For you Bonds Haters

As Barry Bonds staggers toward tying Hank Aaron’s all-time home run record (funny, no one ever mentions Sadahura Oh of the Japanese League, like we used to growing up - just to be smart-alecky), and the scorn and outright hatred continue to be heaped on Bonds I had a thought.

If Bonds really wanted to thumb his nose at the “purists” and all of those who didn’t say squat during the raging ‘roid era but are now coming out of the woodwork and are shocked – Shocked! players were using performance-enhancing drugs, perhaps the best way to get back at all of them – and truly enrage them…would be to not break Aaron’s record, but to tie it and then retire.

Think about it. In tying it and not breaking it, he dissipates a fair amount of anger at him for unfairly (supposedly) gaining a competitive advantage. Complaints would have to be tempered by the notion that he didn’t break the record, only tied it. He would also leave baseball on his terms, his way. Confident and comfortable in the knowledge that he would have broken the record if he wanted to. The gracious act would also earn him, I think, a tremendous amount of goodwill. But in true Bonds’ fashion, it would also be a supremely selfish thing to do. Not only for allowing him to take credit for a noble act, but also would forever link his name and deeds with one of, if not the most, pre-eminent baseball all-time great players and individuals. One could not talk about Aaron without mentioning that Bonds TIED his home run mark. One could not talk about Bonds without mentioning his connection to Aaron in the record book. It would be an ingenious way of embracing through history and the record book, a legendary player who wants nothing to do with him.

It’s so Bondsian, it almost makes too much sense.