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But what about the juiced up pitchers who threw to him over the last 15 years? Should they all have their records tossed as well? Roids have been around a long time in the game and the people who took them would create a list as long as immigration threads here on FR.

That's not a bad point ... at least in the macro sense. One thing that struck me, having watched Ken Burn's Baseball recently, is how the game and the methods used to run up stats and achieve records have changed and evolved over the years. Things like the use of the designated hitter, a longer playing season with more games, and even "respectable" chemical enhancement brought about through better understanding of human physiology and nutrition.

Should it matter, for instance, that Hank Aaron was probably in better physical shape than Ruth thanks to several decades of nutritional advancement?

This isn't to dismiss Bonds, specifically ... because his use of enhancements went over the line imo. I really liked the "Babe Ruth did it on hot dogs & beer" banner, but in reading it I also couldn't help thinking that Ruth also did it thanks to playing a good chunk of his career in a ballpark that had been deliberately tailored (with a short right field wall) to his individual hitting needs.

Uh... in case you haven't noticed, right field walls are short to this day... I don't think Ruth got any more of a break back then than there is today... Hell Center Field is short anymore.. how many Parks have Dead Center Field at 400' or less? Its easier today to hit one out of the park than it ever has been in history as far as I can tell.

Every era has had its negatives and positives. After watching Joe Morgan, Mike Schmidt, and Bob Morgan say that if they had to do it all over again and if steroids were available at the time they played...THEY WOULD HAVE TAKEN THEM!

Amazing stuff out there. All of them said it on HBO's recent episode on Bonds on Costas Now.

My jaw dropped...they were all like "yeah...hell yeah...if they were there when we played we would have tried them...who wouldn't want to raise your batting average 30 or 40 points? or hit 10 or 20 more homers a year?"