An Accident Waiting to Happen

Len Berman, Sports Anchor

I have a confession to make. I can’t ignore Barry Bonds. I want to, but I can’t. Intellectually I’m not happy about his eventual ascension to the throne as our home run king. I can’t help but feel that he cheated along the way. Then again in the skewed world of baseball, whatever he might have done was probably legal at the time, just not in the rest of society.

Last night was typical. Every time the wires showed that the Giants scored a run, I immediately looked to see if Bonds had hit another one. Turns out he had. A three run shot in the first inning to give him 741.

During all of my young life, the number 714 was a magic number. The Babe’s total. And last night Bonds blasted the dyslexic version. And now he only needs 14 more to catch Hank Aaron.

It’s like a car accident on the highway. When you reach it you don’t want to look but you can’t help yourself. And so it will be when he surpasses Hank Aaron. Aaron himself says he’ll ignore it.

Who knows what the Commissioner and the rest of baseball will do. But you can’t ignore history much like you can’t glance away from that 3 car pileup.

And then come October when the Yankees play the Giants in the World Series, when Bonds comes to the plate at Yankee Stadium tell me you won’t drop everything to watch.

They say you can’t have heroes without villains. Did anybody ever say one person can be both?