Back to the Oakland Athletics Newsfeed

Home runs, juiced balls, and the Oakland A’s

It’s baseball’s worst-kept secret — home runs are way up. Across the game, the ball is flying out of the park at an unprecedented rate that exceeds that of even the steroid era. And whether intentional or not, it seems that changes to the baseball itself are the biggest culprits.

You don’t even have to look very hard to see the changes. Last Saturday, the Minnesota Twins hit their league-leading 166th home run of the season, officially an MLB record for home runs hit by a team before the All-Star break. They broke the previous record of 161, which was set by the New York Yankees .