Choked Up

LONDONDERRY - With two home runs on Friday night, Barry Bonds is now within 19 of Hank Aaron. Hank's record will be broken sometime this summer and Major League Baseball will have a new home run leader. Like most fans, I will not be cheering for Bonds. Unlike many though, it is not the fact that Bonds has taken steroids or his surly demeanor that has me rooting against him. No, I will be sad to see the greatest player of all-time, and a Milwaukee legend, surpassed in the record books - and ultimately the minds of so many stat-conscious fans. To me this is much more about Hank and much less about Barry.

I was not even alive when Aaron hit his last home run some 30+ years ago, but I grew up watching games in the stadium where Aaron hit so many, and ultimately his last, number 755. My grandpa and mom would tell me about Hank's minor league days in Eau Claire, Wis. My grandparents owned a laundry in town, took care of the uniforms for the team and attended many games. A few years later Aaron made his debut in Milwaukee, where my dad was growing up. He would talk about living in the same neighborhood with Johnny Logan, going to games and of course the ubiquitous Hank Aaron card in the bicycle spokes. The loss of the Braves to Atlanta must have felt like losing a family member - or several family members. My dad would later give me a baseball signed by the whole Braves team from this era. Aaron's signature always stood out.

Growing up in a Milwaukee suburb in the late 1980s, among some pretty good Brewers teams, I could feel Aaron's impact still on baseball in the city. He may have broken Babe Ruth's record in an Atlanta uniform, but he would always be a Milwaukee Brave to so many. I later read I Had a Hammer in junior high and was struck by the description of his quiet demeanor throughout. Here was a legend from an era I was not around to experience, at the peak of my love for the game and star-worship, and I felt like I could relate to him on this level. He went through so many struggles and dealt with so much adversity at the beginning of his career, and through the chase for the record, that it seems unfair that a man of Barry's nature will be linked with him. But again this is about Aaron and the tragedy here is that Hank will not attend the game that will be so much about his record.

In the issue of full disclosure, Bonds was even a late-round selection to my fantasy team this year. If Hank Aaron had never put up the kind of numbers he did, and Ruth's record was to be broken this summer instead, I may even be rooting for Barry to beat the Yankee who has never held much historical appeal with me. But I am not a big fan of "what-ifs" and am left with the reality that in a few months I will wake up to the news of 755 - and then 756.

So Bonds will have the record for a few years before A-Rod or Albert Pujols takes over. And Bonds will make it into the Hall of Fame amid much controversy and will be the face of the Steroids-Era. But I am confident 25, 50, even 100 years from now Aaron's legacy and impact on the sport will outdistance Barry's in ways that no number can represent.