So I just got a phone call from a friend of mine (who may or may not revel himself in the comments) who told me he just watched in person as Barry Bonds broke Hank Aaron's career home run record. And these are my immediate thoughts on that.
1. Congratulations to Bonds. Breaking Aaron's record is an amazing accomplishment. It's funny to me that if Bonds hadn't become unstoppable in this decade, he probably would have gone down in history a little underrated.
2. To everyone who says Bonds cheated to get this record: go ahead. Tell me what rule he broke.
The more I think about it, the more I come back to that. Isn't breaking a rule the definition of cheating? Even assuming Bonds took steroids before they were against the rules (something almost everyone does assume), he's never failed a drug test, as far as we know, since testing was implemented. (It's possible he failed in that first year when testing happened but there were no punishments or publicity for failing. And is it just me, or do you think Major League Baseball is going to test him tomorrow ?)
So I'm not sure he ever really "cheated". On the other hand, it's almost certain that the cutting edge of performance-enhancing drugs is ahead of testing. If you want to assume the worst, Bonds could certainly be taking something undetectable. But you could say that about any athlete, and I'm not familiar with any evidence that Bonds is taking anything right now.
Is taking steroids without a prescription illegal? Yes. I'm just not sure if that's relevant to whether Bonds cheated at baseball per se.
Now, is it morally wrong? I wouldn't take illegal drugs just to be stronger for a lot of reasons, and some of them have to do with my own values. So yeah, I certainly don't support Bonds' steroid use, if it's true. But I also don't condone calling a guy a cheater and trashing him at every turn if he didn't really cheat. Why not just say you don't like him because he's a jerk? Plenty of proof of that.
I'm not just playing the devil's advocate here; I really haven't decided what I think of Bonds completely. I just wish baseball had taken a firmer stance against steroids earlier, and I wish the players' union hadn't treated testing (and the health of its members) as nothing more than a bargaining chip.
3. Bonds' new record does nothing to diminish the fantastic career Aaron had. Aaron was a terrific player: a rookie of the year, an MVP, and a gamer and a legend in every sense of both words.
And I don't mean to disrespect Aaron in any way. But even though he's held the career home run mark my entire life, I never thought of him as necessarily the greatest home run hitter ever. Is Dan Marino the best quarterback of all time just because he threw for the most yards?
You're free to make up your own mind about Bonds, too. If you're really that torn up that his name's in some book (which might not even be a real book, for all I know), then you need to get out more.
Comments
What I find perhaps most ironic is that no one talks about Ruth's records being illegitimate even though he played in a league that prohibited black players, many of whom were arguably the best in the world at the time. So Ruth had an unfair advantage over players from other eras that might have been even bigger than whatever advantage Bonds got from steroids - but no one suggests that should tarnish Ruth's legacy.
All in all, I am happy that Bonds broke the record at home, so we could all be spared the indignity of fans booing at him.