755-ish

Barry Bonds is on the verge of trampling one of sport's most touted records. Juice or no, 756+ is a heap of homers. Hammerin' Hank has a place in the fiber of my sports being, hearkening back to being a youngster learning to play ball back in ATL. I hate to see his record fall, but that is the way of things. Regardless, I will still marvel at what he accomplished and picture the image of Aaron trotting the bases on number 755 and the crush of deeper and more disturbing things than steroids hanging in the air as a black man assumed the Home Run Crown. Nonetheless, I have always considered Barry, with or without the enhancements, to be probably the most talented player out there. I certainly have not seen any better in my days. The one man asshole army, Cobb, was long gone before my arrival on Earth. Arguments to be made for sure, on all sides, and new talent is always rising.

The looming torch passing and all the squabbling gave me pause to consider the greater sporting world.

Let's run down where we stand today:

• Baseball - steroids, racism (talk to Sheffield, he is always good for an uncomfortable take on the world), union headaches, Commissioner refusing to acknowledge Bonds, the death of a minor league coach after being struck by a batted ball
• NFL - new Commissioner trying to take control while criminals run rampant: Vick (dog fighting), Pacman Jones (everything up to and including threatening witnesses), Tank Johnson (guns), Cincy Bungles getting arrested like it's going out of style, League balking at assisting Veteran players
• NBA - amid the usual thug image, general lack of fan interest of late, and USA basketball playing like a second tier team, there is now the issue of a ref getting nailed for influencing games he worked, including mob ties
• Golf - an emerging steroid scandal of their own
• Cycling - dopes doping, most recently another smear to the Tour de France
• College - uncontrolled players, Coaches hopping from gig to gig for millions of dollars while players receive nothing from a billion dollar collegiate sports industry that can't even see fit to make sure they get educated, women's sports inequalities and lack of black coaches still shadow every success for an area holding tight to fan interest
• Boxing - no heavy weight contenders, Don King and a sport that nobody trusts
• Soccer - Belarus player accused of offering cash to players to throw games, Partizan club tossed from UEFA for fighting with Bosnian-Croat fans, Portuguese investigating 20 cases of corruption, 50 Iraqis killed in a celebration of advancing to the Asia Cup final, West Ham and Man U in High Court duster over ownership of a player's rights, Danish fan attacked a ref, former Thai PM (ousted over alleged corruption) is now majority owner of Manchester City soccer club and will delist MC from the London Stock Exchange
• NHL - no fan interest, continuing financial problems and union issues
• Tennis - lack of interest and personalities as nobody pays attention to another great Federer v. Nadal match
• Auto Racing - Dale Junior leaves DEI, July 10th twin engine plane crash kills 5, Hendrick Motorsports cars fail pre-race inspections in June, Formula One's McLaren is not to be punished for possessing confidential info on the design of rival Ferrari's cars, IRL controversies abound as drivers brawl amongst each other (perhaps trying to emulate an image NASCAR is trying to distance itself from)

It's rough out there. At least I can still be amused at the occasional statistical oddity. Yankees slugger, Alex Rodriguez, hit his 499th career home run on Wednesday. However, today (Friday, July 27th) A-Rod will face the Orioles in the resumption of a game that was suspended in the eighth inning on June 28th this year. If A-Rod hits a round tripper in this resumed game, that would be his 493th and the Wednesday shot would become his 500th. A-Rod, coincidentally, turns 32 today and would be the youngest to reach 500 home runs. He would surpass Jimmie Foxx (32 years, 338 days).

MLB rule, 10.23 (d), states: "All performances in the completion of a suspended game shall be considered as occurring on the original date of the game.''

Let's not even get into the permutations of what the Yankee's win streak would be....or not be. It begs the question of what exactly is a streak and what a numerical sequence really represents. I guess it mainly serves to prove that Major League Baseball has power over time itself.