by Trevor Knight

Created on: May 03, 2008   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

When answering this question, it is important to think about how you want to approach the question. What should it be based on. I believe that you need to compare the feat to what others have done in the category as well as thinking about the different eras of baseball. When it comes to the home run category, it is difficult to compare the career numbers for Barry Bonds to Babe Ruth's because of the different eras in which they played. Likewise, the career number of wins for Cy Young (511) and Roger Clemens(354) are hard to compare. In Cy Young's days, pitchers started the game and pretty much finished the game - they did not miss any decisions, they either won or they lost. In today's era, relievers play a huge role in the outcome of games. Saves were not even a stat in Cy Young's days.

Anyway, both of these feats are obviously impressive, regardless of choices that either player made late in their career (guilty or not). In looking at the stats, how many people have even hit 600 home runs? Five people! Griffey will be the sixth person here very soon. What about seven hundred home runs? Only three people. The 350 wins to me is less impressive when you consider that there is another active player with 349 wins (Greg Maddux). Clemens is only eighth on the list of most wins in a career. When you have outperformed everyone else in a particular category, that is obviously more impressive. Say what you want about the man Barry Bonds is, like him or not, he had an amazing ability to put the bat on the ball in an impressive fashion. Watching balls fly into McCovey Cove at PacBell Park was quite impressive and entertaining. Not to mention that you don't see too many balls fly into McCovey Cove since Bonds, or even his last couple of years. Bonds is the career leader in home runs as well as the single season champion in home runs. That to me this validates Bonds' feat of 755+ home runs being the most impressive of the two.

Bottom line on this issue - Roger's 350 sins...oops, I mean wins, is only good enough for eighth best, whereas 755 HR's makes Barry the top dog in his category!

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