Justin Verlander Thinks The Balls Are Being Juiced, And That's Just As Hypocritical As It Is Possible

Seventy-five players with 20 or more homers this year. https://t.co/hG8qAdE156 In 2014, there were 57 for the entire season.

— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) August 20, 2017

Just say it @Buster_ESPN □⚾️ https://t.co/8Kl3bqXGXM

— Justin Verlander (@JustinVerlander) August 20, 2017

Ah, baseball. The sport that prides itself on being legislated "the right way" despite it causing indisputable damage to it's entertainment value...yet even the inanimate object it's played with can't be completely cleared of steroid suspicion. According to those much more interested in the potentially devious boost in home runs, it's very possible that the balls are being juiced. I just don't find that obvious correlation to be anywhere near as humorous as the idea of a professional league - that still hasn't distanced itself from it's PED epidemic - actively "drugging" baseballs in an attempt to enhance the performance of something that doesn't have testable blood.

The MLB still hasn't found a way to honor the people who put up historic numbers during an era in which 'HGH' might as well have served as an acronym for "hitters granted help". However, it's not outside the realm of possibility that they are now complicit in inducing a place or thing - that can't be  summoned to appear in front of congress - with the artificial strength necessary to inflate numbers. Maybe Justin Verlander's allegation wouldn't hold up any better in court than Sammy Sosa's "no speaka English" defense. Regardless, the mere chance that could is so incredibly symbolic of the hypocrisy of a league that somewhat frivolously picks and chooses which aspects of their tarnished history are worth celebrating. Altering balls might not affect the outcome of games as much as a subsect of biologically enhanced players, but they are certainly acting in the same vein (pun intended) in terms of compromising the validity of the asterisk-laden record books.