Apparently Barry Bonds will return for one more Major League season and a final shot at breaking Hank Aaron’s career home run record of 755. Bonds now stands at 734.
As to whether he warrants a supplemental asterisk — or an indictment — is yet to be determined. Surely, at least one of the aforementioned.
But much has been made of what he did this year at the advanced baseball age of 42. He hit .270; muscled out 26 homers; and drove in 77 runs.
For comparison sake, let’s also reference the late Ted Williams*.
When he was 42, Williams hit .316; clouted 29 homers; and drove in 72 runs in (his final season of) 1960. His literal last at-bat was a home run.
Most remarkably, he did it in an era when players still grew hormones the old- fashioned way.
And don’t forget that Williams, a career .344 hitter whose lifetime numbers included 521 homers, was a fighter pilot in both World War II and the Korean War. It cost him the better part of five seasons and more than a few career records. He took one for the ultimate team.
*Now there was an asterisk.