History in baseball is crucial; it’s where the sport gets its strength and it’s where tradition grows and, as we all know, for true, hardcore baseball fans, tradition is everything. But what happens when tradition is endangered? What to do when someone cheats (or is presumed to have cheated) his way into history, taking for granted all the others who’ve legitimately played a big part of it? Well, apparently nothing. Today, we’re looking at a guy that is attempting to do just that, and nobody can stop it, no matter how much you want to.

Babe Ruth did it on hot dogs, Hammerin’ Hank Aaron did it on Krispy Kremes and Barry Bonds is doing it on what exactly? That’s the question everybody was answered, some believe the answer’s already clear, I’m one of them, but there are some who are still a little fuzzy on the subject. What is helping Barry Bonds to reach 755 career home runs?

Back when the Babe hit his 714 homers, he just gave fans a reason to love him even more. He was a great player, one of the best if you ask me, and he gets all the credit he deserves; people to this day look up to him. When Aaron broke Babe’s record, a lot of fans weren’t happy, they simply weren’t. To see a colored man surpass another who was considered to be the greatest of all time, was not sitting well with some. However, you have to acknowledge Aaron’s own greatness, this dude hit 755 home runs legitimately, he wasn’t trying to diminish the Babe, he was trying to find his own place (just like Ruth did at one time), and the fans noticed that there was nothing wrong with that. But when a guy like Barry Bonds attempts to break Hammerin’ Hank’s record, you just can’t help but gag.

Listen, everyone’s sick of all the steroids talk—even me—I mean this is a topic that has made it to CNN, for God’s sake. But it has to be done. We’re now in the middle of the steroid era of baseball, this is it, kids. So we have to talk about what’s going on, how it all started and what will happen in the future; let’s just keep it like a tootsie roll: short and sweet (you can’t top that kind of cheesiness).

So, let’s start at the root of the problem: Victor Conte (bet you hadn’t heard that name in awhile, huh?). This dude is the Godfather of steroids, you want it, he’s got it. He tailor-makes steroids for athletes of all sports (Olympics, anyone?), and he pretty much gets away with it. Well, Conte had some connections with a stuck-up MLB-player wannabe who owned a gym where he trained huge balls of mass attempting to be humans that of course used steroids, giving him access to the finest of the finest. This guy is Greg Anderson, and he’s the bad guy of this movie.

Greg Anderson trained Barry Bonds into the man he is now. And people started noticing the difference, particularly a man by the name of Jason Giambi, who apparently told Anderson to “hook him up” and “make him like Barry”… I think we all know the rest of that story.

In 1997, a 33-year-old Barry Bonds hit 40 home runs for the third time in his career. In ’98 he hooked up with Anderson and everything got fuzzy. In’00, the 36-year-old hit 49 home runs; ’01: a whopping, record-setting 73 homers; ’02: 46 home runs; ’03 and ’04: 45 home runs. Now, now, I’ve heard things get better with age, but I didn’t think that applied for ballplayers. Bonds accredited Anderson’s “help” for his success and said no more.

But, what to do when you’re Barry Bonds and your trainer has been busted for conspiracy to distribute steroids and money laundering, not to mention the fact that your own team thought him to be a steroids dealer before he trained you? Well, I’d say you’re in pretty big trouble, but Barry Bonds just brushes off his shoulder and carries on, trying to break Aaron--Aaron’s record, I should say.

Most people don’t want Barry to break the record—not even the Commissioner—because everybody knows there’s something there that’s just off. But I want him to break the record, he will anyways. I want him to do it and retire and I want to see what will happen if and when it is officially proven that he has used steroids. Think about this: Barry will break that record in a matter of days or weeks, there’s no way to avoid it. It should be interesting, though, to see exactly what the then Commissioner will do when faced with an official document that states that the greatest record in baseball is a fake. Will he take it away, will he bring the asterisk back, will he punish Bonds—could he?—or will he simply do nothing? It should be interesting.

I’ve always said that fans are the voice of Major League Baseball and that, as the voice of the organization, whatever we say goes. When we thought steroid testing ought to get stronger, we cried out, and the Commissioner listened, if we one day decide never to set foot in another ballpark again, Major League Baseball will be faced with its death. Of course, I sure as hell am not saying that, I don’t think I could keep that up myself, I’m just saying that we have to remember that we’re the ones paying the players, we’re the ones paying for the stadiums… we’re making people rich by simply indulging in a pastime.

Basically, what I’m saying is that it’s our job to speak our minds, and I’m not only talking about choosing who goes to the all-star game. Sure, we can’t stop Barry Bonds or anything like that (besides, a lot of people want to see him break the record), but I do think that, if it is ultimately proven that he has used steroids, we should have a say in what happens to that record. We can’t afford to have Hank Aaron go down in the history books unnoticed.