Baseball Records and Milestones

I got to thinking about this over the past few days when reading recaps of the games played by the Yankees, Giants and Mets. Each of these teams have a player on the verge of a major individual accomplishment (Bonds' 755th homerun, A-Rod's 500th homerun and Tom Glavine's 300th win), not to mention the other milestones already reached this year including Sammy Sosa's 600th homerun, Frank Thomas' 500th homerun and Craig Biggio's 3,000 hit. I have no idea (shocking, huh?) if there has been a year quite like this in terms of career achievement, but it seems we are being almost inundated by it. The reason I bring this up now is that A-Rod is currently on an 0-21 streak since hitting his 499th home run and Bonds is in a 5-31 slump (with 1 homerun) in his last ten games. Further, Biggio was hitting a paltry .240 or so when he finally reached 3,000. The Giants and the Astros have both basically admitted to catering their entire 2007 seasons to assisting their star player quest for individual glory. I recall a time when the old adage was there is no "I" in team, but apparently Major League Baseball, and more particularly, the media covering such accomplishments (yes, I am guilty in this manner as well with my boy Biggio, but I wanted him to get it as soon as possible so the team could focus on winning and setting itself up for the future by playing some younger guys) have forgotten this important aspect. The Mets and the Yankees are both heavily involved in playoff races, but you would never know by the coverage and the emphasis people like ESPN have been putting on these accomplishments. Would I like to see Bonds' 755th and 756th homeruns on tv? Yes and the sooner the better so we can stop hearing about it. Is getting to 500 homeruns important? Yes, but only if A-Rod continues on to break Bonds' imminent record (in the same vein as the old Monty Python Holy Hand Grenade). But the biggest problem here is that a player like A-Rod appears to be struggling because he is trying to hit that 500th homer instead of just doing what he needs to do to help his team win ballgames (of course, he hasn't been needed that much in the past few days with the Yankees' power explosion). I really don't know what I am trying to prove here, but I just wanted to write out my thoughts on the subject and get yours as well. Are we too caught up in individual records (and as such, too caught up in fantasy sports) that we are willing to sacrifice whole seasons just to get an individual a record (or just a milestone)? I was always taught the team mattered more than the individual players, but times change as have our thoughts on the subject.