The Spinward Marches

Barry Bonds, barring a catastrophe, is going to break one of sports most cherished records; Hank Aaron's 755 home runs, which in turn broke another cherished record, The Babe's 714.

There may be a few souls left who believe Bonds' power is unaided by any controversial substances but the rest of us are pretty much convinced that it's not the ball that juiced...it's Barry. Well, if it is, it's not just Barry, and it's not just Mark and Sammy and a bunch of guys who can hit the ball 500 feet, It's pitchers, and fringe players who hit 260 and think they would be out of the big leagues without a little of the juice.

It was believed that since the mid nineties, baseball has been in the "roid era, but that timing may be off by a decade. Does it matter? Fans love to see home runs and after all baseball players, just like the rest of the world is always trying to find the extra advantage; caffeine, greenies, brownies, tobacco juice, spit, KY jelly.. whatever. So what's the BIG DEAL? How 'bout the simple argument that baseball, where statistics have emotional meaning and the key records are touchstones shared by generations has been living a Big Lie and probably a lot of people knew it and still know it.

Forget the possible health damage done; you could say that's the players' problem, they brought it on themselves, but what about impressionable kids who follow in their paths and want to emulate them? Sports always finds a way to "beat the cup". stay one step ahead of drug tests. Now steroids and amphetamines are tested for, but do you really think players are drug free? Does it matter that HGH, for which there is no test yet might be behind the success of a lot players? Does it matter if there were no baseball rules broken, just laws? What do you think? Cheers !!!!