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Barry Bonds 756 – Sports News History |
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Barry Bonds 756 : The legacy and controversy behind one of baseballs greatest moments.
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On August 7, 2007, Barry Bonds provided an event that brought a climactic peak to one of the most polarizing sagas in American sports history. Bonds’ 756th home run, which broke the career home run record held for many years by Hank Aaron, was supposed to have been one of the single greatest sports moments of all time.
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Bonds was not a stranger to baseball’s limelight prior to the event, as in 2001, he broke the single season home run record set just a few years earlier by Mark McGwire. For 37 years, Roger Maris’ record of 61 home runs in a Major League Baseball season was left untouched. It only took three years for Bonds to best McGwire’s 70, by hitting 73.
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Bonds has also won seven career National League Most Valuable Player awards. This means that for essentially one third of the seasons during his playing career, Bonds was considered the most impacting player in the game. He holds the Major League record for walks and intentional walks in a season and he is widely regarded as the most feared hitter ever in baseball.
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Unfortunately, an extremely dark shadow had already been case on Bonds and his pursuit of Hank Aaron, long before August 7, 2007. For several years, baseball had been immersed in a growing epidemic that has helped lead to the period of time known as the “Steroids Era.” This is a period of time that began around 1990, and has continued as baseball continues to struggle to keep steroids, human growth hormone, and other performance enhancing drugs from completely taking over the profession.
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Along with Bonds, McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro, and Jose Canseco are just a few of the home run kings modeled as poster men for the steroids impact on baseball. Palmeiro actually tested positive and received an in season suspension a couple years ago. Canseco notoriously wrote a ‘tell all’ book in which he called out several players and Major League Baseball for steroids. McGwire, tested positive for and admitted using performance enhancers during his 1998 season, prior their ban by baseball. Sosa has largely been indicted in the court of public opinion along with many others, based on his superhuman play during the latter part of his career.
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McGwire actually is best known for his refusal to discuss the steroids issue in front of Congress years ago. He was evasive and in popular opinion, was guilty for his lack of attempt to defend himself. But, it is Bonds who is clearly the epitome of what Major League Baseball has seen eat away at its reputation for the last two decades.
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According to most surveys, much of the public believed Bonds had taken steroids long before hitting number 756, and long before the recent “Mitchell Report” and his federal indictment. Many wondered how a man in his early forties could be reaching the peak of his career at a time when most had retired or were enjoying their final days in the sun. Bond’s was hitting home runs at incredible rates in his late thirties and early forties.
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The “Mitchell Report,” a document and speech bringing to a conclusion years of research lead by Senator George Mitchell, listed over 80 Major League Baseball players that Mitchell’s investigation had strongly linked to steroids, HGH, or other illegal or banned performance enhancers. This report essentially gave some confirmation to what had already been floating through the minds of many in the media and public.
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Bonds story also reached a head late last year as he was indicted by a Federal Grand Jury for perjury. He is believed to have lied under oath about having knowingly taken performance enhancing drugs. While Bonds fate will soon be decided, that of baseball might be undetermined for sometime. Baseball still is America’s pastime, but its waning interest is evidence by its sub par TV ratings relative to the NFL. People are hoping baseball can recover and return to the days when the playing fields were somewhat level and untainted. They want their game back.
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Thank you to Neil Kokemuller for this “Barry Bonds 756” article.
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