If the sports media want to make the argument that the reason Barry Bonds was able to eclipse Hank Aaron's home run record was due to his use of performance enhancing steroids (even though he has never tested positive for anything) and thus the record is illegitimate, fine.
I'll make the counter argument that every MLB record set between the years 1887-1947 is also illegitimate.
I don't know how much anabolic steroids effect the ability of a major league hitter to hit a pitch, but I do know that, by virtue of being banned from the game, it was impossible for a white major leaguer to hit a pitch thrown by a black pitcher. Therefore in my opinion there is absolutely no doubt that the records of Babe Ruth and every other "great" hitter who played in a segregated era is tainted.
Forget about the fact that these guys (Ruth et al) were insolated from competition that could have greatly altered their statistical output. And forget about the fact Black players were denied a chance to compete against competition that could have fully legitimized their mythical status.
Lets focus on the one point (besides steriods) that, almost uniformnily, sportswriters and (non black) fans seem to agree on..... Barry Bonds is a big jerk! He's mean, he's surly, and he's arrogant...
Forget the fact that almost every black athlete who does not outwardly express a cheerful, happy go lucky demeanor (Magic Johnson), or a snappy, quick witted, loveable giant persona (Shaq), but does express a stoic, hard edged, aloof, confident, personality, is often branded as mean and surly (Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Kurt Flood, Reggie Jackson etc etc). While white players who possess the smame traits are referred to as tough and no nonsense (Roger Clemens, Pete Rose).
Forget all that. Lets say Barry Bonds really is a bad guy because he snaps at reporters and doesn't sign autographs for fans, lets say that, that is the reason he caught so much flack during his homerun chase, while Sammy Sosa and Mark Mcguire were cheered on during their chase, lets say its got nothing to do with racism but instead the fact that he is a "bad guy". If snapping at reporters and being rude to some fans is the critera for what constitutes a "bad guy" then what the hell kinda guy does that make every single Major League ball player who knowingly profited/benefited from the systematic, institutionalized discrimination that banned black players from having the opportunity to play in the big leagues?
Either by cowardice, apathy, wilful ignorance, or pure racism, they CHOSE to play in a league that excluded qualified black players from participating. If Ruth, Geghrig, Williams, Musial et al, would have had the courage to stand up and speak out about how wrong it was to keep an entire group of people out of the game solely on the basis of race, then something might have gotten done, and things would have changed. The fact that they didn't display such courage, the fact that they were all complicit in the moral crimes of the MLB, well, that is the real historical disgrace, not 756.
So go ahead, give Barry his asterik, just make sure you save the biggest asterisk of all for the MLB as a whole.