Barry Bonds' Rendezvous With Immortality

With one mighty swing of the bat, Barry Bonds last night broke the most hallowed record in the 131-year history of major-league baseball by hitting his 756th career home run.

Mark Spitz's seven Olympic gold medals, Lance Armstrong's seven Tour de France victories and Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game all were extraordinary, but don’t compare.

Just as Hank Aaron was both adored and reviled when he broke Babe Ruth’s 39-year old record of 714 home runs in 1974, so is Bonds.

Bonds, like Aaron, is black, and some of the enmity for both stars was and is racially driven. But unlike Aaron, a clean living hard hitter, Bonds has been dogged by allegations that his run for the record books has been helped by performance-enhancing drugs.

It hasn’t helped that Bonds, who has played for the San Francisco Giants for the last 14 seasons, has long had a problematic relationship with fans and sportswriters alike.

But that now seems rather beside the point and this lifelong baseball fan salutes Bonds, who from the moment he connected with a fastball from Mike Bacsik of the Washington Nationals in the fifth inning knew he had hit No. 756, which rocketed over the right center field fence of sold-out AT&T Park and into the record books. (The Nats went on to win, 8-6.)

In a post-game news conference, Bonds offered a sharp response to doubts about his record because of allegations he used steroids:

"This record is not tainted at all. Period. You guys can say whatever you want."

Photograph by Danny Moloshok/Reuters