Last night Barry Lamar Bonds hit career home run #756 to break Hank Aaron’s 33 year-old record.
How do I feel about it?
Hank’s still the king. Two reasons: (1) he hit his 755 home runs legitimately, without illegal performance-enhancing drugs, and (2) he is #1 in RBIs.
Let me expand on that second reason. For a hitter in baseball, a greater achievement than the HR is the RBI. After all, the object of the game is to score more runs on the scoreboard than the other team, not hit more home runs than the other team.
Henry “Hank” Aaron is the all-time RBI leader with 2,297. Barry Bonds is a distant 5th.
Of course the reason so many people are not happy about Barry breaking the record is that Barry is almost certainly guilty of using illegal performance-enhancing steroids. According to the book Game of Shadows by Mar Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, Bonds started using steroids after the 1998 season, in which he jealously watched Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa attract the nation’s attention and affection for their historic outbursts of 70 and 66 home runs respectively (albeit not respectfully as we would later find out).
The evidence presented by the authors is overwhelming. After reading about 80% of the book, I was so convinced and so disgusted I put the book on the shelf unfinished.
Hank Aaron did it honestly. He didn’t use drugs. He didn’t wear a large arm apparatus to protect himself from inside pitches, which then enables him to crowd the plate and hit the outside pitches well.
The home run record of Barry Bonds is an example of “success” no matter what the cost. Hank Aaron is achieved real success: achievement with integrity.
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
