After a great deal of debate that was matched only by the amount of controversy surrounding the actual breaking of Hank Aaron's previous record of 755 career home runs, Barry Bonds' 756th career home run ball will finally be entered into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

In case you're wondering why it looks like someone took an exacto knife to the Major League Baseball symbol, high bidder Mark Ecko humorously - and in my mind, appropriately - decided to set this ball apart from its predecessors by branding it with an asterisk due to the fact that Barry Bonds has been linked to BALCO and, in all likelihood (to my knowledge, he still has not been proven to have failed a drug test), prolonged and enhanced his career through performance enhancing drug use for as long as ten years. The donation and subsequent display of the ball has raised the issue of whether or not Bonds' feat should even be commemorated in the first place. Many people speculate that regardless of the circumstances surrounding the breaking of the career home run record, a feat of that magnitude deserves to be honored. In spite of the dishonor of the record holder, the record deserves recognition, something like that. Others believe that anything Bonds-related doesn't belong in the Hall and that the mere mention of his name among the game's greats is a travesty. Give him the Pete Rose treatment, these folks say.

It seems that Bonds has paid for his transgressions through his various indictments, the beating he's taken in the so-called "Court of Public Opinion," and the fact that he seems to have been forced out of the game by owners and front offices league-wide (we're not implying that there's collusion going on, but it's readily apparent that not a single GM feels it's worth signing Barry for half a season if they have to take on all his baggage, as well), so I honestly don't mind that the ball's in the Hall. I despise Barry Bonds and he may go down as the biggest cheater in the game's history, but the fact remains that he holds the most hallowed record in all of baseball. The asterisk is a perfect "punishment," if it may be called that, as it calls attention to the fact that Bonds' monumental feat was aided by his monumental stature, which was engineered by the use of steroids, HGH, and some weird creamy substance that his trainers rubbed all over his muscles on numerous occasions. I'd assume that the Hall will still have a fairly significant Hank Aaron display, so it seems that there's a degree of justice to that. Ultimately, if nothing else, the asterisked ball will help shed light on the fact that this particular baseball is far different than the others enshrined in Cooperstown.

So fear not, baseball purists, because when little 5-year-old Johnny Baseball Fan visits the Hall of Fame for the first time in 2108 and asks his dad why there's a weird symbol carved on this seemingly normal ball hit by some guy with the middle name Lamar, he will hopefully be told of the immense difference between the legitimate record of 755 and the illegitimate one of 762. Hopefully.

Either way, if you don't like the Hall's decision to enshrine No. 756, join me in praying that Alex Rodriguez breaks the record in 6-8 years.

If you can't bring yourself to root for a Yankee for that long, I guess you can just hope that Ken Griffey Jr. and his 38-year old hammies somehow have 160 more in them.