Baseball Announcer Attributes Increase In Home Runs To Global Warming

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Written By:
Rob Port

Apr 28, 2012
5:40pm

Fox Sports baseball announcer Tim McCarver, perhaps the most vapid and irritating announcer in the history of the game (rivaled only by his baseball partner Joe Buck), wandered into the realm of science and politics while trying to explain baseball’s trend toward more home runs during the Brewers/Cardinals game today.

“It has not been proven, but I think ultimately it will be proven that the air is thinner now, there have been climactic changes over the last 50 years in the world, and I think that’s one of the reasons balls are carrying much better now than I remember,” said McCarver.

There is apparently nothing our friends on the left can’t blame on global warming.

Unfortunately for Carver, the facts don’t support his argument. In the last decade, the trend in home runs was actually down:

A lot of that is the hangover from the steroids-fueled hitting binge of the 1990′s, with the league cracking down on performance enhancing drug use.

But there are a lot of factors. While historically there’s been a steady increase in the number of home runs hit in the majors, there are a lot of explanations for this other than climate. Fans like home runs, and Major League Baseball is a sport that likes to keep fans happy. That’s why the trend in baseball parks over the years has been toward smaller, hitter-friendly parks. Over the years league expansion has diluted pitching talent. Better training, medical techniques and therapies have improved player performance and lengthened careers. And then there is the already-mentioned performance enhancing drug scandals, with PED’s being widely acknowledged as the driving factor behind the spike in home runs from players like Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds.

Generally, though, players are better hitters today because there is a free market for baseball talent that is constantly driving players to find new ways to excel. There are huge rewards, in terms of money and fame, for dominant offensive players in baseball. Should we be surprised that over time the competition between players trying to achieve higher levels of performance has resulted in better overall play from the professional league in general, including more home runs?