Hank Aaron Says He Won't Watch Bonds, or Anyone, Break Record, By: Michael Buteau

December 7, 2006

Hank Aaron said he won't be on hand if Barry Bonds or any other batter breaks his Major League Baseball home-run record.

Aaron said in a television special scheduled for Dec. 12 on Fox Sports Net's SportSouth cable channel that his decision to stay away from the ballpark isn't a stance against Bonds, who has been linked to steroids in grand jury testimony.

Bonds, an unsigned free agent, needs 22 home runs to break Aaron's record of 755.

``It has nothing to do with anybody,'' Aaron, 72, said in the show, ``In His Own Words: Hank Aaron.'' ``I was not going to see anybody break the record, nobody. I'm happy being at home and playing golf.''

Aaron refused to discuss Bonds and steroids. Bonds testified before a U.S. grand jury that he might have unknowingly used substances containing steroids, according to testimony published in the San Francisco Chronicle and a book, ``Game of Shadows,'' by two Chronicle writers. Bonds repeatedly has denied using any banned performance-enhancing substance.

``I'm going to wait until all of that comes to the limelight and then I can make a statement about that,'' Aaron told SportSouth. ``Whether somebody wants to say it was steroids, that's their business.''

Aaron, now a senior vice president with the Atlanta Braves, is the last member of the old Negro League to play in the majors. He said he received death threats for more than two seasons while chasing Babe Ruth's then-record 714 homers.

``Whoever gets close to the record, his family needs to sit there and enjoy the moment,'' Aaron told SportSouth. ``I don't need that anymore. I went through it and it was not something that I liked.''