MIAMI _ Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred has heard all the talk about "rabbit" baseballs contributing to what will be record home run (and strikeout) totals this year. Without his fingers crossed, he told the annual midseason gathering of the Baseball Writers' Association of America on Tuesday that nothing untoward has been detected by his office.
"I do know that we have done more testing of the baseball in the last couple of years than ever has been done, historically," Manfred said. "And I do know with absolute certainty that the baseball falls within the tolerance of the specifications that have existed for many years."
Manfred also said that because of the extensive "state of the art" testing program, performance-enhancing drugs are not a factor contributing to the home run spike, either.
"Beyond that," he said, "we are in the process of trying to come to a conclusion about what may be going on. We think there are a number of factors in play here. From my own perspective, there have been dramatic changes in how the game is taught and the way the game is taught at the big-league level. Those changes are driven by decisions of the 30 general managers and field managers.
"There is a dramatically increased tolerance for strikeouts by offensive players. There's much, much more emphasis on the home run as the principal offensive tool in the game. There's a dramatic increase in the use of relief pitchers, even to the point of a rotating bottom of the roster between Triple-A and who's in the big leagues _ all of which have contributed to this (home run/strikeout) phenomenon.
"Will we ever probably know the whole answer? Probably not.
"The more important question for us to figure out as much as we can about what's been going on and then maybe, more important, think about what it means to our fans and whether we need to do something to manage the change that's kind of been taking place dramatically."
