I guess you could call this progress in race relations.
About 35 years ago — and has it really been that long? — when Henry Aaron was stalking baseball's career home run record, he was peppered with death threats from knuckle-dragging racists who couldn't stand to see Babe Ruth's name erased from the record book.
Today, baseball fans almost unanimously accept that Barry Bonds will push his career home run total past 756, but at the same time have embraced Hammerin' Hank as the people's home run champ.
The king has announced he won't be around to crown the pretender.
Aaron, now in his 70s — and doesn't that make you baby boomers feel ancient? — pulled out his best Danny Glover "Lethal Weapon" impersonation and said he is too old for "this excrement" that would go along with chasing Bonds around the country waiting for No. 756.
In other circumstances, and with other men, that might be dismissed as childish bitterness. But this is Henry Aaron and Barry Bonds.
More than three decades after the last time this title changed hands, Aaron is a revered figure both within and outside of baseball. On the other side, the pursuer, Bonds, is a reviled figure.
Of course, there are exceptions to those popular opinions.
One of those with a differing viewpoint is Detroit News columnist Rob Parker, who called Aaron a coward for saying he wouldn't be there when Bonds eclipsed his mark, but not admitting that he's staying home because of steroid allegations against the Giants' standout.
That's not fair to Aaron. Deciding whether Bonds' 756th home run will be cause for celebration or sadness is a complicated matter for everyone, and even more so for the guy who finished with 755.
Steroids might not have been a banned substance when Bonds is believed to have started taking them, but it certainly doesn't fall under the category of fair play. Even so, being clean in the sport's Monsanto era — motto: "Better baseball through chemistry" — is a little like showing up with a knife at a gunfight.
Even before Bonds' head swelled up like something you'd normally see tethered to handlers walking down Broadway during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, he had won enough National League MVPs to be considered among baseball's all-time greats.
And it's not as if Bonds' home run records are the only ones being brought into question. Just about every accomplishment in the past 20 years is tainted, and not just by steroids. It's generally accepted by baseball players that pep pills, known as "greenies," were far more prevalent than steroids.
"Greenies" weren't around in Lou Gehrig's day, so someone ought to ask Cal Ripken, Jr. if he needed some Ballplayer's Little Helper to get up for some of those Sunday day games after Saturday night games.
At best, Bonds is heading toward a milestone just about everyone east of the San Andreas Fault is ambivalent about reaching.
If Aaron wants to give the whole thing a miss, he doesn't owe anybody an explanation. As he comes near the end of a life that's as spotless as a man can have, Hammerin' Hank gets an excused absence.
He's earned that right through the courage with which he handled those who unleashed hate on him as he inched toward Ruth's 714, and the dignity with which he ignored a baseball community that wanted to slap an asterisk on his accomplishment because Aaron needed a few thousand more at-bats than Ruth did.
And Bonds' detractors are now looking for a place to put his asterisk, because he is believed to have used steroids.
So, as the all-time home run race enters its homestretch, we have a respected home run king about to be overtaken, and there are a lot of people who wish it wouldn't happen.
Just like the last time.
The big difference now is that we are seeing a small slice of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" vision come to fruition.
This time, the principals in this home run chase are being judged not for the color of their skin, but the content of their character.
Or, in Bonds' case, the content of his blood.
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