Aussie Wendell

Well, Barry Bonds hit his 715th home run yesterday, passing Babe Ruth along the way. He still trails my favorite sportsman of all-time, Hank Aaron who still holds the record for the most home runs in a career at 755 (the first to beat Babe Ruth), but he also holds the career marks for RBI (2,297), extra base hits (1,477) and total bases (6,856)...no I didn't have all of these stats floating around in my mind...I had to look the last two up.

In my opinion, however, there are very great differences in the two men...worthy enough I guess to write a quick blog. Hank Aaron was and continues to be my hero. Growing up in Atlanta in the 70's where he played for the Atlanta Braves and was chasing the home run-record, he was as big as it gets....but not in the pumped-up steroid sense that casts a shadow on the world of professional baseball today.

Hank Aaron overcame so many obstacles just to be in the major leagues including poverty, racism and in 1973, he was receiving more than 3,000 letters a day, most postmarked in northern cities, and most filled with hate; "This," Aaron said later about the letters, "changed me." Over that winter, Aaron endured death threats and a barrage of racist hate mail from people who did not want to see a black man break Ruth's home run record. I, we and Atlanta cheered him on and Babe Ruth's widow denounced the racists and "declared that her husband would have enthusiastically cheered Aaron's attempt at the record."

I remember to this day, receiving a Hank Aaron notepad from my second-grade teacher as a prize, and it quickly became my most cherished possession...hey, we were easier to please back then...there were no playstations and most of the Braves games were televised on a local UHF channel..."Superstation WTBS" (now TBS). I still have two Hank Aaron cards, one with photographs from the day he hit his 715th triumphant home-run.

I'm not quite sure why I decided to pursue this as a subject to write about today, but when I saw the photo of Bonds with his tree-trunk sized forearms waving in the air in victory (did you know his helmet size has also increased three sizes over the past few years...can anyone say growth hormone?) I thought back to that incredible night in Atlanta glued to the TV set watching Aaron round the bases, cannons firing in celebration and his mother running onto the field "into the arms of her son, tears brimming in her eyes; Mrs. Aaron wasn't just proud of her son, she rushed the plate because she thought her son had been shot," and my hero made me proud...I'm not sure quite the same can be said for many children who watched Barry Bonds last night.

Hey, I don't want to take anything away from his moment; Bonds has never failed a steroid test, but he is now under a grand jury probe for possible perjury. He went from denying he ever used steroids to saying he "never knowingly used performance enhancing drugs." Hmmm, sounds eerily reminiscent of "I did not have sex with that woman" to me. His personal trainer has already served a brief prison sentence after a steroid distribution conviction.

Not only is Hank Aaron in the Baseball Hall of Fame, at a celebration for his 65th birthday, he was honored for his achievements as both a player and a person; Major League Baseball announced the introduction of the Hank Aaron Award, to be presented annually to the best hitters in the American and National Leagues. This was the first major award to be introduced in more than thirty years, and the first to be named after a former player still living...sorry Barry, but given your reputation, your lack of sportsmanship and, well let's just call it steroid speculation, I don't think I'll hold my breath for any such award created for you. Good luck trying to get to 755.