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The steroid era of the late 1990s and early 2000s ushered in a home run explosion in MLB, as we're exploring with B/R's Steroid Week. Yet, even as the league has worked to clean up its performance-enhancing drug act with increased PED testing and penalties, the long ball remains on the rise.
Big league hitters swatted 6,776 home runs in 2019, shattering the all-time record of 6,105 set in 2017. Two of the other top-five all-time home run totals were tallied in 2016 (5,610) and 2018 (5,585).
Some have blamed juiced baseballs.