Fashion designer Marc Ecko recently bought Bonds’ record-breaking home run ball for about $750,000 and set up a Web site to ask fans what he should do with it.

Story: Baseball's Greatest Players

One of the options was to brand the ball with an asterisk before giving it to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. The asterisk is meant to suggest that Bonds’ home runs have been tainted by his alleged steroid use, which was documented in the book "Game of Shadows" by Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams.

But many fans will argue that each of the past home run kings could just as easily have an asterisk by their number. Hank Aaron had about 4,000 more at-bats than Ruth and 3,000 more at-bats than Bonds when he broke Ruth’s record of 714 home runs. His record seems more indicative of his longevity and stamina than his bat’s supreme potency. The knock on Ruth was that he played in an era when black players were not allowed in the Major Leagues, and therefore he did not face many of the dominant pitchers playing in the Negro Leagues at the time.

The idea of the asterisk by a record comes from Major League Baseball itself, which for a while put an asterisk in the record books next to Roger Maris’ then-record of 61 home runs in a season. The asterisk called attention to the fact that Maris played a 162-game schedule, while Ruth, who held the old record of 60, set the mark during a 156-game schedule.

One thing seems clear. When Bonds launched his record-breaking 756th home run on Aug. 7, he also launched baseball into one of the most awkward positions it has ever been in. Asterisk or not, Bonds' baseball records will always be looked at with much skepticism from many baseball fans.

For many fans, Babe Ruth, not Bonds or Aaron, is still the greatest home run hitter of all time. While Ruth’s two most famous records of single-season home runs (60) and career home runs (714) have been surpassed, many statistics point to him -- not Bonds or Aaron -- being the best ever.

One of the best ways to measure a hitter’s power is not his total number of home runs but how many at-bats he had. Aaron tied Ruth’s record when he hit his 714th home run in his 11,289th at-bat. Ruth hit 714 home runs in 8,398 at bats, averaging a home run for every 11.76 at-bats, second only to Mark McGwire, who retired in 2001 and has had his own home run records come under scrutiny due to steroid accusations.

There are also the "What ifs" that fans love to ask. What if Babe Ruth wasn’t a starting pitcher for the first five years of his career and got a chance to hit every day? Many baseball historians also point to a rule in effect in Ruth’s era that required a ball to land in fair territory after it left the park to be registered as a home run. If it curved around the foul pole after going over the fence and landed in foul territory it was ruled a foul ball. Baseball historians estimate Ruth hit about 50 such blasts that were counted as foul balls.

One area that Bonds has surpassed Ruth is the fear he strikes in pitchers’ hearts, for he has been walked more times than anyone in MLB history, almost 500 times more than Ruth, who is third all time. He also holds the single-season record for walks, and holds the record for the top three seasons. He also has proved to be one of the greatest all-around players ever. He was been awarded eight Gold Gloves and is the only member of the 500-500 club, meaning he has hit over 500 home runs and stolen over 500 bases.

But one area Bonds falls short of Ruth is the accolades and adoration of fans. At most ballparks outside of San Francisco, displays of asterisk-laden banners and large syringes have been a common sight. Most of his home runs have been greeted with boos. As much as fans loved Ruth in the 1920s, they seem to hate Bonds in the new millennium.

For many fans, The Bambino will always be the home run king, and not just because of his bat's power, but because of his personality. He was a larger-than-life personality and was almost as famous for his off-field antics than his home runs. He had a rebellious nature, and was suspended for 30 days when he ignored MLB’s demand that he not barnstorm between seasons. He approached the game with child-like enthusiasm and was known to always oblige fans with autographs and frequent children's hospitals.

His on-field heroics became the stuff of legend, like his "called shot" in the 1932 World Series and his promise to a critically-ill child that he would hit him a home run in a game during 1926 World Series. Ruth hit three that day.

Many of Ruth's records still stand, like his career slugging percentage of .690. But reaching beyond statistics and championships is the impact Ruth had on the game itself. Following the 1919 Chicago Black Sox scandal, Ruth helped the game soar in popularity in the 1920s. In a time when pitchers and speedy runners dominated baseball, known as the dead-ball era, Ruth thrilled fans with his crushing home runs and had them lining up at the gates, ushering in the live-ball era. The game has never been the same since.