A recent article in USA Today related the story of many baseball home run hitters, who, after having productive careers, seem unable to hit any more home runs when they hit the mid-30s. According to some baseball hitting coaches this seems to be a natural consequence. “It happens to the best of them.” But does it really?
For example David Ortiz, 33, has yet to hit a home run this year. Bobby Abreu and Magglio Ordoñez, both 35 years of age and coming off seasons of at least 20 home runs, have zero and one homer respectively. George Forster went from 52 homers homers in one year to 13 in a five-year span. Jim Rice hit 39 homers when 30 and never more than 15 after reaching 34. Cecil Fielder hit 95 homers from 1990 to 1991 but had only 13 when he was 33 years old.
These are not natural consequences of age. If they were, the decreases in production would be more gradual. Thus, we should look elsewhere for some of the possible reasons. The number one reason that comes to mind is whether these players were using steroids or other enhancing agents.
What is typically omitted in articles dealing with steroid use among baseball players, is that the steroids change swing technique. It is especially noticeable when the athlete stops using steroids or does not keep increasing the dosage every year in order to maintain his physical and technical abilities on the same level.
Thus it is very possible that as these players were getting older, and if they had been using steroids for quite a few years to maintain their abilities, that they were beginning to experience health problems or other negative consequences of steroid use. Or, they became more concerned about getting caught and exposed to the public.
Another possibility is that if they were not on, or did not undertake, an effective training program to maintain their physical and technical abilities. A drug-free and well conditioned and trained athlete will not lose the physical and technical abilities needed to hit home runs in his early to mid-30s.
Still another possibility is that there was a change in their vision, coordination (nervous system function), or other related physical attributes. However, these would not create such drastic changes only in the early to mid 30s.
Since I do not have access to videos of their hitting technique when hitting many home runs, nor any measurements of their physical abilities at that time for comparison to their present day performances, my educated guess would be that there was a dramatic change in steroid use and/or a change in technique.
For more information on how to attain a high level of sports performance and to maintain it over the years read Build a Better Athlete.