For all you Chicken Littles out there worrying about Barry signing and about his being dropped off the 40 man roster on-line, sfgiants.com just announced that Barry is signed, sealed, delivered with the MLB's blessing (as far as contract language goes).
Of course, the MLB management probably wished that it didn't work out and they wouldn't have to worry about the maelstorm of negative publicity that Barry's chase of Aaron will create, but, heh heh, now they will. Officially, Selig has said that obliquely, that when and if Bonds hits 756, it will be handled like any other record that is broken. But there is no unamity in how broken records are treated, other than it appears to be different each time. I would bet on Selig not being around, but wouldn't totally blame him either.
Aaron vs. Da Commish
I read in the Merc (also discussed how other records were treated by the then current commissioner) about how Aaron was bummed that Bowie Kuhn dissed him by not showing up for his 715 HR feat, but my take is that he at least tried to be there but it was taking too long. He started attending every game starting at 710, though that perhaps was the problem, starting that soon, plus also he personally stopped that game for a ceremony for tying Ruth with 714 (which the Reds protested but then Kuhn threatened to suspend the Reds official on the spot, they relented; really, how could they protest, it was history!).
But the problem is that it is not like a hitting streak or a consecutive game streak, where you know where it may or may not happen. Aaron could have went on a horrible slump and not hit another homer for a month or something, what did he want Bowie to do, follow him religiously all around, like a lap dog, until he finally hits the history breaker? I don't know exactly what a baseball commissioner does, but I assume he must have some duties he has to attend to at some point, he just can't drop everything and follow one player across the country until he hits a homer.
I think Aaron was mainly mad because Kuhn didn't congratulate him for hitting 700 the season before, with a note or a call or anything, and that just fed the bad blood over 715. Again, it was history, so Kuhn had no excuse on that one, but for 715, he was there for a long while, from 710 to 714, but then he felt he had to attend another event.
Now, it was just a booster event, so that was a questionable decision to not attend the game that Aaron hit 715 (again history), when he was that close to the record, but at some point he should be allowed to do Commissioner type of duties, like meeting boosters, if it was planned ahead of time (which I don't know if it was or not, just saying).
Mainly, I see I'm sort of arguing against myself here, but I don't see why Aaron should be that put out. Kuhn was there from 710 to 714, he threatened suspension to the Reds for protesting against a ceremony commemorating the achievement, and finally decided to stop following Aaron because he thought he should start doing some Commissioner type of duties. I personally would not have blown off a chance to see 715 just to see some boosters (I would have blown off the boosters and rescheduled), but maybe the Indians needed all the help they could get to get paying fans, I don't know, so I am willing to give Kuhn a pass on this because he was there for a number of the homers (in case Aaron happened to achieve a multi-HR game) and finally decided he was playing groupie long enough and decided to skip a game (but it was at home in the Launching Pad, what was he thinking?!?). So I question the decision to skip, but respect that he had that right also. If Aaron didn't hit 715 in that game but did the next and Kuhn made the next game, we wouldn't even be having this discussion after 33 years, it would have been a non-issue.
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