Crunching some enhanced HR numbers

For me, it?s not an issue of someone breaking Hank Aaron?s home run record of 755; it?s an issue on how they reached the record.

With 10 homers already this season, Barry Bonds should surpass Aaron?s record sometime in July, if not before.

I was always a big fan of Aaron?s, and remember exactly where I was when he broke Babe Ruth?s home run numbers. And being the realist that I am, I knew someday someone would come along and break Aaron?s record. Like they say, records are made to be broken.

Every baseball fan knows all the controversy Bonds has created for himself over the past several years. And his denial of using performance-enhancing drugs can be summed up in one word as far as I?m concerned ? ?cheater.?

I have followed this subject pretty closely over the last five years, and I?m convinced Bonds knowingly took steroids.

That?s the problem I have with Bonds breaking the record, he took performance-enhancing drugs, which may or may not have helped him to hit the long ball. And the worst part of it all is the fact he may have hit the same amount of home runs without taking steroids, but he was unwilling to play by the rules. So through the entire process he tainted not only his name, but the record books he will soon be rewriting and baseball in general.

Apparently I?m not the only one who feels this way. In a recent poll by ESPN, only about four in 10 baseball fans are hoping Bonds breaks the record. Thirty-seven percent of fans are rooting for Bonds to surpass Aaron?s home run mark, while 52 percent hope he falls short.

Bonds? alleged steroid use started in the mid-?90s, with the BALCO controversy coming to the public?s attention three years ago.

Through Bond?s first six years in the major leagues he had a total of 146 home runs. Then from 1992-01 he smacked 425 taters. Breaking it down on a 10-year run, from 1986-95 he had 292 home runs. During his last 12 years, including this season and two years he was injured in 2005 (just five homers) and 2006 (26), he has hit a total of 452.

So just looking at the stat book and putting together the time frame of his alleged steroid use, then I would say something definitely gave him an advantage from 1996 to the present.

Through the last 10 years he added an extra 25 home runs a year to what he had hit during his first 10 seasons in the big league. Take what he hit during his first 10 seasons, which was 292 and double that, he should have somewhere in the neighborhood of 584 homers instead of 744.

When everything is said and done, will all the controversy and the question marks by his name have been worth the trouble?

Will our great-grandchildren be sitting around 25 years from now discussing weather or not Bonds used steroids? Probably not. Because in 25 years someone else will be looking at breaking the record. But it?s all about now and the fans who support and live for the game today. It?s more about the legacey this generation leaves behind and not wanting to taint America?s game.