The Bonds Burden

It's been a few weeks since Barry Bonds passed Hank Aaron on Major League Baseball's all-time home run list and he's still slugging away. At last check, he was at 760 and unless he hurts himself rounding the bases or taking first base on an intentional walk, he'll probably finish the season at or about 770 home runs. Not bad for an old guy, huh? Back on July 24th, Barry Bonds turned 44 and for him to still be productive is a miracle all onto itself as he's hit 26 home runs, driven in 59 runs and is hitting a pretty solid .280 so far this season.

Although he's never tested positive for steroids, just the shadow of performance enhancing drugs over the last third of his career is unavoidable. I hate to sound like a Bonds apologist, but it's hard to dispute the numbers he's put up. And the one thing I hold on to when talking about his numbers is his bat speed. Sure he's bulked up tremendously, but to still have the flexibility to get around those pitches on the inner half of the plate, is incredible. One would think that he'd be too big to get around those pitches, much less hit them over the outfield fences. But therein lies the conundrum-- he's strong enough now to get them over [insert head scratch here]. My argument is still that you cannot teach bat speed.

I've always thought that he had reached a point in his career where he had to do something significant to his workout regimen in order to keep up with the younger and stronger players that now make up this league. Perhaps some sort of anabolic steroids were included, but where's the proof? I still haven't heard of him failing one of those tests yet. And if it ever comes out that he did do it, MLB may have to share some of the culpability.

Whenever Bonds calls it quits, he may end up somewhere around 800 career home runs. And yet, someone down the line should eclipse him. It'll probably be Alex Rodríguez who will break the record, barring a major catastrophe. I remember at one time that Ken Griffey, Jr. as the one to surpass Hank Aaron's record, but his body thought otherwise. Too bad for us. We would not have had to worry about the burden Barry Bonds has put on one of the most cherished and sexiest records in all of sports history.