Paul Sullivan: Juiced ball or not, baseball is on pace to shatter home run records with 3,311 hit at the midway point
CHICAGO - What goes around comes around, as evidenced by this brief analytical synopsis by Sports Illustrated numbers-cruncher Bill James in Peter Gammons' review of the first half of the 1987 baseball season:
"Over the past three years, home runs, walks and strikeouts have all increased. Meanwhile, the average length of a major league game grew from 2:36 in 1984 to 2:49 in 1987. Why these concurrent trends? Longer counts. More hitters are looking for a pitch they can take out of the park - taking one, fouling one off, sorting them out. Fewer hitters are swinging at the first or second pitch. That leads to more full counts, which result in
