB spin begin!

No place to hide now....McGwire, Sosa, Selig etc......

Edit: Sorry. In my excitement, I misspelled McGwire's name in the thread's title. Mods, feel free to change.

[HotelWhiteSox]

Hmm, Hawk on to something? Not his biggest fan, and I remember him talking about being sure the balls were juiced and every media member available for comment calling him crazy or senile

[daveeym]

Whether juiced or not this smells of, "see no roids problem, Vote for Mac for the hall of fame."

[SouthSide_HitMen]

IIRC, they used special balls during the McGwire and Sosa at bats in September. They either had a number and or a bar code so that the "record" home run ball could be verified by MLB. I guess they were "special" above and beyond the identifying mark(s).

[StillMissOzzie]

IIRC, they used special balls during the McGwire and Sosa at bats in September. They either had a number and or a bar code so that the "record" home run ball could be verified by MLB. I guess they were "special" above and beyond the identifying mark(s).

No point in marking up baseballs for verification unless they were sure they'd fly a long way? Not too much surprises me anymore.

SMO
:o:

[brewcrew/chisox]

IIRC, they used special balls during the McGwire and Sosa at bats in September. They either had a number and or a bar code so that the "record" home run ball could be verified by MLB. I guess they were "special" above and beyond the identifying mark(s).


Actually, if you look at the two pictures at the top of the article, there is not only a CT scan of McGwire's homerun ball but also of a number of "regular" balls used during 1998. They all have the rubber ring.

Here is the quote:
Computer tomography (CT) cross-sectional images of various 1998 Major League Baseballs contain a synthetic rubber ring (distinguished by two red marks) not outlined in Major League Baseball specifications. The images also reveal that the baseball components - despite specifications - are non-spherical, off-center and not uniform. The CT image is produced by Universal Medical Systems, Inc. of Ohio. (PRNewsFoto/Universal Medical Systems, Inc. of Ohio)

It looks as if everyone was getting help that year.

I really don't see how this can help McGwire's hall of fame bid at all. The juiced ball is only one of a number of things (Roids, smaller strike zone) which need to be considered when looking at McGwire's inflated numbers.

Actually, the hardball times has a pretty interesting article, which attempts to "smooth" out some of those same numbers of the 90's. It's a 4 part article. Here is part 1: http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/smoothing-the-80s-and-90s-part-one/

[Grzegorz]

Why do the powers that be in baseball assume that they need to evoke a visceral reaction from the fans in order to get them to love the game?

Do not get me wrong, I love timely hitting but I truly love the game because you need pitching, speed, and defense to win ballgames.

I'll never see the day but I'd love to see baseball:
* Contract the current number of franchises
* Rid the game of the DH
* Have the ballparks grow in their dimensions

[Vernam]

Whether juiced or not this smells of, "see no roids problem, Vote for Mac for the hall of fame."Yep. :thumbsup:

I also found interesting how the Cubune (link (http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cs-0701040305jan04,1,5802723.story?coll=cs-baseball-print)) chose to slightly but significantly alter the AP story (the original can be found here (http://www.thestar.com/Sports/article/168108)) by adding the following sentence after the first paragraph:That was also the year that Sammy Sosa smacked 66 for the Cubs.
:?: Editors sometimes add a bit of local color to national wire-service stories. In this case, there's the added benefit of attempting to whitewash Sosa's steroid abuse, in which the Trib was complicit.

Vernam

[slavko]

Wasn't Hawk's warcry at the time "Juiced Players, Juiced Baseballs?" Referring to the way line drives were hitting pitchers who didn't have time to defend themselves.

[Britt Burns]

With the lovefest that was going on that year with McGwire and Sosa I'm actually surprised MLB didn't let them hit softball-sized golf balls with aluminum bats.