Bonds is moving on up

[vsp]

The one concession that I'll make towards Bonds is that he's not the ONLY one on juice. If steroids were the determining factor, shouldn't there be six or seven contemporaries also charging at 700?

Sosa has 572 at age 35, four years younger than Bonds. If he can stay healthy and average around 40 dingers over the next four years, he'll pass the Babe, be within striking range of Aaron and be ahead of where Bonds is now. (That's a big if, though.) Griffey had a great shot at it until injuries chopped away some prime years. McGwire lost some key middle years to injuries. Likewise for Juan Gonzalez. After that, you're looking at hitters from that generation with respectable, consistent numbers but who never had ludicrous-HR-count breakout years (McGriff, Palmeiro, Bagwell, Thomas).

A-Rod's about the only younger player with a shot (almost at 400 already, and he's under 30).

Of course, if Sosa hits 700+, they'll probably put an asterisk, a hypodermic AND a cork next to his total in the record books... but what the hell. It's not as if players were drug-free fair-play pinnacles of morality who never THOUGHT of cheating before 1998.