Barry Bonds broke the “most hallowed individual record in sports” last night, hitting his 756th career home run.
For what it is worth (probably less than one thread of one stitch of that ball Bonds crushed for no. 756), here’s my two cents on the whole matter.
While Bonds has not been proven guilty of taking steriods, I’m with the vast majority of fans who believe he knowingly took performance enhancing drugs. For me the proof is in his unnatural physical growth at a time way past puberty or even a “late growth spurt”. Most (if not all) of his perceivable physical changes - especially his ballooning head size - are tell-tale signs of steroid use.
Still, in my book, Bonds won’t be guilty until proven so. But, in the same right, he’ll always be suspect until definitively proven otherwise. (His case could be compared with that neighborhood dog you saw chewing on a discarded T-bone -last night’s dinner- right after you spent 30 minutes picking up your trash after a mysterious garbage spill. You are sure the dog did it, but you can’t really complain to the dog’s owner because you didn’t actually see the dog get into your garbage and it is possible - although only very very slightly so - that he was munching on someone else’s T-bone leftovers. The evidence is all there, except the smoking gun.)
That having been said, history has been made and that should be celebrated. I don’t really care for Bonds, but I got goosebumps watching that home run and I probably will when I see it again. (Just like I get goosebumps whenever I see Laettner’s last-second shot to beat Kentucky in the Elite Eight. To put it lightly, I don’t care for Duke nor Laettner, but I do love sports history and drama.)
I’m just hoping I get the chance to have those goosebumps trumped by another career homerun record breaking blast in my lifetime.
A-Rod hitting it in a Cubs uniform would be extra sweet.
