[ricelynnevans75]

There is a reason no catcher ever hit home runs remotely like Bench before.

Yogi Berra: Had 358 home runs in 8364 plate appearances.
(1 HR every 23.36 plate appearances)

Johnny Bench: Had 389 home runs in 8669 plate appearances
(1 HR every 22.29 plate appearances)

One less plate appearance in comparison to Berra. Yogi must have been on the roids.

He led the league in home runs twice, with 40 and 45. He also did it in a decade in which only a handful of players hit the 40 homer plateau. One other guy who did it twice was his teammate George Foster, who was the only man to hit 50 home runs over a 25-year stretch.

So Foster was on roids because OTHER players (out of his control by the way) didn't hit 50 in that span? Uhhhh.........

Willie Stargell and Hank Aaron also did it twice in the 70s. Guess they were on roids too. Sixteen people hit 40 or more 20 times total in the 70s.

George Foster (52 in '77 and 40 in '78)
Willie Stargell (48 in '71 and 44 in '73)
Dave Kingman (48 in '79)
Hank Aaron (47 in '71 and 40 in '73)
Jim Rice (46 in '78)
Johnny Bench (45 in '70 and 40 in '72)
Gormon Thomas (45 in '79)
Mike Schmidt (45 in '79)
Frank Howard (44 in '70)
Davey Johnson (43 in '73)
Billy Williams (42 in '70)
Harmon Killebrew (41 in '70)
Darrell Evans (41 in '73)
Jeff Burroughs (41 in '77)
Tony Perez (40 in '70)
Carl Yastrzemski (40 in '70)
http://www.people.vcu.edu/~jyucha/HomeRun/fourty.html

Bench also was known for his rage. I am not accusing him of roid rage but one person on this site actually wrote about experiencing it firsthand as a little child, after being berated by the "Little General" for wanting his autograph.

He was known for his rage? AND?! I have a short temper at times and I don't do roids. Is there anything to support this other than someone on a message board?

2) Joe Morgan. Look up his stats. Pay attention to those first nine seasons with the Houston Astros. He had a batting average of .260 over that period.

In all of those seasons, he only had three years where he belted more than 8 homers and reached a high of 15. He averaged one home run per every 54 at bats.

He was traded to Cincinatti before the 1972 season and immediately posted career highs with a .292 average and 16 home runs. He hit 26 homers the next year.

In Morgan's first six years with the Reds, he had a batting average of .300. The 5'7 second baseman hit more than 20 homers four times. He lowered his home run ratio to once every 41 at bats. And it wasn't the ballpark. His home away splits were remarkably consistent throughout his career except for his biggest home run season in Cincinatti when he actually hit twice as many home runs AWAY.

Take a close look at footage of Morgan in the 70's. He had the muscles of an olympic weightlifter. Did I mention he was 5'7?

Pertaining to his batting average, OK, he hit .260 in his first nine season. His career average is .271. Yep, must be roids. Did you factor in the lineup he was in in Houston as opposed to Cincinnati? The players around you in the lineup do have something to do with the pitches you see. Unless you don't pay attention to baseball....

Three of his years that you're counting in Houston he played no more than 10 games the whole season. ('63, '64, '68)

His first six years with the Reds started with the typically recognized "peak years" for a ball player in which many ball players have their best stats in their career anyway.

A whopping 20+ homeruns four times over 22 years? In his peak years?! WOW! That's some solid evidence. Most he ever had was 27. Big deal....

Exactly what photos are you looking at in which he had the muscles like an olympic weightlifter?

3) George Foster

He went from being a guy who hit for average in the minors with a little pop to being a guy who couldn't hit for average or power in his first few years in the majors.

In his first three seasons in the minors, he hit a combined 25 home runs in 1,200 at bats.

In his first full year in the majors, he hit 13 home runs. Between 1971 and 1974, he batted .233 and hit 26 home runs in 930 at-bats.

In 1975, Foster was apparently let in on a secret as his average soared to .300 and he belted 23 homers, nearly the same amount of homers that he needed twice as many at bats to hit over the previous three years.

In 1976, he hit .306 and had 29 home runs.

In 1977, he did what nobody would do until juiced up Cecil Fielder 14 years later - he smashed 51 home runs.

Then he went into decline. Right away. He went down to 40 home runs the next year, followed by 30, 25, and 22 in 1981. He was traded to the Mets the next year where he batted .241 and hit only 13 home runs.

Just when you thought he was washed up, Foster miraculously found his swing again at the age of 35. He bested his home run totals of the previous three years by hitting 28 home runs before going into decline again.

I can't prove any of these guys took steroids and I don't think anybody ever will. But I have a strong case for suspicion.

Let's see, where to begin. His first few years where you lump everything together, he had one full season.
1971-140 games
1972- 59 games
1973- 17 games
1974- 106 games

Then you make it sound like he was "let in on a secret" in 1975. Actually, it was probably due, again, to the players surrounding him in the lineup, him starting to approach his peak years (two years away), AND the fact that he was able to play in 134 games.

In '76, he hit 29 home runs in 144 games and in 1977 (first of the peak/prime years) he hit 52 (not 51 as you incorrectly noted).

Ironically, you say he went on a decline when he went down to 40 home runs, when throughout your thread you've put 40 home runs on a pedestal.

I can't prove any of these guys took steroids and I don't think anybody ever will. But I have a strong case for suspicion.

Strong case? Where?

You can't prove any of it because your arguments are weak, terribly weak. You don't present important numbers or you lump things together to make it sound worse/better than it actually was. That's not a solid argument.

Stick good baseball players together in a line-up with good team chemistry, you're going to have excellent production. That's kind of what happens in baseball ya know?