Business Insight Zone

Hank Aaron broke the major-league home run record when I was toddler, and my mother had rooted for the Milwaukee Braves all the way back to their Aaron-Mathews-Spahn glory days, so Hank Aaron will probably always be the Home Run King in my heart. But facts are facts: the record is about to fall to Barry Bonds. (He’s an outfielder for the Giants — maybe you’ve heard of him?)

If Bonds’s history is any guide, the record may not bring him much in the way of extra riches. His thorny personality and the taint of his admitted — though purportedly accidental — steroid use have denied him anything like the endorsement contracts commanded by other professional athletes at the top of their sports. While Bonds does have some endorsements, he failed to hit the endorsement jackpot after he broke the single-season home run record in 2001, and his legacy wasn’t nearly as clouded by performance-enhancing drugs then as it is now.

Bonds isn’t going to cry poverty, nor should he, considering the millions he makes from the Giants. But if an 18-year-old Kevin Durant can land a $60-million contract from Nike before he ever plays a game in the NBA, how much more might Bonds make if he backed up his dazzling smile with a winning personality — or if so many people didn’t see him as a drug-using cheater?