GASH for Bonds? Not quite.

(picture from http://siberiaminn.blogspot.com/2006/03/barry-bonds-is-one-sick-bastard.html)
The Gash (greatest accomplishment in sports history) is not hitting 756 home runs. The greatest accomplishment in modern sports? Maybe. It's not even the greatest accomplishment in American sports history, or the greatest accomplishment in American baseball history.

If you asked diehard sports fans a century ago today how big an accomplishment hitting the most homeruns is I doubt they would fawn like we do today. Historically, the homer lacked the awe of other statistics for the common fan until George Ruth made it big.

A hundred years ago, scoring the most touchdowns is college football history would have been considered bigger. I would be fine if we called it the greatest accomplishment in American sports in the modern era, but baseball has been overtaken in popularity by professional football (another modern invention). Scoring the most goals in international soccer history would have to recognized by far more people world-wide (even today) than reaching the most home-runs.

Having the most Stanley cup wins carries as much historical weight even if it is a second rate sport these days, because that cup carries that history with it every year. It's bigger than a stat, you are indelibly linked to all future and past champions.

Hitting the most homeruns is a mind blowing feat that gives you the biggest stat in the sport that puts statistics at its forefront. It cements his legacy as his sports greatest power hitter. Someday, that accomplishment will be wiped away. Baseball will change and the rules may even change them soon if it falters in popularity. If people stop showing up paying money to watch, how long do you think it will take baseball's engineers to lower the mounds and move them further back to capture that offense that puts fans in the seats? Someday, that will happen and statistics will shift again.

Did Barry achieve the most noteworthy accomplishment in modern American baseball history? Most likely. Right now, are there some future Olympians who are dreaming of achieving the greatest accomplishment in sports history without a passing thought about Barry Bonds or American baseball? I think so.