Although his pace has slowed down the last few days, Marlins slugger Giancarlo Stanton has been an epic home run tear these last few weeks. He's crushed 19 home runs in 34 second half games and 24 home runs in his last 39 games overall. Stanton leads MLB with 45 home runs in 2017. Only one other player has hit more than 35 (Aaron Judge with 37).

Given his insane home run binge, there has understandably been debate about whether Stanton can crack 60 home runs this season, and maybe even threaten the single-season home run record. That record, according to MLB, is 73 by Barry Bonds in 2001. According to many others, it is still 61 by Roger Maris in 1961. Blame the disparity on performance-enhancing drugs.

Stanton, as it turns out, is a Maris truther. He told Dave Hyde of the Sun Sentinel he considers 61 to be the true home run record, though he also provided a thoughtful explanation about asterisks and the need for context. From Hyde:

"Considering some things, I do (believe 61 is the record),'' he said Wednesday.  

...

He admitted he's "at a crossroads" in an internal debate over what to think about all this. If PED users like Bonds, McGwire and Sosa need an asterisk by their name, he said, so does Babe Ruth since he only faced white pitchers. 

Stanton and Bonds, you may remember, were together last season, when Bonds was the Marlins hitting coach. Reportedly the two had a fine working relationship and that's about it. They were player and hitting coach, not best friends. Is that the reason Stanton considers 61 the home run record and 73? Possibly. He likely would never say that.

Anyway, Stanton made a good point about the idea of an asterisk and the important of context. Consider the eight 60-plus home run seasons in MLB history:

  1. 2001 Barry Bonds (73): Played during the Steroids Era.
  2. 1998 Mark McGwire (70): Expansion year and also played during the Steroids Era.
  3. 1998 Sammy Sosa (66): Expansion year and also played during the Steroids Era.
  4. 1999 Mark McGwire (65): Steroids Era.
  5. 2001 Sammy Sosa (64): Steroids Era.
  6. 1999 Sammy Sosa (63): Steroids Era.
  7. 1961 Rogers Maris (61): Expansion year and played a 162-game season, not a 154-game season.
  8. 1927 Babe Ruth (60): MLB was not integrated.

You could stick an asterisk on all eight seasons if you want, even though it's not Ruth's fault baseball wasn't integrated, the same way it wasn't Maris' fault MLB added two teams (and thus many pitchers who wouldn't have been in the big leagues otherwise) to the league and stretched the season to 162 games.

The top six home run seasons in history came during the Steroids Era, though keep in mind that's a two-way street. Did Bonds and McGwire and Sosa hit a bunch of home runs against pitchers who were juicing? Absolutely. You couldn't convince me otherwise. It would be nice if no one took PEDs, but that's unrealistic. As long as sports exist, players are going to cheat.

Each 60-plus home run season in history was the product of a) tremendous talent, and b) outside factors like expansion and six extra games and yes, PEDs as well. For now, the MLB record book recognizes 73 as the single-season home run record, and you don't have to like it. Neither does Stanton.