The long wait is over. After a few weeks of being limited to walks, and being struck out for a week or two, Barry Bonds has done what no one else has done: tie Hank Aaron's career home run total. His 2nd inning homer over San Diego Padres pitches Clay Hensley has assured him of a tie with Hank Aaron. Next in line, his own page in the history books as the sole owner of Baseball's home run record. And he's got about 50 more games left on the season.

Critics may point out an obvious issue during this discussion of great home run hitters. Of course, ever since the steroid scandal came up in Major League Baseball and the Congress steroid hearings were done, Bonds was among the top people being pointed to as one of the biggest users of performance-enhancing drugs. Bonds himself, though, did not help things by being defensive and acting like he's got some skeletons in his closet to keep.

In his credit though, I believe that despite all these criticisms, it's no easy feat to hit anywhere near as close to the number of home runs that Barry did. This achievement was reached in the face of strategies designed to lessen the number of opportunities for him to hit [intentional walk strategy throughout the game]. It is also quite sad that when Mark McGwire was gunning for the single-season home run record almost a decade ago, everyone was cheering him on and are looking for the record to be broken, while when Barry Bonds is one swing away from making history, baseball fans outside of San Francisco are vilifying him and contesting the validity of him breaking the record.

For now, the record set more than three decades ago have been tied, and one Barry Bonds, after almost two decades of swinging the bat, is just one more big swing away from cementing his place as the game's biggest home run hitter. That, for me, continues to be impressive.

One of the worst teams in the NBA. The premier example as to why having little or no veteran help in the team is bad. A poor tanker. Not having a chance on Greg Oden or Kevin Durant after slipping all the way down to 5th [they had the 2nd highest odds to get the 1st pick]. These things used to be accurate descriptions for the Boston Celtics.

Celtics' GM Danny Ainge seemed to be on the way out. Season after season of missing the playoffs and no clear direction for the franchise has Boston fans clamoring for his head. With his job on the line and his window of opportunity closing, he managed to pull off the moves to put his team back into contention. He risked the 5th pick of the draft to acquire Ray Allen from the Seattle Supersonics. People were not content. In fact, they thought it was a bad move to trade for a multi-time All-Star for the players they sent along with the 5th draft pick.

Other big name free agents and stars looking to be traded have steered clear of Boston. They have spoken to the media and expressed their intent not to play for the 16-time NBA champions. And in one sudden twist of fate...

Kevin Garnett becomes a Celtic.

And the once bottom dwellers are now being touted as contenders in the mediocre Eastern Conference. It may have taken 7 players to get the 11-time All-Star, but they somehow managed to pull off a big trade. It made history, too, as the biggest swap for a single player in the history of the league.

The ramifications would not be known until the season starts. On paper, with Ray Allen and Paul Pierce, the Celtics look like a strong contender. But, the game is played on the court and not on paper, so the success of this trade hangs on the result of the season.

On the bright side, at least there is a window of opportunity for the franchise. Better than none, which was what they basically had at the start of the year.