Those ads suggesting women go for sluggers were a funny byproduct of a time when guys named McGwire, Sosa and Bonds slammed their way past single-season home run totals by Babe Ruth and Roger Maris, which had stood as the major league records for much of a century.

By then, ESPN highlights on a nightly basis had shifted most of the game’s glamour to the home run, and we all got an extra-heavy dose of homer-mania on television when the records fell.

Former stolen-base champ and current Phillies first-base coach Davey Lopes believes the overemphasis on power is making the game and many of its players increasingly one-dimensional.

“Too many teams are sitting back waiting for the three-run homer,” Lopes said recently. “You’ve got a bunch of guys that are slow afoot, go one base at a time, clog up the bases, and that’s pretty much what this game has become. A non-athletic-type game. We’ve got too many DHs.”

Lopes added that today’s game means fewer players with good baseball instincts, defensive skills and baserunning abilities. The move to smaller ballparks over the last decade not only means more home runs, but allows teams to hide slower or less-talented defenders in the outfield. Manufacturing a run is a lost art. Poor baserunning can be seen nightly in nearly every ballpark.

“Baserunning becomes important after the mistake, when you’re walking off the field,” said Lopes, who ranks 25th all-time with 557 career steals. “If you look through the course of the playoffs the past few years, baserunning has been atrocious, and it has played a part in several teams losing in World Series play.”

Lopes isn’t just pointing a finger at the players when it comes to the near-extinction of the running game and the propensity of one-dimensional big leaguers. He noted there are few former speedsters on coaching staffs, and he doesn’t believe that teams are giving adequate instruction on baserunning. He doesn’t go easy on major league organizations.

“Everybody talks about how poor baserunning is, but look at the people teaching it,” Lopes said. “You’ve got guys in the minor leagues that were never basestealers. They read a book and they go out and talk about it. They can’t tell you why this is what you do.”