Baseball · 2007 · San Francisco, USA
756
Under the shadow of steroid allegations that split public opinion on the achievement itself, Barry Bonds hits the home run that breaks Hank Aaron's 33-year-old career record.
No. 756
Career home run
Mike Bacsik
Pitcher
Hank Aaron (755)
Previous record holder
Barry Bonds entered the 2007 season one home run short of Hank Aaron's career record of 755, a chase complicated by years of allegations, later substantiated in court testimony and a subsequent perjury case, that Bonds had used performance-enhancing drugs during the seasons in which he set single-season home run records. Baseball commissioner Bud Selig's ambivalence about the pursuit, including his choice not to attend the game in person, became a story of its own.
On 7 August 2007, at AT&T Park in San Francisco, Bonds hit career home run number 756 off Washington Nationals pitcher Mike Bacsik, a solo shot to centre field that broke Aaron's record outright. Fireworks went off, the crowd rose, and a taped video message from Aaron himself, congratulating Bonds, played on the stadium scoreboard.
The moment split baseball's fanbase more than almost any other individual record in the sport's history, celebrated as a legitimate career milestone by some and viewed as permanently asterisked by others because of the doping allegations. Bonds finished his career with 762 home runs, still the all-time record as of the mid-2020s, though the controversy around 756 has never fully faded.
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