As a longtime baseball fan, I have mixed emotions over Barry Bonds breaking hammerin’ Hank’s home run record Tuesday night.

Part of me says those who keep track of the sport that’s provided me with so many joyful memories over the years should place an asterisk beside Bonds and this record. Take a look at video clips from when Bonds was a Pirate and today. That growth isn’t natural.

But part of me also says baseball made its own bed. It could have stopped Bonds years ago. It could have stopped McGwire and Sosa. But it wanted the fans to watch. It wanted the fans to buy tickets, file through the turnstiles, buy hot dogs and beer and popcorn and pretzels and jerseys and all the other jazz they hawk out at the old ballgame.

And let’s face it, baseball needed something after flipping off fans like me with the 1994 strike. Yes, I’m a longtime baseball fan, but I’m still ticked about the ‘94 strike that not only prematurely ended the season but also skipped the World Series. Skip the World Series?

No, baseball — including Bud “The Slug” Selig — made this mess and baseball allowed it to fester. Baseball allowed McGwire and Sosa. Baseball allowed Bonds. Only when Congress decided something was wrong did baseball pull off its blinders. And what business does Congress have in meddling with baseball, although that’s another diatribe entirely.

One last point on Bonds.

Regardless of his transformation from a slight Pirate to a hulking Giant, regardless of what he’s pumped into his body or not (and despite his denials and silence, is there any doubt?), Bonds still had to stand at the plate. Bonds still had to have a maginificent hand-eye coordination that a chubby kid on the southside of Indianapolis could only dream about while swinging his Louisville slugger in the alley behind 1550 Hoefgen St. or playing pitch-and-catch against the garage wall.

No, Bonds doesn’t deserve an asterisk.

But baseball deserves better than Barry Bonds and it deserves better than Bud Selig.

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