Babe, Hank and Barry: Who's Better, Who's Best?

With Barry Bonds set to break the all-time home run record tonight -- that's right, I'm fearlessly putting my imaginary money on journeyman
Washington Nationals southpaw Mike Bascik to surrender the shot -- it seems an opportune time to reference a column penned last week by the
Los Angeles Times' Joel Stein.

In "Ode to the Enhanced," Stein tells belittlers of Bonds' achievement, lamenters of Tour de France blood dopers and other sport purists to
"Get used to the 21st century."

In a more enlightened age, when the risks and the costs of these medical miracles come down, we'll look back on Bonds' triumph as a victory for all of us. We'll see our booing of him as symptoms of a silly, Luddite phobia of manipulating our own bodies. I'm sure there was an equal outcry when makeup was invented. And hair dye and the
Wonder bra. How our ancestors went on, I have no idea.

Bonds is not using a corked bat, which many players have, just as plenty of pitchers have scuffed balls. He has simply redesigned his body. Like so many of us have. Medicine, surgery and genetic engineering are no more an affront to God than drinking the protein shakes he didn't leave on the vine. And until we accept that, we're going to keep losing to those we call cheaters.

A note to Mr. Stein and anyone tempted to use the phrase "Luddite" to describe blind technophobia: please research who they were first. (You're not afraid to use the internet, are you?) Jon
Katz wrote about them in the early days of Wired:

The Luddites were fighting for their way of life in the most literal sense. For centuries, they had lived in small villages in ancient valleys, using simple machines that could be operated by individuals or families.

Big mills and factories meant an end to social custom and community, to personal status and individual freedom. Having worked independently on their own farms, they would be forced to use complex and dangerous machines in noisy, smelly factories for long hours, seven days a week, for slave wages. Their harvest and agricultural rituals, practiced for centuries, would perish. Fathers could no longer be with their wives and children. This new kind of labor changed notions of time and introduced concepts like work schedules and hourly wages. It despoiled whole regions, including Sherwood Forest.

In other words, the Luddites were upset about the social relationships dictated by new technologies, not the technologies themselves. And
Bonds-bashers are upset that his steroid use -- let's just do away with the "alleged," okay? -- came at a time when modifications were not equally available or openly acknowledged, that it's symptomatic of a destructive change to our personal relationship to athletic achievement, and that it's being wrongly compared to the achievements of Hank Aaron.

Does this mean that Bonds' accomplishments are meaningless? Of course not. What he's done is incredible. But the path he chose to get there should be seen as a possibility, not an inevitability -- best for him, since it's what he wanted, but not necessarily best for everyone else.

As for how this translates into what I'll feel when Mike Bascik, who's given up 14 home runs in 81 innings this season, surrenders one to Bonds tonight, the
Boston Globe's Bob Ryan said it best: "when it comes to home runs, not all conditions are created equal."

Babe Ruth started his career, explains Ryan in "Ignoring Eras is an
Error," when home runs were considered showboating. He "twice hit more home runs than every other team.... He was a colossus. He was really and truly establishing new concepts. There was baseball Before Babe and baseball After Babe." He did this well-rested, having taken trains rather than airplanes to away games, and feasted on tired starters in late innings.

Aaron, by contrast, emerged in a time of red-eye flights and specialized relief pitching. He also faced the best players of all races, rather than whites alone. On the other hand, he swung at fresh baseballs, rather than dirty ones that had stayed in play for innings, and didn't spend the early years of his career pitching. Unlike the
Babe, his achievement was a testament to consistency and durability as much as sheer explosive talent.

And of course we all know about the Bonds era of juiced balls and juiced biceps. Within that, Bonds has reigned supreme, and deserves to be recognized for it.

I say there are three Home Run Titans. Babe was the champ of the Booze and Broads Era. Hank was the champ of the Transition Era. Barry is the champ of the Steroids Era.

Champ, OK, but "King?" Nah, I'll pass. How about you?

Ignoring Eras is an Error [Boston Globe]

Ode to the Enhanced [Los Angeles Times]

Return of the Luddites [Wired]