"Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing," counselled Vince Lombardi. Sports fans adore the statement, but detest athletes that live by it. Barry Bonds's competitive juices were too much to let Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire to have all the glory. Last night, six years after breaking the single-season home run mark, Bonds broke the all-time record. The consumate five-tool player, Bonds was one of the game's all-time greats before steroids ever entered his body. Gaylord Perry cheated his way into the Hall of Fame. Barry Bonds may have cheated his way out of it. His Ahab-like pursuit of 756 will prove a pyrrhic victory too. It was the most coveted number in sports, but not anymore. Its association with Bonds devalues it. Like a dollar after years of inflation, the home run mark after years of steroids is worth less than it once was. But don't hate the player. Hate the game. MLB tacitly approved steroids by looking the other way as home runs put bodies in the seats. Barry Bonds never broke a rule, at least a rule important enough to enforce. Purists take heart: Alex Rodriguez, or perhaps even Junior Griffey--both, one would suspect, clean--stand a chance to eclipse the record in the coming decade.

Hi Dan,

I think you make a number of great points, esp. re: the devaluing of the record and the tacit approval of Bud the Disgrace that the rest of MLB. But I still love the game. And the accomplishment - under any circumstances - is still remarkable, and should be applauded, imo. (And thank you for the generous link!)

A-Rod has a good shot though Jayson Stark's article on the futility of projections was excellent on the subject. I just don't see Griffey sticking around long enough to do it, even if he returns to the AL.

I love baseball but...ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ....

What's even more warped than anybody giving a fat rat's a$$ about Barry Bonds and his 'alleged' record is that somebody will pay millions of dollars for the ball. Sick.

A-Rod winning it clean is almost as bad as Bonds winning it dirty. Here's hoping Jr. can keep it going and outpace them both.

Last night, a day after eclipsing Hank Aaron's record for most career home runs, Barry Bonds connected again, hitting number 757 deep into the waters of McCovey Cove.

Baseball fans are now speculating at what number Bonds will complete his career. That's a good first question. But I have a better question, esp. for Bonds's biggest critics:

Is there a number Bonds will have to achieve before you will recognize him as the all-time Home Run King? Is there a point of achievement at which you will say he has achieved legitimacy?

I'm curious what Flynn Files readers think?

CLICK HERE to read more and to give your opinion in response to my post, "How Many Will It Take?"

Junior can't stay healthy enough to break it. Rodriguez has a decent chance. As far as giving much of a crap about baseball? I stopped being a fan in '94. Since I listen to ESPN or FSN, I know what's going on. Good post, Dan..

ESPN? You mean the ALL Yankee All the time sports channel. ESPN has become Disneyfied - Slick and overproduced sports news about the same teams and players over and over and over again. I have that and the deuce in my HDTV package and outside of PTI, I feel ripped off.

I scent a bitter Rangers fan on this page who thinks Arod setting the record clean is worse than the Fathead doing it.

Bonds broke no record, no asterisk needed b/c anyone who paid attention know that Barry's numbers are a fraud and meaningless.

But Dan, he was not one of the "game's all time greats" before juicing unless by that you mean one of the top 15 or so greatest. You and everyone else who makes that claim is incapable of grasping the fact that 98 on was a fraud from him and that w/o that production there is no chance that one could say he was even in the top 5 in the post-war era. Seriously was any of his mvp seasons better than even Ted Williams in his prime years? Let alone better than Mays, Aaron, Mantle, or Musial? Uh, the answer is no. Being second best in his era (Griffey was hands down better in every category except the very over-rated category of speed on the bases . . . difference in batting order and teams matters a lot there) means calling him one of the greatest ever is a vague statement that obscures his fraud.

Bonds prime years do not hold a candle to at least 8 or so other players that came before him and it was his fraudulent revitalization and extension of his career through chemicals that ,akes people exaggerate how good he was before he cheated. Legitimately he might have produced numbers placing him 4th on the all time homer list and we could have could have argued over whether he was better than Robinson, Mantle and Williams. But we never would have been having an argument over how he ranked against Ruth, Mays and Aaron the great triumvirate. And we still shouldn't. The proof is in the fat head.

Bonds was the ultimate 5-tool player, having made the 400/400 club--literally he made it, as he is it's only member--prior to when he started doing steroids. He won 3 MVP awards and 8 Gold Gloves prior to when he is alleged to have started juicing (I use alleged not to cast doubt but to note his earliest use is alleged). Had he retired prior to injecting any anabolic steroids, Barry Bonds would have been a first-ballot Hall of Famer. Bonds was a better fielder than most of the all-time greats you mention. He was a better base stealer than all of them.