I'm still behind this week, so much so that I couldn't stay up to watch Barry hit his record breaking home run last night [of course, I endured his first two at bats with no pay-off]. I'm sure they'll be televising the game on ESPN Classic later today, so I'll DVR it. I'm not going to talk about the historicity of last night's event; one of my very first blog posts was about the steroid issue. Almost all agree that the record will be viewed as tainted, due a Maris-like asterisk. Instead I will make a prediction that will haunt my father-in-law [a lifelong Hank Aaron fan] and other baseball purists for the rest of their lives: Barry's record will never be broken. Sure, the thought of Alex Rodriguez reclaiming the record has kept a lot of people upbeat despite this record falling to an alleged cheater but I just don't think he'll get it done. There are too many variables involved and I'm not sure A-Rod has the mental toughness to keep at it. Barry's psyche was perfect for the pursuit, a "I-hate-everyone,-everyone-hates-me" attack was what got him there in the first place. Bonds was relentless in this pursuit and I'm not sure A-Rod is truly inspired about anything.
So instead of hitching our wagons to this idea that A-Rod will eventually save us, we should come to realization that the game we love will never be the same. And Bud Selig can distance himself from Barry all he wants, but he created this problem that revolts him; it happened on his watch.
And history will remember.