by Coltrane
Great career. It was time.
The final seasons of the top 5 home run hitters of all time, excluding Bonds:
| Name | Age | G | AB | H | 2B | HR | BB | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS |
| Aaron | 42 | 85 | 271 | 62 | 8 | 10 | 35 | .229 | .315 | .369 | .684 |
| Ruth | 40 | 28 | 72 | 13 | 0 | 6 | 20 | .181 | .359 | .341 | .789 |
| Mays | 42 | 66 | 209 | 44 | 10 | 6 | 27 | .211 | .303 | .344 | .647 |
| Griffey | 40 | 33 | 98 | 18 | 2 | 0 | 9 | .184 | .250 | .204 | .454 |
| Average | 41 | 53 | 163 | 34 | 5 | 6 | 23 | .211 | .305 | .343 | .648 |
Why exclude Bonds from this list if you are going to call it the “top 5”? Is it because Bonds had an actual productive last season?
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Was Junior clean? Who knows?
I think we can reasonably safely say that Bonds was not clean and that the other three players *were* clean. Additionally, Bonds could still play when he retired. He didn’t retire due to lack of production. For that reason he’s a poor comparison.
I’m choosing to lump Griffey in with the clean guys, at least for now.
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You might want to pull Aaron and possibly Mays out of there too as they almost certainly were popping “greenies” at the end of their careers (and Aaron has never denied taking them). Ruth was almost certainly drunk, which makes the 789 OPS all the more impressive. Bonds was theoretically clean in his last season in the sense that he did not fail any tests, but you are right, he didn’t hang on past the point of being an effective player, so he is a terrible comparison for the list.
I still think Griffey mas taking something, based on the fact he became a china doll once he left Seattle.
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