Barry Bonds ... Hero or Zero?

By Nick Scala
Staff writer

SOMETIME DURING this baseball season - I'm thinking late June, early July - Barry Bonds will hit his 756th career home run, breaking the major-league record held by Hank Aaron since his retirement 31 years ago in 1976.

Makes you feel good all over, doesn't it?

When - if? - it happens, it'll be our job in the media to report the momentous news, put it into historical perspective and sing the praises of the athlete who performed such a miraculous feat.

Won't it?

It was that way in 2001, not long after 9/11, when Bonds broke the single-season home run record set just three years earlier by Mark McGwire.

Wasn't it?

Has there ever been a time in sports history when the fan consensus was so strongly against an imminent record breaker? And this isn't just any old record, folks. Most home runs, career, is right at the top of the list of the most cherished records of the game that sanctifies the numbers like no other, right alongside Most home runs, season. And sometime in late June, early July, Bonds will hold both of them.

Nobody's held both those marks at the same time since Ruth swatted 60 in 1927. It's been 80 years since there's been any doubt about who was the greatest hitter of all time, and yet very few of us feel like celebrating.

We all know why. It's not because of the color of Bonds' skin, although, sadly, we're still living in a time when that's a factor in the equation. It's not that Bonds, surly on his good days, isn't the most huggable superstar.

No, it's the muscle-building "S" word - and I'm not talking about spinach. The cloud that hangs over the game, so prevalent that we're already referring to it as the "Steroid Era" of baseball, isn't about to dissipate, at least not until we have some answers about the use of illegal performance enhancing drugs - how much, how often and, most significantly, who.

Bonds' inevitable march toward 756 in 2007 is different from 2001, when he chased down McGwire's record, still in its infancy, of 70 homers in a season, raising the bar to 73. In 2001, Bonds had to beat the 162-game clock that is baseball's regular season, so there was a chance he wouldn't make it.

Seven-hundred fifty-six, though, is inevitable, isn't it? It's gonna happen. As I said, late June, early July, Bonds will hit his 22nd homer of the year.

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2007
No. 748 -- (June 18) off Boston's Tim Wakefield, at Boston
No. 747 -- (June 11) off Toronto's Josh Towers, at home
No. 746 -- (May 27) off Colorado's Taylor Buchholz, at home
No. 745 -- (May 8) off New York Mets' Tom Glavine, at home
No. 744 -- (May 5) off Philadelphia's Jon Lieber, at home
No. 743 -- (May 2) off Colorado's Jeff Francis, at home
No. 742 -- (Apr. 28) off Arizona's Edgar Gonzalez, at Arizona
No. 741 -- (Apr. 25) off L.A.'s Randy Wolf, at L.A.
No. 740 -- (Apr. 22) off Arizona's Yusmeiro Petit, at home
No. 739 -- (Apr. 20) off Arizona's Edgar Gonzalez, at home
No. 738 -- (Apr. 18) off St Louis' Ryan Franklin, at home
No. 737 -- (Apr. 13) off Pittsburgh's Shawn Chacon, at Pittsburgh
No. 736 -- (Apr. 13) off Pittsburgh's Zach Duke, at Pittsburgh
No. 735 -- (Apr. 4) off San Diego's Chris Young, at home

2006
No. 734 -- (Sept. 23) off Milwaukee's Chris Capuano, at Milwaukee
No. 733 -- (Sept. 22) off Milwaukee's Chris Spurling, at Milwaukee
No. 732 -- (Sept. 13) off Colorado's Brian Fuentes, at home
No. 731 -- (Sept. 9) off San Diego's David Wells, at home
No. 730 -- (Sept. 4) off Cincinnatti's Aaron Harang, at Cincinnatti
No. 729 -- (Sept. 3) off Chicago Cubs' Les Walrond, at Chicago
No. 728 -- (Sept. 2) off Chicago Cubs' Sean Marshall, at Chicago
No. 727 -- (Aug. 29) off Atlanta's Tim Hudson, at Atlanta
No. 726 -- (Aug. 29) off Atlanta's Tim Hudson, at Atlanta
No. 725 -- (Aug. 21) off Arizona's Livan Hernandez, at home
No. 724 -- (Aug. 16) off San Diego's Chan Ho Park, at San Diego
No. 723 -- (Aug. 4) off Colorado's Jeff Francis, at home
No. 722 -- (July 20) off San Diego's Brian Sweeney, at home
No. 721 -- (July 16) off Philadelphia's Brett Myers, at home
No. 720 -- (July 7) off L.A.'s Chad Billingsley, at L.A.
No. 719 -- (June 24) off Oakland's Dan Haren, at home
No. 718 -- (June 16) off Seattle's Felix Hernandez, at Seattle
No. 717 -- (June 14) off Arizona's Jose Valverde, at Arizona
No. 716 -- (June 5) off Florida's Brian Moehler, at home
No. 715 -- (May 28) off Colorado's Byung-Hyun Kim, at home
No. 714 -- (May 20) off Oakland's Brad Halsey, at Oakland
No. 713 -- (May 7) off Philadelphia's Jon Lieber, at Philadelphia
No. 712 -- (May 2) off San Diego's Scott Linebrink, at home
No. 711 -- (Apr. 26) off N.Y. Mets' Billy Wagner, at home
No. 710 -- (Apr. 25) off N.Y. Mets' Steve Trachsel, at home
No. 709 -- (Apr. 22) off Colorado's Aaron Cook, at Colorado