Aaron on home run record: 'It belongs to Barry'
Hall of Famer says baseball can't go back and change Bonds', other records
 John Amis / AP Hank Aaron hit 755 home runs in his career to break the previous mark of 714 by Babe Ruth. |
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ATLANTA - Hank Aaron believes Barry Bonds should keep major league baseball's home run record.
"In all fairness to everybody, I just don't see how you really can do a thing like that and just say somebody isn't the record holder anymore, and let's go back to the way that it was,'' Aaron told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Friday.
Aaron hit 755 home runs in his career to break the previous mark of 714 by Babe Ruth. Bonds, who did not play last season, surpassed Aaron in 2007 and has 762 career home runs.
Bonds has pleaded not guilty to charges that he lied in 2003 to a grand jury when he said he never knowingly used performance-enhancing drugs.
Commissioner Bud Selig has indicated that he's given some thought to returning the record to Aaron if it is proved Bonds used steroids.
"If you did that, you'd have to go back and change all kinds of records, and the (home run) record was very important to me,'' Aaron said. "It's probably the most hallowed record out there, as far as I'm concerned, but it's now in the hands of somebody else. It belongs to Barry. No matter how we look at it, it's his record, and I held it for a long time. But my take on all of this has always been the same. I'm not going to say that Barry's got it because of this or because of that, because I don't know.''
Aaron said he doesn't think the commissioner would like to get involved.
"There are things out there besides worrying about a home run record that somebody now holds,'' Aaron said. "Barry has the record, and I don't think anybody can change that.''
Aaron and Selig have been friends for more than 50 years, and Selig was in Atlanta last week for the slugger's 75th birthday celebration. Aaron said he and the commissioner have never discussed the possibility of restoring the home run record to him.
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