(Sorry to all Americans who already know all this, but in Spain nobody knows squat about baseball and its history).
Baseball is my favorite sport. It's the sport of numbers, so it's not a surprise it's my favorite... :) But precisely at this moment we are witnessing a feat which only happens once or twice in a lifetime: the breaking of the career home run record. And even more, there's a huge controversy. Hi ha marro, as we say in Catalunya (it means "there's turmoil").
A home rune happens when a hitter manages to travel all four bases with a single hit, almost always because the great hit has sent the ball out of the playing field. Everybody considers Babe Ruth put the home run in fashion, and he was the first great slugger in baseball history. Before him, the most a player would hit in a year was about 20, and he hit 60 in 1927 (and 59 in 1921, 54 in 1928...) Between 1915 and 1935 Ruth sent the ball out of the field 714 times, a record considered unbreakable during years.
But between 1954 and 1976, Hank Aaron, without the benefit of a single-season record, but being quite good for a looong time, managed to break the record, hitting 755 home runs in his career. Aaron, being black, had to endure all sorts of threats, including death threats, from all sorts of racists (including the Ku Klux Klan) for daring break a white man's record.
Well then, as of today, August 4th, 2007, Barry Bonds has hit 754 home runs. So we expect him to break the record any day now. I pray for him to wait until Thursday, so I can see if live :) But the point is that Bonds's record is tarnished by controversy...
Bonds is suspect of doping. Evidence of him being on steroids is overwhelming. When he started his career in 1986 he was skinny and fast, whereas now he is all muscle and power. But with a humongous difference. On top of it, when his career should have started to decline (at 37) he broke all barriers and started playing better than at 25, staying this way until now, at 43. And even more, Bonds is related to the BALCO case, the doping laboratory infamous for having Marion Jones and other athletes as clients. To the point that Bonds's personal trainer, Greg Anderson, is in jail for refusing to testify in a grand jury hearing against Bonds, and Bonds himself is suspect of perjury (he said he didn't know if what he took were steroids). Bonds has never tested positive, but then again, baseball is not known for performing many anti-doping tests.
If on top of all this we add that Bonds, as a person, is despicable, arrogant, selfish, rude and a liar, we'll understand why 90% of baseball fans all over the world would love it if he breaks a leg today and gets stuck at 754. A fascinating case.
