Respecting the History of the Game

There are few people within the world of baseball that I care for less than I care for Barry Bonds. He has a terrible personality for a baseball player. Even Alex Rodriguez chats with the media and the fans without causing a huge amount of drama. Sluggers like David Ortiz, Sammy Sosa, and even Mark McGwire were personable and would smile and talk to the media when they had to. Bonds, even before recent controversy, has always lashed out at members of the media and members of his own team. Now he's been brought into this whole steroids controversy in a huge way, despite a lack of solid evidence that he's knowingly and habitually done anything wrong.

That said, one of those few people that I care for less than the Giants' outfielder is the man who is his ultimate boss: Commissioner Bud Selig. Even if Bonds has been habitually using steroids for the past ten years or whatever, the blame ultimately rests with Selig. The reason that guys like Ken Caminiti and Jose Canseco were allowed to dip into the steroid market was the fact that Selig never, ever put rules into the game banning the drugs. It took a massive amount of media pressure and the threat of government investigation before Selig introduced his first, rather puny steroid policy.

Of course you can say that Bonds, if he took the drugs, should have gone with the morally correct choice and stayed clean. However, if the door is open for you to take an advantage over your competitors and, ultimately, earn more money, a majority of people would jump at the opportunity. Even in circles such as the Olympics, where the steroid police are among the strictest, people still try to get the advantage. In baseball, there was absolutely no penalty at all for juicing, so players felt free to bulk up.

So, what does this have to do with respecting the game's history? The answer is a very simple, three-digit number: 756. If your grandfather is a baseball fan, ask him about the significance of the number 715, and you will know the importance of 756. When Henry Aaron put his 715th career home run over the left-center field wall in Fulton County Stadium, it was as if the world had exploded. A number from the annals of baseball history that people thought would be impossible to achieve was achieved. Aaron went on to hit 40 more homers for his career and his final number of 755 was yet another that no one thought would be reached.

Now, Barry Bonds is sitting on 750 home runs and, barring a major catastrophe, he will put those last six baseballs over the outfield wall. Now, I am not, never was, and never will be a fan of Barry Bonds. I will watch the TV broadcast, but I'll be damned if I even think about going to AT&T Park (it will happen there; it's the only place where he'll be cheered) for the occasion. However, I am not the commissioner of Major League Baseball who mismanaged the steroid era that allegedly bred this slugging machine. Bud Selig, who has not announced his official intentions regarding number 756, needs to be in the park for this occasion. Even if Bonds has intentionally juiced in the past, there is still no actual proof of it. Therefore, this record is still clean and must be respected by the league and, more importantly, its commissioner.

Side Note: During today's All-Star Game selection show, Cal Ripken Jr., one of the most respected men in baseball (and one whose record will truly never be broken), broke down the actual reason that Barry Bonds is a good home run hitter: his swing. Fast, smooth, and compact is the best way to send a ball out, and that's exactly how Barry does it. Steroids won't give you that.