Congrats to Barry Bonds

Well, it finally happened. Barry Bonds broke the all-time career home run record last night by hitter number 756 with a full count and one out in the fifth inning off of Washington's Mike Bacsik.

I gotta say, I feel differently about it than I thought I would.

I'm happy for the guy. For as much grief as he gets for being by all accounts an a-hole, I'm truly happy for him. Selfishly, by the way, I'm happy I got to see it in my lifetime. As the difference between Bonds's and the baseball legend Hank Aaron's home run totals grew smaller, and the hype around the record and Bonds's alleged steroid use grew more insidious, I was one of those fans who thought that whoever caught the ball should pull out a sharpie and draw a big asterisk on it. I thought the record would be tainted, and that all future baseball fans should know that this record was broken by a player in a time that will become known as the "home run era", or in the eyes of many today, the "steroid era".

After seeing the home run and the subsequent trot around the bases and in-game ceremony at the plate, including a scoreboard message from Hammerin' Hank himself, I found myself not feeling cheated at all. Regardless of how the Balco hoopla turns out, I saw #756...and Barry Bonds is the all-time home run champ, no asterisk required.