Marvin: Right then, wrong now.

• Position: SPORTS

Byline: Bill Ballou

COLUMN: BASEBALL

In January 2005, Marvin Miller, the union lawyer who made baseball players some of the richest men on earth and who should be in the Hall of Fame, was asked about drug testing and the effect steroids may have had on the sport. His response was:

"Where is the evidence that using steroids allows someone to hit a baseball more often, and hit it farther when he does? Nobody's got any evidence. They've got that opinion."

At the time, Miller was right. There was no evidence. But in 2005, baseball got serious about testing for steroids and five years have passed since then, so there is evidence - or at least a before-and-after line in the dirt.

In 2004, there were 5,451 home runs hit in major league games. In '05, that dropped to 5,017. By 2008, it was 4,878, and last year it bounced back a little to 5,042. Since 1998, when Major League Baseball reached its full complement of 30 teams, the peak home run year was 1999, with 5,528. That was at the start of the home run boom of 1998-2001 that produced six seasons in which a player hit more than 60 home runs.

That has not happened since Barry Bonds hit 73 in 2001.

In 2000, 16 players hit 40 or more homers. In 2001, it was 12 players, but in 2002, before testing, it had dropped to eight. Only two players in the majors hit 40 homers in 2008, only five last season. No American League hitter has gotten to 40 since Alex Rodriguez hit 54 in 2007.

Home runs are fickle creatures. Roger Maris hit 39 homers in 1960, 61 in 1961, and 33 in 1962. In 1998, when Mark McGwire hit 70 home runs and Sammy Sosa 66, the major league total was 5,064, only slightly more than last year.

Still, the evidence is rather overwhelming now. It's not opinion anymore. Maybe even Miller would admit that now.

Baseball Jeopardy

Answers:

1. He leads all active American League batters in career triples, 29 of which came in a Red Sox uniform.

2. He made 160 appearances in relief for the Red Sox without ever recording a save, a team record.

3. The ex-Red Sox player who led the majors in pinch-hit home runs last season with five.

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