Records

So Barry Bonds hit a record-breaking (sort of) home run today, at home, and I wasn't there to see it. This is interesting. Although I go to fewer than half of the Giants home games, I have somehow managed to see pretty much all of Bonds' milestone home runs: 500, 600, 660, 700, as well as 71 and 73 in a single season.

But we had long planned to be gone this weekend, and I had assumed that Bonds would have passed 715 long before this. Oh, well.

I guess "milestone" is a better word for this one than "record." When Hank Aaron hit his 715th, it was a new record, surpassing Babe Ruth's career total. That record had stood for so long, and the number 714 had been etched into the minds of so many baseball fans, that even now, surpassing that number (more than 30 years after Aaron did), it still resonates with fans.

So Bonds is now in second place, all time. On his current trajectory, I tend to doubt that he will
break Aaron's career record. Given the ambivalence about Bonds and how he has gone about his job, that might be a good thing overall.

Now we can all pay attention to more important matters, like getting the Giants to win more consistently!