The road is paved with hot issues

But enough about that. Baseball is what we're all about. And we can transition from Brady to baseball by reminding you that handsome Tom went to the same San Mateo high school (Junipero Serra) as Barry Lamar Bonds.

If you watched ESPN yesterday, you might have learned that Bonds hit his record-breaking 756th home run while many of you were sleeping Tuesday night. It was in all the papers, too.

So our long national nightmare is over. Barry's got the record, Pedro Gomez and Nick Cafardo can come home, and we can all get back to our lives. Until the bomb drops, that is. You just know there's an indictment or worse lurking somewhere up the road for Barry Lamar. It was pretty clear from the statements and comportment of Bud Selig that Major League Baseball is expecting some bad news for Bonds in the not too distant future.

Selig's been a handy piñata in the weeks leading up to Barry's moment. He goes down in history as the commissioner of the Steroid Era and he knew he was going to get ripped no matter what he did when Barry powered past Hammerin' Hank Aaron. Still, Bud's no-show for 756 was better-looking than his awkward moment when the camera caught him with his mouth agape in San Diego when Barry hit 755. I'm just wondering what motivated Aaron to tape his exceptionally gracious salutation to Bonds's achievement.

Bonds is a hot-button topic for most people in major league uniforms. Red Sox manager Terry Francona spoke of "a lot of conflicted opinions" and withheld praise or criticism of the event. Blowhard Schilling hasn't had much to say about Barry since his infamous "there are good people and there are bad people" diatribe on his radio gig in early May (Schilling apologized to Barry the next day).

At the very least, we've got to give Barry his props for cheating better than anybody else. At this hour, he's taking all the bullets for the scores of players who enhanced performance with illegal substances. Tuesday night's ceremony was not as hideous as it might have been, but one gets the impression that the feel-good days for Bonds are numbered.