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A friend of mine, knowing my love for Willie Mays, asked me if I'd be pissed when ARod passed him in home runs.
Here is the list of All-Time home run hitters...

Bonds- 762
Aaron- 755
Ruth- 714
Mays- 660
ARod- 654

My answer was no. I won't be mad. I think that baseball fans are smart. ARod achieved the number of home runs that he got the same way that Bonds got his homers. The same way that Ryan Braun got his homers.
I won't be upset because they are totally different from each other. Sure, it is the same category we are talking about.
Home runs.
But we will think differently in how those home runs came about.

Look, when I was in College, I didn't care about classes. I played baseball on a full ride. My aim was to keep my grades above minimum while playing baseball most of the time.
When I would cut cleasses, I couldn't play baseball. All my buddies were in class. So, I would turn to my second love.
Pinball.
I would be in the rec room trying everyday to top the previous days scores.
The rec room had one machine that lost its tilting alert. Before this happened, the highest score on the machine was 75,000 points. After the tilting mechanism was lost, players were racking up double those points.

In my mind, Bonds and ARod played baseball without a tilting alert. They got to play with a large advantage.
And puhleese, for those that think that Ruth was fueled by endless hot dogs or that Aaron and Mays took 'greenies', those did little to enhance muscle mass, improve vision, and knock the ball 40 or 50 feet farther. Hot dogs and greenies may have been an accidental free ball from the pinball machine, not a license to bully the machine and have its way with it like steroid users.

I don't get upset at records broken because, in my mind, the home run list is broken down differently in my mind. ARod isn't catching Mays. He's still chasing Bonds. They played the game with no tilt. Mays is still third on the home run list behind Aaron and Ruth in my mind. And Maris still holds the single season record of 61.
ARod is chasing Bonds for a pretend record.

Now, does ARod belong in the Hall?
Hell, yes!
So does Bonds.
Nobody played baseball better on steroids than Bonds and ARod. We have an inkling in what they would have been like were it not for steroids. Bonds was a damned good player before steroids. A great one after.
Folks think we should penalize them for breaking baseball rules.
The problem being that baseball KNEW about rules being broken.
They were in no hurry to fix the pinball machine. They liked the high scores, just like the fans.
And now, baseball punishes these players by keeping them out of the Hall of Fame.
As if they had nothing to do with the act themselves.
They're calling this era the 'steroid era' and they want to keep all that used steroids during a whole era out?
As if it didn't exist?
Are they really that full of themselves?
Fools and hypocrits.

I wrote to the Hall of Fame often in trying to get Shoeless Joe Jackson included. He was railroaded by a new Commisioner making a name for himself. The same Commish who would turn his back when Cobb and Speaker bet on games.
And still, the Shoeless Joe and Pete Rose banishment makes more sense than the banishment of steroid users.
Shoeless Joe and Rose were banned from baseball for life. Branded. There was no place for them in the Hall.
Not when they're branded.
Steroid users are being treated as if the Hall is their punishment for sins.
THAT'S NOT SUPPOSED TO BE THE WAY THE HALL OF FAME WORKS!!!!!
Baseball was hesitant in punishing Bonds. And it cost them.
Bonds should have been more severely punished when he was a player. If he were, he wouldn't have the home run record.
ARod was suspended for a year. He's paid his price.
Major League Baseball has it all wrong. And because of that, each year, the Hall of Fame seems to mean less and less.
At least it does to me.
And that is too bad.

From the BBWAA website:

3.Eligible Candidates — Candidates to be eligible must meet the following requirements:

A.A baseball player must have been active as a player in the Major Leagues at some time during a period beginning twenty (20) years before and ending five (5) years prior to election.
B.Player must have played in each of ten (10) Major League championship seasons, some part of which must have been within the period described in 3 (A).
C.Player shall have ceased to be an active player in the Major Leagues at least five (5) calendar years preceding the election but may be otherwise connected with baseball.
D.In case of the death of an active player or a player who has been retired for less than five (5) full years, a candidate who is otherwise eligible shall be eligible in the next regular election held at least six (6) months after the date of death or after the end of the five (5) year period, whichever occurs first.
E.Any player on Baseball’s ineligible list shall not be an eligible candidate.
F.The player must not be a dick which phrase will be permanently defined by Wayne Edwards.

Rose, Bonds, nor ARod will ever get in the HOF due to 3.F.

Edwards Kings wrote:From the BBWAA website:

3.Eligible Candidates — Candidates to be eligible must meet the following requirements:

A.A baseball player must have been active as a player in the Major Leagues at some time during a period beginning twenty (20) years before and ending five (5) years prior to election.
B.Player must have played in each of ten (10) Major League championship seasons, some part of which must have been within the period described in 3 (A).
C.Player shall have ceased to be an active player in the Major Leagues at least five (5) calendar years preceding the election but may be otherwise connected with baseball.
D.In case of the death of an active player or a player who has been retired for less than five (5) full years, a candidate who is otherwise eligible shall be eligible in the next regular election held at least six (6) months after the date of death or after the end of the five (5) year period, whichever occurs first.
E.Any player on Baseball’s ineligible list shall not be an eligible candidate.
F.The player must not be a dick which phrase will be permanently defined by Wayne Edwards.

Rose, Bonds, nor ARod will ever get in the HOF due to 3.F.

Ha!
Too bad you weren't around for some of the earlier inductees, Wayne!
Although, if wanting to appeal to women (and some men I suppose) a 'Dick' wing of the Hall of Fame could open.

Your comment made me think though, Wayne.
It seems to me, at least at first thought that most steroid users are surly.
Clemens, Bonds, Palmeiro, McGwire, Sosa, ARod....None of these players come to mind as 'happy go lucky'.
In fact, the only time these fellas would act like they enjoyed the game was when they did something on the field like Sosa doing his camera signs and McGwire and Sosa cajoling with each other while shattering home run records.

But of course, this is just my opinion and how the press portrays these fellas.
One player that does buck the surly trend is Jason Giambi. I've had the experience of being close to him and also questioned his teammates. He genuinely loves the game, teammates, and has never lived off his 'cardboard cutout' or feels the need to be on a throne as Bonds, Clemens, Arod, etc.

Wally Joyner admitted once that he tried steroids. If he tried them I would think that the use of steroids was pretty wide spread. I would not be surprised if the number of users was in the 75% range. People in almost any career cheat to get ahead, especially when there is money involved.