Barry, etc.

Thanks to a link on Bauschy.com, I ran into this graph about baseball's all-time home run hitters. At some point within the next month or two, Barry Bonds will hit career homers #755 and #756, which will tie and break the all-time career record currently held by Hank Aaron. I was a Bonds fan back when he weighed a little less and was leading the Pirates to pennants. Now? I'd rather not see him break Aaron's record (for obvious, oft-talked about reasons), but it's going to happen. And I'll probably talk about it more as Barry closes in on the mark.

That graph got me to looking at some numbers, namely where the various sluggers sat at the age of 30. Here are the digits:

Bonds: 275 (or right around that number)
Aaron: 342
Babe Ruth: 284
Alex Rodriguez: 451
Ken Griffey: 398
Andruw Jones: 345

Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols, who is 27, is on pace for about 375 homers by the time he reaches 30.

Bonds' numbers jumped noticably from age 35 and on. From 30-39, Barry jacked 444 home runs. Let's put that into perspective. In that 10-year span, Bonds hit more home runs than all but 33 major league baseball players have piled up over their entire career.

Aaron was much more consistent. He smacked 329 homers from ages 21-29 and 371 homers from ages 30-39. Ruth's numbers accelerated from ages 31-36, when he averaged over 50 homers per year.

What's my point? I'm not quite sure any more, but I think I began this post to point out that A-Rod, Pujols and Jones could all surpass Bonds if their 30s go as well as Barry's or Babe's did.