On Monday, April 8, 1974 -- five days before my 13th birthday -- I and several million other people watched Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves hit his 715th round-tripper to pass Babe Ruth as Major League Baseball's Home Run King.

On Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2007, I went to bed early because I have to be at work early here at the McCook Daily Gazette.

That's the main reason -- the other is I did not want to stay up late to watch Barry Bonds hit home run No. 756.

I watched it on the sports highlights this morning (Wednesday) on ESPN.

I love history.

And love it or hate it, Bonds passing Aaron is history -- even if I'm not too thrilled with it.

Why am I not thrilled with it?

Is it because many think Bonds' record is tainted?

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Bonds' alleged steroid use isn't my problem with him.

It's his personality.

Bonds is a Class A jerk, especially to sports writers. Even before the steroids allegations, Bonds treated sports writers with contempt.

Some of them deserve it -- don't get me wrong. There are more than a thousand stupid questions a sports writer can ask with a thousand stupid variations and Bonds has heard all of them in his 20-plus seasons in the big leagues.

Is Bonds the biggest jerk to ever play the game? I doubt it.

He has a long way to reach Hall of Fame jerk status.

That honor most likely goes to Dave "King Kong" Kingman, who played with several teams during his career from 1971-86 -- Giants, Mets, Padres, Yankees, Angels, Cubs and A's.

Kingman dumped a bucket of ice on one reporter he didn't like.

In 1986 while playing playing for the A's, Kingman mailed a dead rat to a woman sports writer and was suspended. He never played again.

I was in Kansas City for a Royals-A's game the night after the incident happened -- I was interning for the Clinton, Mo., Daily Democrat at the time.

There are probably as many jerks as saints in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

But the big shot sports writers might be bigger jerks than Bonds. If you watch ESPN, you know the people I mean.

These are the people I at one time wanted to emulate and now they are so pompous and arrogant I can't stand to watch them.

These big shots' claims that the records Bonds and his counterparts in the steroid era are tainted are mainly based on fuzzy logic, innuendo and speculation.

The allegations may very well be proven true and in my opinion some of them are true.

On the other hand, the pitchers could have been just as juiced as the hitters, but they are not getting anywhere near the attention Bonds is.

The big shot sports reporters have their eyes on the prize -- Barry Bonds -- and no one else.

They are obsessed with Barry Bonds.

It's Barry Bonds this and Barry Bonds that.

Barry, Barry, Barry!

ESPN even has its own Barry Bonds reporter.

And the big shots want asterisks or separate record entries in the baseball record book.

The baseball record book was itself tainted when commissioner Ford Frick decided in 1961 that there would be separate records for Roger Maris' 61st home run (1961) and Babe Ruth's 60th (1927).

Maris needed 162 games to break Ruth's mark, which was set in 154 games.

Perhaps we should go back through 130 years of baseball records and asterisk all the marks set by suspected jerks -- we can start with Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth.

While we're doctoring the hitting records, let's put asterisks by all the pitchers' stats -- the spitballers, the scuffers, the juicers. Let's be fair about this.

Whether the records are tainted or not, I am firmly anti-asterisk and against separate record entries.

Perhaps the big shots should write their own unofficial record books -- they can have all sorts of fun putting separate records and asterisks in there.

Leave the official Major League Baseball record book alone.

This is John J. Mesh's first column for the McCook Daily Gazette in several years. He blames writer's block -- likely excuse. E-mail comments to sports@mccookgazette.com or online at www.mccookgazette.com