Jeff Chiu / AP

No player over 40 has ever had the same impact on the game Barry Bonds has, writes columnist Gary Peterson.

Dave Winfield drove in 108 runs (mainly as a DH) the year he turned 40. Ty Cobb batted .357 the year he turned 40. Stan Musial batted .330 the year he turned 41. Spahn won 21 games (and threw a no-hitter) as a 40-year-old, and won 23 games at 42. Roger Clemens went 18-4 the year he turned 41.

Nolan Ryan may have been the most impressive baseball 40-something to this point, throwing no-hitters at ages 43 and 44. He won 16 games and struck out 301 batters at 42.

But like Bonds, Ryan's dominance was as much visual as it was data driven. He was a fearsome sight, throwing 100-mph howlers and huge-arcing curves. He seemed bigger than life — never bigger than the night in 1993 when one of his fastballs hit Robin Ventura, and Ventura charged the mound seeking retribution. Ryan, then 46 to Ventura's 26, put a headlock on the whippersnapper and beat the crap out of him.

Bonds has yet to do anything that dramatic. But he scares pitchers and managers now every bit as much as Ryan frightened and amazed batters back then. Maybe more. He's not squeaking balls over the fence, he's crushing them. He may not be able to run a lick and his defense may be statuesque, but he's as imposing a sight in the batters box as there is in the game.

In the first game of a recent series at Arizona, Bonds was walked three times in a 3-2 loss. "We had to do it," Diamondbacks manager Bob Melvin said. "If we need to again, we will."

The following day, with a base open and Bonds up in the top of the first, Melvin pitched to Bonds. Result: career home run No. 742.

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Ted Williams was impressive when he hit 29 homers as a 41-year-old. Darrell Evans was a marvel when he led the American League in home runs the season he turned 40. Phil Niekro won 121 games after turning 40 — try that sometime.

But no one ran and hid from them the way they're running and hiding from Bonds these days. If pitchers let him, he'll wipe every 40-something standard off the books before this season is over.

Except for Heather Locklear's. Not every record is made to be broken.