The season home run record has lasted three years, barely long enough for the goosebumps to disappear from our arms. Ty Cobb's career runs record, meanwhile, is nearly as old as Jesse Helms.

So what have fans fans and media been focusing on as Barry Bonds and Rickey Henderson challenge both records? That's right, Home Run Derby III, even though we already went through a better, more exciting version three years ago and even though the runs record is far older and significantly more important.

	Rickey Henderson will probably finish the year as the all-time leader in steals, walks and runs.

Cobb scored his 2,245th and last run in 1928, the year between Lindbergh's flight and Wall Street's collapse, and no one ever came close to his total until Rickey, who tied the mark in the third inning of the Padres' 12-5 loss to the Dodgers on Wednesday. Ruth's career home run record fell. Lou Gehrig's playing streak fell. Walter Johnson's strikeout record fell. Even Cobb's own hit record bit the dust.

But that runs record has stubbornly survived. Until now. Rickey is just one run from eclipsing Cobb's mark and he has a good chance of finishing it off this season. Henderson says his dream is to slide across home plate for No. 2,246.

Rickey may break the record on the same day Bonds ties or breaks Mark McGwire's home run record. People are focused on the records right now, and maybe Rickey will eclipse Cobb on a day when Bonds does nothing, allowing him a fitting stage for the accomplishment.

After all, in a sport overloaded with statistics, the most important stat of all is runs scored. Everything else is secondary. No matter how many home runs anyone hits, the game always comes down to how many runs each team scores.

And yet, almost no one cares about the runs record. We barely care about runs, period. Modern box scores list a player's season totals for every imaginable statistic. Home runs, RBI, stolen bases, triples, doubles, even errors. But not runs. It's as if they don't matter at all.

It's ludicrous. When Pete Rose pursued Cobb's all-time hits record and when McGwire chased Roger Maris, there were so many reporters following them it was if they were handing out Marriott Rewards points. And now as the media (including me) piles on Bonds, Rickey's record pursuit goes virtually unnoticed, sort of like a Soul Asylum concert tour.

Rickey already broke one important, long-standing record this season when he surpassed Babe Ruth's career walks record. So few reporters paid any attention to that feat, either, that Rickey could only refer to himself in the third person four times in the postgame interviews.

At least Bonds is paying attention to Rickey's run record. "I've been watching it every day, every game."

Rickey's snakebit in a way. He's walked more times than anyone else, stolen more bases than anyone else and is about to score more runs than anyone else, and the only person singing his praises is himself. When he broke Lou Brock's stolen base record (and ungraciously declared himself the greatest in Brock's presence), his feat was overshadowed by Nolan Ryan throwing his seventh no-hitter a couple hours later.

The same thing could happen again with the runs record, if Barry ties or breaks McGwire's record on the same day. But I hope not. I hope we all look up long enough from the Bonds watch that we finally give him -- and the record -- our undivided attention.

The feat is so important, it should even shine through the glare from Rickey's jewelry.

Jim Caple is a senior writer for ESPN.com