So what do Barry Bonds' 71st and 72nd home runs mean? Compared to the meaning Mark McGwire's record home runs held in 1998, it doesn't mean much, other than Todd McFarlane's baseball collection isn't worth quite as much anymore.

At least, that's the way it seems now. Time will decide whether Barry's home runs should have meant more to us.

Clearly, people didn't care anywhere near as much about "Home Run Derby, Redux" as they did for the Maris chase. This season's home run chase isn't a victim of Barry's reputation, just bad timing. It just came too soon. It's only been a few weeks since Sept. 11 and, more importantly, only three years since 1998.

There were goosebumps the size of baseballs all across the country when McGwire hit his 62nd and 70th home runs in 1998. And for good reason. There were 37 years of preparation for the exciting run McGwire and Sammy Sosa made at the record. That's a long time to build drama and anticipation. An entire generation grew up wondering whether anyone would ever break the record.

Now, the record just seems like a product of the times, a product of diluted pitching, small ballparks, juiced balls and juiced players. Prior to 1998, a player had reached 60 home runs only twice in major-league history. Players have reached that mark six times since then.

So Bonds just broke McGwire's record? Big deal. Bonds broke the record so quickly and so easily that we all assume someone, perhaps Bonds, perhaps Sosa, maybe Troy Glaus, will break the record next season or the next.

The crucial thing to bear in mind, though, is they may not. After all, Babe Ruth broke the home run record 36 times (usually by extending his own record) from 1920-27. He hit 29 home runs in 1919, 54 the next season and 59 the next. So when he hit his 60th on the penultimate day of the 1927 season, there was every reason to think that record would be broken soon as well.

As it turned out though, it took 34 years, an expanded league and eight extra games on the schedule before Roger Maris came along and broke it.

It might be the same now. We just don't know. We can never know the future, only the past. And because that is the case, Bonds' feat doesn't excite us the way McGwire's did.

Time, however, may prove that our current yawns are mistaken.

Perhaps 37 years from now, when Ken Griffey III is chasing Barry's record (and Rickey Henderson is still one hit shy of 3,000), we'll all kick ourselves for not getting more excited over what we just saw Bonds accomplish.

Jim Caple is a senior writer for ESPN.com.