Should Records Come With Asterisks?

The moment has now come and gone. We knew it was coming when the season began, and in the last hours of Tuesday August 7, it did. Whether the world wants to accept it or not, one powerful swing was all it took to inaugurate a new king of sports. Yes, it also took 755 other powerful swings and God knows what else to get him there, but Barry Bonds has done it.

Over the past day I've been trying to figure out how exactly I feel about the whole thing. I know, the truth about Bonds' steroid use is not exactly crystal clear, and he has always been looked at as one of the game's best players in history, but the whole thing still doesn't really sit well with me. When regular people come along and do amazing things, we should be able to look at them in wonder and awe. Their achievements are supposed to teach our children about the value of determination, hard work and integrity. But more and more often, broken records are scrutinized instead of praised. The "wow"s are being replaced by "what if"s and "why"s. As Michael Wilbon said in today's column, "I can't come to a definitive conclusion on what's fair and what's foul anymore." Of all the commentary I've watched and read, Wilbon's column is the one that articulates exactly what's been going through my head.

But the questions surrounding Bonds' shed light on the identity crisis that sports as a whole is suffer ring. Turn on Sportscenter or open to the Sports section and at least half of what you see has to deal with steroids, doping, betting, fixing. In a word, cheating. ESPN has a really interesting article on this degeneration of sports and for the next two days will be focusing on this topic and where the future of sports lies.

I've got more to write about this, so stay tuned.