Harmon Killebrew knows records are made to be broken. That's OK with the former American League MVP who hit 573 home runs in Major League Baseball -- as long as those records aren't tainted.
With Barry Bonds close to catching Babe Ruth for second place on the career home run list behind Hank Aaron, while also facing lingering questions about doping, Killebrew isn't sure what to think.
"If they're doing something that is an illegal situation, that's different," Killebrew said on Friday. "That's why I say there's a cloud over baseball right now. You hate to point any fingers at anybody because you don't really know for sure."
PHOTO: AP
A federal grand jury in San Francisco is investigating whether Bonds lied under oath when he said he never knowingly used performance-enhancing drugs.
"You look at some of his pictures in 1998, and you look at him now, it doesn't look like the same ballplayer," Hall of Fame reliever Rollie Fingers said. "The court is still out on whether he did it or whether he didn't do it, but I'm sure we'll find out in the end what the real story is."
But that's not likely to happen before Bonds catches Ruth at 714 homers, a mark the 41-year-old San Francisco Giants slugger was two shy of going into Friday's game at Philadelphia. Aaron hit 755 homers.
"It was going to be broken sooner or later. The guys are just too big and too strong today," former Baltimore Orioles manager Earl Weaver said of Ruth's mark. "Dave Winfield and Frank Howard, they were monsters in baseball at their time. Now look at guys, they're all big and strong."
Killebrew, eighth on the career homer list, Fingers and Weaver were among a group of Hall of Famers at a golf fund-raiser to benefit the hall's educational programs. They got a chance to play on the course where the US PGA Tour will be next week for the Byron Nelson Championship.
And a chance to answer questions about Bonds.
"It's a lot easier not talking about it," longtime Pittsburgh second baseman Bill Mazeroski said, though he acknowledged the uncertainty surrounding Bonds hurts baseball.
"I think Bonds is getting penalized for being a fantastic hitter, too," seven-time All-Star pitcher Robin Roberts said. "I never saw a better hitter than Bonds. He was an all-around ballplayer. Of course, he got older and he's not quite so athletic as he was.
"And you can see it's a struggle for him more now physically."
While not specifying Bonds or anyone else, Roberts said there obviously has been a change in the way players take care of themselves, ``something they got involved with.''
Roberts recalled a visit with a former teammate who was a coach in Oakland after playing in an old-timers' game there. When a bulky player walked by them in the clubhouse, Roberts' former teammate said, "Oh, that's steroids. ... He knew what did it."
Hall of Fame catcher Johnny Bench, speaking on Friday at an appearance in Omaha, Nebraska, said records he and others set could be tainted by future Hall of Fame inductees dogged with questions over steroid use.
"My records, Hank Aaron's records, Mickey Mantle's records ... anybody's records you want to pick out -- there's a chance any of them could be tainted to some degree," said Bench, a two-time MVP, 13-time All-Star and 10-time Gold Glove winner who hit 389 home runs.
Ruth held the home run record for more than a half-century before Aaron passed him in 1974. Still, MLB isn't planning any on-field celebration when Bonds hits No. 715 to pass Ruth for second place.
"Until Barry or anybody else gets close to Aaron, I think that's really going to be the big thing. ... Nobody remembers who finishes second," Al Kaline, who hit 399 career homers, said before teeing off on Friday.
"Babe Ruth is still the greatest baseball player that ever lived in my book," Killebrew said. "I think they're a little concerned right now about celebrating that. It's an interesting situation. I'm glad it's not my call."
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but