Inflation ruins everything.(Barry Bonds' achievements)

Despite our desire to celebrate even the most trivial achievements, and a 24-hour electronic news apparatus with an omnivorous appetite, Barry Bonds' 715th home run was greeted with something very close to embarrassed silence. There seemed to be a universal, if tacit, understanding that Bonds' achievement in eclipsing Babe Ruth's iconic total of 714 homers was counterfeit, more a product of cunning pharmacology than talent and discipline.

Bonds, as portrayed in the book Game of Shadows by Mark Fairnaru-Wada and Lance Williams, is a small-souled man of great athletic gifts. Already Cooperstown-bound in 1998 with three Most Valuable Player awards to his credit, Bonds succumbed to pathological jealousy as the home-run race between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa monopolized the attention of the fans and media. Shortly before McGwire broke Roger Marls' single-season record of 61 home runs, it was learned that he had been taking the steroid precursor androstenedione.

At the time, Bonds was 33 and facing his mortality in career terms. Although he had "never used anything more performance enhancing than a protein shake from the health food store," write Fainaru-Wada and Williams, Bonds made a calculated decision to become a "juicer." With the help of steroids obtained through an outfit called the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO), Bonds underwent a startling metamorphosis.

Pre-BALCO, Bonds had the sinewy, long-limbed build of a marathon runner. Like his late father Bobby, and his godfather, the immortal Willie Mays, Bonds was a multifaceted player combining power and speed. His post-BALCO physique testified of his monomaniacal focus on hitting home runs. When he arrived for Spring Training in 1999, his once-sleek body had been retrofitted with at least 25 pounds of hormone-fed muscle.

"Of the five best offensive seasons in Bonds's career, four came after he was thirty-five years old," note Fairnaru-Wada and Williams. This in itself is not remarkable, since of Henry Aaron's 755 career home runs, roughly one-third came after he had reached that age, which is near-geriatric in baseball terms. Bonds' late-career improvement, however, was unprecedented. Prior to 2001, when he hit 73 home runs, Bonds had never hit more than 49 in a season. Additionally, he was 38 years old in 2002 when he won his first batting title, hitting .370.

This anomalous output prompted a cynical but insightful comment from Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson. "Henry Aaron never hit 50 home runs in a season, so you're going to tell me that [Bonds] is a greater hitter than Henry Aaron?" mused Jackson. "There is no ...