No matter what, the game of baseball loses

So, apparently last night, the most hallowed record in sports was broken. In case you missed it, Barry Bonds connected on his 756th career homerun in San Francisco last night to pass Hammerin' Hank Aaron on the all time list. And in case you also missed this, Bonds has been under scrutiny for taking performance enhancing drugs....allegedly. Anyone who knows me, knows that I have been about as far from a Barry Bonds supporter as someone can get; short of sending hate-mail to the guy. However, something has happened over the past couple weeks. Something in my brain, or maybe it's more accurate to say in my heart, has changed. I think I have accepted him as the All-time home run king.
I'm not saying that I think he is good guy who has been unfairly criticized and abused by the fans and media alike. But, rather, maybe we should hold off judgment until we know something concrete that would warrant the vilification. After all, why shouldn't the credo of "innocent until proven guilty" apply to sports as well? Just because there is some circumstantial evidence - okay, a lot of circumstantial evidence - doesn't mean the guy doesn't deserve the benefit of the doubt.
The biggest piece of circumstantial evidence is the fact that Bonds had his best seasons, in terms of power, at the point in his career when almost everyone else begins to decline; and decline rapidly. One such person before Barry who didn't decline was Hank Aaron himself. That's right, Aaron turned it on when most of his peers were struggling to just maintain. A great article on ESPN.com uses computers to simulate what Aaron would have done, had he pitched in the same circumstances as Bonds. Basically what they found was that the career patterns of each player are not as dissimilar as many claim. Again, I'm not inferring that Bonds is innocent, or guilty for that matter, but the fact that he became a better hitter late in his career is not enough to crucify him.
Now, I want to make clear that if he ever is found guilty he would lose that benefit of the doubt. I do not agree with Bonds supporters who argue that it still takes a lot of skill to hit all those homers, and Barry Bonds is still a hall of fame caliber player even without the homer runs. None of that matters when you cheat. It all goes away when you cheat. Bonds could retire right now, and even if steroids only gave him ONE extra homerun, he cheated. He would then lose the benefit of the doubt, and I don't think that any of his records should be considered.
And that is what makes it so sad; an accomplishment like this should be met with celebratory emotions instead of disdain. While all the evidence leads down the road to cheater-ville, one thought has been crossing my mind: What if we find out that Barry is, in fact, innocent? Not just that he'd never proven guilty (which will probably be what happens), but PROVEN INNOCENT. Would we be able to live with ourselves for turning this great milestone into a great disgrace? And the worry isn't even so much about unjustly convicting Barry the person, but the moment. Barry Bonds, regardless of the "chase" and BALCO and anything related to it, has always been a bad person. So hurting his feelings is not exactly a concern of mine.
Imagine the 1998 season under these circumstances. In case you don't remember, that was the summer that Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa made their run at the single season home run record, which was a huge milestone in its own right. At the time, there was no talk about cheating. These were two guys who were having magical seasons. And we ALL lived the magic with them. Many consider that season, myself included, the biggest cause for the MLB's recovery from the strike. What if McGuire and Sosa were being accused of cheating back then like they, along with Bonds, are now? Would baseball have ever recovered from the strike? And what if we are wrong now? But then again, what if we are right? Unfortunately this looks like the ultimate lose lose situation for the game of baseball.