756*

Guess we aren't going to escape him.

Yesterday, in the middle of the FOX Saturday Game of the Week, announcer Joe Buck pointed to a graphic showing the top 5 home run leaders of all time. You know the names.

Hovering just short of Hank Aaron's record is San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds.

Aaron hit his 715th home run on this date, April 8, in 1974. He topped out at 755 homers before retiring following the 1975 season.

Hank's homer was a thing of beauty then; it is a reminder of something pure now.

Barring injury or divine intervention, Bonds will pass Aaron sometime later this year. He may be the new home run king, but he'll receive no cheers from this corner.

Say he hasn't been charged with anything. Say steroids weren't illegal during the period Bonds hit most of his homers. (Which isn't exactly true, by the way.)

Say what you will, but Barry Bonds cheated. Period. Dot. Paragraph.

One wonders why. He was once a great player, a pure hitter who could smack the ball into the gap, hustle out of the box and earn a double standing up.

Bonds was good. He didn't need the juice.

Aaron did it the old fashioned way. He stayed consistent through the years, passed Ruth with as much grace as he could muster, given all the terrible things that were done to him. He went on to become one of the game's greatest ambassadors.

Of those on the list, though, Ruth's 714 homers remain the most impressive. Look only to the era in which he hit, and his number of career at-bats, to see what I mean.

Michigander Tom Stanton wrote a fantastic little tome on Aaron's home run chase a few years ago called "Hank Aaron and the Home Run that Changed America." Hyperbole aside, it's a great read.

The book helps put into focus, not that we need it, exactly what will fall when Bonds hits home run No. 756. He'll get the record. He may even get some cheers from a few misguided souls, mostly Giants fans.

But he'll never, ever have my respect. That, for what little it may be worth, is reserved for those who deserve it.