There's balls, and then there's balls. Part I

No, it's not like that. This is about sports, remember?

First, there's the home runs in major league baseball. When I was a little boy, I can remember being at Tiger Stadium, where I watched Norm Cash hit a baseball over the roof in right field. Back then, I had my handy-dandy transistor radio glued to my ear, and heard announcer Ernie Harwell estimate the ball had traveled 525 feet. Norm did it more than once, and several others accomplished it as well.  Hitting the ball over the roof in left field was an even more colossal feat. To the best of my recollection, only 3 men ever accomplished that. Harmon Killebrew, Frank Howard, and Cecil Fielder, all big brutes indeed. Those balls had to travel well over 500 feet as well. The longest home run ever is generally attributed to Mickey Mantle. Supposedly, he once clubbed one 585 feet.

Fast forward a few decades. Most major league pitchers still throw fastballs in the 90 MPH range, the hitters have their bats custom made, and it's widely assumed the balls themselves are "juiced", compared to the "old days", whereby they fly farther than they used to. Players like Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, and that loveable Barry Bonds were setting all kinds of home run records, and were allegedly "juiced" themselves. So combine the same speed of pitches, better bats, hotter balls, and players that could seemingly flick their wrists at a bad pitch, yet wind up hitting a homer, and what do you have?

Nobody that got credit for hitting one over 500 feet, much less approaching the Mick's supposed record at 585. A chubby guy like Norm Cash could sock them 525 and muscle-bound people like McGwire and Bonds couldn't hit it that far? Ever? For all those years? 480-490 was considered a "monster shot", even during the steroid era. Do you see something wrong with this picture? Obviously, I don't get it. Somebody please explain it to me.

Football next time. Bet you can guess where I'm going to go with that......