Can you blame Hank Aaron for not wanting to be around while Barry Bonds breaks his record through “artificial” means?

“Again, it has nothing to do with anybody, other than I had enough of it. I don’t want to be around that sort of thing anymore. I just want to be at peace with myself. I don’t want to answer questions. It’s going to be a no-win situation for me anyway. If I go, people are going to say, ‘Well, he went because of this.’ If I don’t go, they’ll say whatever. I’ll just let them make their own mind up.”

The evidence is overwhelming that Bonds was using steroids and other illegal drugs to his those homers. It’s a shame that baseball doesn’t have the guts to protect one if its ultimate good guys.

But this really takes the cake:

Aaron, who did not return a call from The Associated Press, said baseball commissioner Bud Selig has told him that Bonds has asked several times why Aaron hasn’t contacted him as he approaches the record.

Isn’t it obvious why Hammerin Hank hasn’t contacted you, Barry? But that’s Bonds in a nutshell—it’s all Barry, all the time. He expects the man whose record he’s stealing to sit there and applaud him.

I know it’s not much consolation, Hank, but you’ll always be the homerun king in some of our eyes.