715*

As usual, Mike Lupica has the best take:

You cheer him there or anywhere else if you want to. Not me. You believe this claptrap that nobody wanted him to get to 715 because he is black and Babe Ruth was white, even though the great Henry Aaron, the most distinguished citizen of this game, beat Ruth 32 years ago when 714 was still the record. It was all about race in those days, when so many people in this country wanted 714 to stand forever. It is about steroids now. The media, white or black, didn't do this to Bonds. He did it to himself. To even attempt to make it about race now, to make it about anything more than all the drugs people believe Bonds took to start hitting home runs the way he did after the age of 35 is insulting to Aaron, and the American life he has led. And to the record he holds, the biggest in sports. It got big on its own, no drugs.

Me:Skip Bayless wrote a piece about a month ago about how Bonds would never walk away, would never give anyone the satisfaction. I now think Bonds will do anything, up to and including turning DH for a natural-grass AL team that needs an attraction (Baltimore?) in order to put his toes over the line.