Ever beleaguered and rumpled, baseball commissioner Bud Selig will be in the Bay Area, but he might want to spend the next three days at nearby Alcatraz. He could not have envisioned this public relations nightmare when the Midsummer Classic was awarded to the Giants all those years ago. Who could have predicted that the 2007 All-Star Game would arrive at the precise moment that Bonds, a local hero and national pariah, is on the threshold of baseball's most celebrated record?
Selig is secretly hoping that Tuesday night will be the last time he finds himself in the same ballpark as Bonds, but the pressure to attend ballgames featuring home runs Nos. 755 and 756 might prove too strong. Tough call for the commish.
Bonds will not be part of tomorrow night's Home Run Derby. He appeared to aggravate his balky knee in Cincinnati Thursday night and is lurching toward Aaron with the look of a man finishing the Boston Marathon running in leg irons. But his name no doubt will be tossed about when young sluggers launch their shots into McCovey Cove beyond the right-field stands in the breathtaking ballpark once known as Pac Bell.
Bonds is slated to be the starting left fielder for the National League Tuesday night. The All-Star start will put him in the same outfield with Ken Griffey Jr. and give him his final practice swings (maybe a couple against Josh Beckett) before resuming his joyless/fraudulent chase Friday at home against the Dodgers.
The video message board at AT&T promotes Bonds's journey as the "Road to History," using the image of a road sign with Barry's career homer total. In this case, the road to history is littered with crater-size potholes.
