King Kaufman's Sports Daily

Weirdest thing in sports: Barry Bonds' "chase" of the motionless, and technically dead, Babe Ruth. Plus: The media's amazing power.

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May 12, 2006 | This Barry Bonds "chase" of Babe Ruth's home run record has got to be the screwiest thing I've ever seen, and that's if you don't even think about the whole steroid thing, which, just so we can have a few nice moments together, let's not think about for a second.

First of all, it's a pretty low-speed chase, isn't it? I mean, you thought the white Bronco was dawdling. I don't know how to break this to you, but Babe Ruth is dead. He's kicked the bucket, shuffled off this mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the choir invisible.

He has stopped hitting home runs.

Chasing Babe Ruth is like chasing a parked car. There ain't a lot of drama involved.

Bonds isn't "chasing" Ruth. His San Francisco Giants are chasing the Colorado Rockies for first place in the National League West, though that brings up a whole nother question of whether you can call something a chase if both parties are moving backward.

As with any "chase" of a career record, what's really going on is a kind of grim vigil, a wait for the inevitable, which when it happens we'll all pretend has some significance beyond just another home run for Barry Bonds.

Now, hitting 715 home runs is a hell of a thing -- remember, we're not thinking about steroids for a minute here. But so is hitting 713 home runs. It's not like Bonds will somehow become exactly as great as Ruth on whatever day he hits No. 714 and greater when he hits No. 715.

Bonds is either greater than Ruth or Ruth is greater than Bonds. Reasonable people can and do disagree about that question, but by now, with the 71st anniversary of Ruth's last game approaching and almost all of Bonds' career behind him, the evidence is pretty much in. However many homers Bonds hits in these last few twilight months or years of his career won't have much bearing.

And the same is true of comparing Bonds with Henry Aaron, whose all-time record of 755 homers Bonds will commence "chasing" as soon as he gets past the blazing, by which I mean stationary, Ruth.

Bad news, adrenaline junkies: Aaron hit his last home run almost 30 years ago. The good news is that he's still very much with us.

Next page: Wait a second, Ruth doesn't hold the record. Plus: The awesome power of the media!