Barry Bonds

I have read a bunch of editorials and sports commentary about Barry Bonds claiming Hank Aaron's home run record. The aim of subjecting myself to all that redundant sports punditry was, I suppose, to find some rationale for being excited about his "achievement". It's just not there for me though. I love baseball even though it is slow and many will say it's boring. If all you are looking for is action like those little slivers of energy you see on the football field between the snap of the ball and the ref's whistle I suppose it can be called boring. Maybe it's as boring to you as soccer is to me.

I grew up playing baseball, sometimes fairly well for my age and sometimes not so well as illustrated by my high school sports career where I spent a lot of time on the bench because I was a terrible hitter. There is a precision and grace to a baseball diamond filled with players at their positions. There is  a mental dimension to the spectacle of a well played game regardless of who wins. It speaks of summer, it speaks of kids imagining themselves to be the next baseball legend. It is a feeling as much as anything I think and perhaps that is why so many people seem so ambivalent about it as "America's National Pastime".

How many of the kids who watch the game and play it will aspire to become the next
"Barry Bonds"? Not many I think. It's true that allegations about Bonds using performance enhancing drugs remain unproven and it's also true that at the time that he allegedly used them, there were no rules in baseball against them. The baseball fans like me though will always place a mental asterisk by Bonds' record and that's truly a shame for such an achievement, a shame but an appropriate reaction nevertheless because if he did use them the record should be erased. Even if he did not, the blemish is the same and that asterisk will still be there. 

I remember the night I saw Cal Ripken break Lou Gehrig's consecutive game record. That night I felt elated to have witnessed such a milestone, even on TV. I knew I would feel that way but I am still reading, trying to find some reason to care about this new record.