Chasing Babe Hank

Barry Bonds trails Babe Ruth by only one home run on baseball's all-time list, having been robbed of #714 last night by Astros' centerfielder Juan Pierre. Barring a complete breakdown of his body or an act of God, Bonds will catch the Bambino, and overtake him soon. After that, the all-time home run crown of Hank Aaron is well within his sights.

Of course, all of this hoopla is generating its fair share of controversy, for a couple of reasons. Bonds has gained the rep over most of his career as an ass, especially towards the media--a bad move for anyone in the public eye, since they'll be the ones shaping the world's opinion of you. But that's really neither here nor there in most discussions of the home run record. What's really got everyone buzzing is Bonds's connection via his personal trainer to convicted steroid distributors BALCO. Should his records count? Should they be marked with an asterisk to denote his steroid usage?

Much as it'll irritate The Blowhard, my answer is no. First off, Bonds really didn't confess to anything, nor has he been caught. "Innocent until proven guilty" is a hallmark of American justice, and shouldn't it apply to the national pasttime as well? Second, and more importantly, moreso than any other sport that I can think of, baseball is a constantly evolving game. There are things in each era of the major leagues that make some aspects of the game easier, and others harder than in other eras. Hitters in Ruth's day didn't have to face the likes of Dontrelle Willis and Pedro Martinez simply due to their ethnicities. On the other hand, you didn't have the late-inning relief specialists you see today in Ruth's day, or even in the early days of Aaron's career. Pitchers tended to throw more innings more often, with less opportunity to rest their arms. And with far fewer teams in the league than there are today, the cutoff for pitchers who made it into the majors was far higher. The fifth starter for the Kansas City Royals (I looked it up--his name is Jeremy Affeldt) would be kicking around the minors at best in the 16-team major leagues in Aaron's rookie year of 1954. The old records make a great benchmark for players and teams to test themselves to try and reach, but there just isn't a case to be made that all eras are created equal--they're apples and oranges, and you really can't compare them, except over drunken "what-if" contests with your buddies.

Am I rooting for Bonds to take the home run crown from Aaron? Hell no. I'm rooting against Bonds every step of the way--"innocent until proven guilty" only applies to punishment, not suspicion--but you just can't take away his records or mark them with an asterisk. At least not until he fails a piss test.