Dan Patrick: “When you had to honor Barry Bonds for being the all-time home run king how did that feel?”
Bud Selig: “It didn’t feel good at all. I knew I had to go. Hank Aaron and I have been really close friends for 62 years.”
DP: “I want you to be a baseball fan, not a commissioner. Who do you consider the all-time home run king?”
Selig: “Even though Bonds holds the record, I think you know how I feel about Henry Aaron.”
DP: “So, Henry Aaron is the all-time home run leader in your opinion?”
Selig: “Yes.”
Listen to former Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig join The Dan Patrick Show to talk about his friendship with baseball Hall of Famer Hank Aaron, and how he dealt with Barry Bonds’ chase of Aaron’s all-time home run record in 2007.
Selig, who was baseball’s commissioner from 1998 to 2015, was responsible for the league’s revenue growing by 400 percent while he was at the helm, and helped the MLB implement extended interleague scheduling and the Wild Card playoff.
Selig explained to Dan Patrick why Bonds’ chase of Aaron’s all-time home run record during the 2007 season was one of the most difficult periods of his career as commissioner.
Selig was a minority owner of the now-defunct Milwaukee Braves at beginning of the 1960’s, overlapping with the beginning years of ‘Hammerin Hank’s’ career. The Milwaukee Braves would move to Atlanta in 1965, with Selig later becoming the president of the Milwaukee Brewers.
Check out the interview below as Selig reluctantly admits that Aaron, not Barry Bonds, is the MLB’s true home run king, despite Bonds finishing with 762 home runs to Aaron’s 755. Selig refused to answer whether Bonds deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.