I don’t recall Hank Aaron being remembered for shying away from the game due to racism and threats that he experienced while playing the game. In fact, that is part of what made Aaron’s record even more memorable.
In 1928, Ted Wilde directed a comedy film by the name of "Speedy", starring such celebrities as Harold Lloyd, Brooks Benedict, and George Herman Ruth.
Yes that George Herman Ruth. "The Great Bambino" as he was so often referred to.
"Chasing the Dream" was a 1995 film that documented the run that Henry Aaron made en route to his breaking Babe Ruth's record of 715 home runs.
While the previous two home run champions were popular public figures in addition to being two of the best baseball players to ever play the game, it is safe to say that new record-holder Barry Bonds will not be offering any box office hits any time soon.
On the day in 1974 that Aaron successfully reached home run No. 714 to tie Babe Ruth for the all-time lead, there were a few more notable differences in the reaction of both fans and players alike.
While Aaron crossed home plate after hitting the historic home run, teammates, of course, were gathered to help celebrate the historic moment.
But one other player was there, someone who had every right to ignore what had just happened and worry more that his team now trailed the game 3-0.
Cincinnati Reds catcher Johnny Bench was among the first to congratulate Aaron, offering a hand shake to an opponent who had just delivered a blow off of his teammate, Jack Billingham.
Following the game both Pete Rose and Manager Sparky Anderson had glowing words for Aaron with Anderson adding that it (the record) couldn't have happened to a better man.
Anderson alluded to the fact that Aaron had never caused turmoil in the game and had always been a player that displayed as much class as talent.
The barriers that Aaron managed to fight through and overcome en route to setting Major League Baseball’s most storied record were something that both fans and players alike could sit back and admire.
There seemed to be a different feel this past Saturday when Barry Bonds succeeded in hitting his 755th career home run, tying the record currently held by Aaron and now Tuesday night when he surpassed that mark and hit No. 756.
The milestone that Bonds reached after hitting No. 755 seemed to be a forgetful moment, as few news agencies outside of ESPN took great notice in the achievement following the game and even into the days to follow.
Even Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig, who attended the game, had a rather dull reaction to the historic happenings at Petco Park, home of the San Diego Padres and where the game was being played.
Selig had at least managed to give a congratulatory call to Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez, who earlier in the week had become the youngest player in baseball history to hit 500 home runs.
But for Bonds, Selig had nothing but a simple blank stare into the night as if to say "Why am I here? Just get it over with and we’ll move on".
To add injury to insult, San Francisco Giants owner Peter Magowan, the one person that would understandably be in favor of Bonds breaking the milestone, offered no words of congratulations to his left field slugger.
This feeling may very well be a product of hoping and waiting for Rodriguez’s shot at the record in another six to eight years, although baseball fans once though that to be the case with Ken Griffey, Jr. as well.
Now that Bonds is in sole possession of the most coveted record in all of sports, the differing opinions among sports fans about Bonds will begin to appear once again.
To me, it’s the failure to run out a routine ground ball, the unwillingness to play games on the road in fear of being booed and the unwillingness to promote honesty in the game of baseball by refusing to discuss his history of using performance enhancing supplements.
I don’t recall Hank Aaron being remembered for shying away from the game due to racism and threats that he experienced while playing the game. In fact, that is part of what made Aaron’s record even more memorable.
While I recognize there are many players who do not run out a simple ground ball, not all of those players are playing at the level that Barry Bonds has reached and most, if not all of them, have not cemented their place in history and been given a chance to have a lasting affect on the game while showing respect for it as well.
I will always remember watching No. 756 leave the field of play, but I will never forget how it felt different from any other moment of history that I have experienced in the world of sports.
Because to me, while it still takes skill to hit 756 home runs, with steroids or without, it doesn’t take that same skill to hustle down the line after hitting a routine ground ball; it simply takes heart and respect for the game.