As a big baseball fan, I am in the middle of a moral quandary. This morning, Matt interviewed Bob Costas to discuss Barry Bonds, and his impending breaking of Hank Aaron's all-time home run record. WATCH VIDEO. Of course, everyone knows that Bonds is under tremendous scrutiny for the allegations that he took performance-enhancing drugs, thereby tainting the record that he will soon hold. In every game, all media attention is on him, as he is only one shot away from tying the record. Bob Costas was fairly emphatic about the fact that if Bonds breaks the record in any city other than his home San Francisco, he will be met with a smattering of boos and silent protest.
So back to my moral dilemma. I love baseball, and have grown up watching professional baseball and following it all my life. And it pains me that the sport has been tainted so badly by various scandals over the past years. It seems that any record that has been broken recently exists under a cloud of suspicion. Bonds is already in the record books for single-season home runs, along with Mark McGwire, both of whom have been questioned about possible steroid use. The game has changed so much, and many argue about whether today's accomplishments belong in the same books as those of Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Roger Marris, and others. As much as I get excited when a new piece of baseball history is about to be made, it's upsetting that there will be a permanent question mark next to this era of play. For all the baseball fans out there, what side of this argument are you on? Is Bonds just a sensational athlete despite the allegations, who belongs in the record books regardless? Or is this time that we're living in a dark period in the history of sports? Will you applaud in the coming days when Bonds rounds the bases for a historic 756th time? And how do you talk to your kids about this, who look up to professional athletes?