There is nothing in the hallowed 131-year history of major-league baseball – and for that matter U.S. sports, period — more sacred than the all-time career home run record. And no contemporary player who is more controversial than Barry Bonds.
Mark Spitz’s seven Olympic gold medals, Lance Armstrong’s seven Tour de France victories and Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game all were extraordinary, but somehow don’t compare.
So buckle your seat belts, sports fans, because there’s going to be a godawful collision next month when Bonds is expected to break Hank Aaron’s record of 755 career home runs.
Here’s why the collision will be a perfect sports storm:
Just as Aaron was both adored and reviled when he broke Babe Ruth’s 39-year old record of 714 home runs in 1974, so will be Bonds.
Bonds, like Aaron, is black, and some of the enmity for both stars was and is racially driven. But unlike Aaron, a clean living hard hitter, Bonds has been dogged by allegations that his run for the record books has been helped by performance-enhancing drugs. The storm will be all the more intense because the major league establishment has been painfully slow to acknowledge the drug problem in its midst and maddeningly ambivalent about how to deal with it.
It hasn’t helped that Bonds has long had a problematic relationship with fans and sportswriters alike. Unlike Aaron, or for that matter Ruth, he just isn’t a particularly friendly person and has been far more focused on succeeding on the field than kissing ass off of it.
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