MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred Settles The Debate On Who Holds The Home Run Record Once And For All

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has made his decision on the home run record. His opinion is not going to make many friends within the baseball purist community.

Over the last few months, as Aaron Judge went on a ridiculous tear, there has been a lot of conversation about who really holds the single-season home run record. Is it his record or is it Barry Bonds' record?

Judge, who definitively holds the AL record after passing Roger Maris, hit his 62nd home run earlier this month. Bonds, who "debatably" holds the MLB record, hit his 73rd home run in 2001.

The quotes around "debatably" stem from the former Giants slugger's steroid usage. He, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa are all known steroid users.

Bonds never failed a drug test, sure, but we know this.

Rob Manfred has named the single-season home run king.(Image courtesy: Getty Images)

As things currently stand, all three guys are ahead of Judge in the single-season dinger record books:

But if Bonds, Sosa and McGwire mashed all of those taters while on the juice, do their numbers count? Judge did it while clean, so is he the true record-holder?

People on either side of the argument could go back and forth with each other for hours, if not days, if not years. Neither side will agree and there is no middle ground.

Who decides whether Aaron Judge or Barry Bonds is the single-season home run record holder?

The record books decide. And that's where Manfred comes in.

When asked about the record during an appearance on The Carton Show on Monday, Manfred said that history is exactly that. You cannot go back and undo what was done.

Where many people might expect the mostly defective commissioner to "stand behind the integrity of the game" or whatever it is that the baseball purists say, he did not. Rather, he knows that Bonds is king. It is settled.