Before 2005, the percentage of home runs per AB was increasing. Through games of Wednesday, June 29, 2005, that percentage is at a four year low, albeit only slightly lower than 2002 and 2003.

Year		HR/AB
2005		3.00%
2004		3.26%
2003		3.12%
2002		3.06%

Let's also update the percentage of runs scored by HR.

Year		RbyHR
2005		35.6%
2004		37.0%
2003		35.9%
2002		35.8%

In late April the drop in runs scored by HR was larger than it is now, down to 34.2%. Through games of Wednesday, June 29, 2005, that percentage is still at a four year low (35.6%), but not as pronounced as it was back in April. And once again, it's not much lower than 2002 and 2003.

With the new drug testing program we are seeing some changes, but those changes are probably more related to the cold weather in April than the new drug policy. Now that the weather is warm, the HRs are blooming. We'll look at this again later in the season.