You friggin purists kill me. That was a great HR race and I give no fcks if they were shooting up between each at bat. One of the funnest baseball seasons and only a liar would say otherwise.
you make a good point here...
It wasn't like MLB did a very good job of policing themselves.
There were no hard guidelines around testing, the frequency or 'who' would be tested.
I think the players really pushed back on any regular cadence on when they would accept the testing and the MLB brass caved.
So players naturally took advantage of the situation, especially under the guise of "I'm just trying to heal faster. There are younger players coming up that might take my place if I don't get back on the field".
I enjoyed the run and still like McGwire, but Maris is still the record holder
Which is why I respect the hell out of Roger Maris...
If you have ever seen Billy Crystal's movie '61', you would understand more of the hell that guy went through to break the record. Incredible story... and we used to get all of our kegs from Maris distributing while I was at UF for the frat parties.