We are in a very interesting time in the history of baseball, thanks to steroids. With the decline of performance in many superstars that admitted to taking steroids (like Boston’s David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez), we have proof that The Steroid Era is finally over. But as with anything that has a lasting impact, we are far from over. Writers and fans will be arguing for years on what we should do about players using these sorts of illegal nutritional supplements, and the stats they ended up creating. But something that hasn’t been noticed is the impact that is happening right now to how the game is being played out on the field.

Contrary to what people might think of me, I know lots of things about the internet. And one thing I know is Baseball Reference, a website that’s dedicated to giving fans up-to-the-minute stats on what’s going on in baseball. One day, while I was clicking around, or "browsing," I found this page that lists the league leaders for strikeouts with hitters. And I was surprised at what I saw here. Namely that hitters seem to be striking out a lot more than they used to.

Back in the 1950s and 1960s, people would see a great Hall of Famer like Mickey Mantle leading the league in Ks with 120 or so, and they’d want to run him out of town! And this is back in the day when a player like Mantle would have to go against other Hall of Famers like Juan Marichal and Sandy Koufax. But look at what’s happened since then! Last year, both the AL and NL hitter strikeout single-season records were broken, by Mark Reynolds and Jack Cust, respectively. Cust is one of Billy Beane’s Moneyball players, so seeing he struck out 197 times isn’t a suprise at all — I bet you he walked just as much! But when a National League player Ks over 200 times in one season, something wrong is happening.

The answer, of course, is steroids. When players started developing these big, strong muscles, they started moving away from the little things that make baseball great. Speed and defense didn’t matter as much, and they started hitting lots of home runs. As any slugger can tell you, home runs lead to strikeouts, because you don’t have control of the bat when you swing for the fences. Big swings are a hit-or-miss proposition, and they miss a lot more than they hit. This is why players like Adam Dunn and Jose Hernandez racked up so many Ks — when all you can do is hit home runs, you’re going to also strikeout. Think about that one year where Mark McGwire hit more home runs than singles, and you’ll understand what I’m talking about.

But now we see that steroids are a thing of the past — only Manny Ramirez was caught on the juice in the past year, and he served his time. The game is relatively clean, except for a few cases here and there. But if the game is clean, which it is, then why aren’t the strikeout numbers going down? Simple — it’s because people don’t know how to go back to doing the little things anymore. They still think they can grab a bat and take big cuts and hit a ball 500 feet like they did when everyone was on the juice. And that’s clearly not the case anymore — no one has hit over 60 homeruns in nearly 8 years, and it’s probably not going to happen any time soon. And when it does happen, it will be a surprise, like it should be!

It will take a while for players to figure this out and get back to the basic fundamentals, but I’m pretty sure it will happen soon. Think of it like Darwin’s evolution: it took millions of years for humans to develop from the fish that crawled out on land for the first time. In a similar fashion, it could take a couple of decades for baseball players to get back to thinking inside the lines instead of outside of the ballpark. But maybe it will happen sooner than later — with the way technology is advancing, people could realize what’s happening, and make their adjustments a lot quicker. All that’s for sure is, until this happens, we can expect a lot of swings, and a lot more misses.

ESPN broadcaster Joe Morgan is looking forward to Louis CK’s appearance on the upcoming season of NBC’s Parks & Recreation, a sitcom written by a former blogger that he knows nothing about.