It isn't because I don't care about baseball records. I don't, especially, but that isn't it.
It isn't because Bonds used steroids. Oh, he did--in the late '90s he ballooned into the Michelin Man--but I don't care. I don't think drugs should be illegal anyway--kill yourself as you see fit. Nor is it that he lies about it--I'll just chalk that up to our dumbass drug policies.
It isn't because 714 home runs isn't the record. 714 is actually pretty meaningless--Hank Aaron broke that 30-odd years ago. Aaron, the real record holder, had 755; 714 would merely tie Babe Ruth for second. But that isn't it either.
It isn't because Bonds left the Pirates. Insofar as I care about baseball at all I'm a Pirates fan, but nobody in their right mind would stay there when they were good enough to get heaps more money somewhere else. Nor is it because in the years before the Bucs nosedived into the shitpile Bonds invariably choked in the playoffs. The whole team participated in what was, for awhile, the Annual El Foldo.
No, the reason I don't care if Bonds catches or passes Ruth--and why I hope he never catches Aaron--is because Barry Bonds is a self-absorbed, self-important jackass. He's been this the whole time, but it keeps becoming more obvious--listen to him and his apologists whine about how people (read: white sports journalists) are so mean to him because he's about to pass Ruth. Hank Aaron was getting fer Christsakes death threats when he approached the old record in the early '70s, and at that time and place (Atlanta) there was a chance some racist asswipe would act on the idea. Yet Aaron, from what I've read, mainained his class throughout. Bonds never had any class to begin with, and his idea of oppression is when others fail to pucker up and kiss his steroid-inflated ass.
So I hope Bonds never catches Hank Aaron. But as to whether he's ahead of, behind, or dead-even with the drunk who's currently second in all-time MLB home runs, I don't care.
baseball
