Wednesday, August 08, 2007

So, Bonds did it last night.

His 756th homer off the Washington Nationals Mike Bacsik broke Hank Aaron's 33 year old record. He did it at his home park in San Francisco, pretty much the only place he would be universally applauded for the feat.

I'm really glad this joyless pursuit of the record is over. When Aaron broke Babe Ruth's record, I was 10 years old, and 1974 was the first year I really followed baseball closely. Breaking the home run record was a huge, exciting thing. I remember watching Monday Night Baseball and seeing Aaron's home run. I knew nothing of the racism Aaron was facing at the time. Someone hit more home runs than Babe Ruth! That's all I really cared about.

Fast forward to today. My son is a few months younger than I was at the time Aaron hit number 715. Instead of being able to enjoy Bonds' record the way I did Aaron's, my son is full of questions. Did Barry Bonds do steroids? Why do they let him play if he cheated? What do steroids do? Why are they bad? I answer these questions as best I can, but he shouldn't have to be concerned with these things at his age.

So, it's over. Barry may play another year as a DH in the American League and then he'll go away. Hopefully, A-Rod (seemingly the most likely candidate) or someone else can beat Bonds record sometime relatively soon.

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