The Steroid Era in baseball dated way back is impossible to determine how it all began. But according to the article of Robert Ferringo at Docsports.com, it is easy to follow the chain of individuals that rode steroids to prominence. Jose Canseco and his “Anabolic Bash Brother” Mark McGwire hit the scene as a duo in 1987 and the following year, Canseco grabbed the American League MVP. Also, then Ken Caminiti sobered and juiced up in 1996 to take the N.L. MVP. The great personal crescendo of the ‘roid era was on 1998 during the McGwire-Sammy Sooser Home Run Race.

It was in 2000 when the highest scoring year in baseball was recorded. That same year, there was an average of 10.28 runs per game which was scored by all the Major League teams. There were also 10.6 runs per game in the American League and 10.0 runs per game in the National League. In fact, an average of double-digits in San Diego, Pittsburgh, and Montreal happened every night. Books were also releasing totals of 13.0 and 14.0 that season and games were still going “over.” That season is considered as a high time for hitting.

Come 2005 when the first steroid rules in Major League Baseball was announced. It is also the year when Canseco published his tell-all book about the steroid culture in baseball. It was also in 2005 when two of the BALCO kingpins cut plea bargains for providing steroids to their clients involving Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi and Armando Rios.

The scoring dropped from 9.63 runs per game in 2004 to 9.18 in 2005, which is considered as the fifth-highest total in baseball history. This shows that the 2005 total was the lowest since 1992. And it can be noted that the scoring in baseball doubled between 1992 and 1993 hence this shows that the true Steroid Era began in 1993.

Last year, it was recorded that there was an average of 9.3 runs per game. And this was the third consecutive year in which baseball scoring had gone down. So far this year, there has been an average of 9.28 runs per game in the 62 out of 162 games played. This would not be an issue and in line with the statistical baseline set by the last three seasons. But on close scrutiny, the trends are pointing toward scoring levels that was not witnessed since the Nixon Era in terms of the distribution of runs.

The first month of the current season started off at a raucous pace. It was around 9.8 runs per game in the American League and 9.5 in National League. And scoring has declined since mid-May and heading into Sunday teams at only an average of 8.16 runs per game in June. This is a run-and-a-half differential from what they are putting up just about six weeks ago.

According to the same article of Ferringo, it is not steroids that caused the plummeting scores in baseball. He said that baseball is a game of cycles. “Baseball is a game of cycles. The sport itself is devoid of electronics – just a stick and a ball – but yet it can be seen as one big statistical matrix. Baseball is a never-ending tide in a sea of statistics. And like any time there are times when it comes in and times when it recedes.”

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