LINCICOME: Noting No. 756 just an obligation

Published August 6, 2007 at midnight

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Relief from duty is welcome, not to search the various sources reluctantly lingering to chronicle the passage of Barry Bonds to the head of baseball's honor roll because Bonds did not play baseball Sunday, saving the big moment for the home crowd.

Since San Francisco is the solitary spot where something resembling joy will greet the historic No. 756, this is predictable and oddly appropriate.

How awful to think that the number of numbers would be recorded to the kind of loud mixture of dismissal and happy-to- be-here noise that provided sound effects for No. 755.

That happened Saturday in San Diego, not normally a place that holds grudges nor cares a whole lot about those unfortunate enough to live outside America's mainland paradise.

It takes a lot, indeed, to peeve the surf's-up- fish-taco-eating-flip-flop- wearing-ray-catching-laid-back populace, this side of the rare dreary day or the mention of Ryan Leaf.

To use the words of one announcer after Bonds' home run, "Many are very displeased, but many are applauding as well."

Is that the epitaph for the whole thing - many yes, many no?

Even enemies must admire their betters, but this came with no congratulations, only obligation. There was merely the nod to participation, that they were there and Bonds was there and history was made, sort of like stopping to stare on the overpass as O.J. Simpson's white Bronco went underneath.

"There it is, there it is," urged another media voice, calling the historic home run as if it were the last Easter egg.

Just to be sure anyone beyond the hold-out Bay Area needs to know how to respond to Bonds, the commissioner himself deigned to watch and react, issuing a statement fairly dripping with condescension.

"No matter what anyone thinks of the controversy surrounding this event," Bud Selig began, hinting exactly to what he thinks and identifying the controversy before the exploit, "Mr. Bonds' achievement is noteworthy and remarkable."

Let's think of things that are noteworthy and remarkable, giving them the double boost.

Hmmmm. Getting another 25 miles with the car computer voice scolding, "Fuel level is low." I know I felt it was both noteworthy and remarkable that I made it to an exit in Nebraska with open pumps.

What else? Asking please that a telemarketer stop phoning at dinner and never getting another call. Needing exact change and having exact change.

The list could go on and on without ever climbing to equaling baseball's all-time home run record. In any case, if claiming the greatest record in sports is merely noteworthy and remarkable, and if the only reason it is . . . well, here's the rest of Selig's statement.

"As I said previously (talk about covering your asterisk), out of respect for the tradition of the game, the magnitude of the record and the fact that all citizens in this country are innocent until proven guilty, either I or a representative of my office will attend the next few games and make every attempt to observe the breaking of the all-time home run record."

Obviously, Mr. Selig has not had to take his shoes off in an airport recently if he really believes in innocent until proven guilty. We are all suspects. Why should Bonds get off?

Chalk it up to naiveté, part of a world where, as the old song gleefully reassured, "You can't go to jail for what you're thinking."

But, then, that was the world where Henry Aaron lived, and where baseball ruled and where a commissioner demanded that Aaron play every game and not spot his special moments only before friends and promoters.

Integrity has become a portable concept, just as has privacy and innocence and safety, adjusted to fit the times, so in that way Bonds could be considered a model for these times, a rogue who remains out of reach, as secure in his place as if he were in the mountains of Pakistan.

Ah, that last image was a little too low, even to apply to Bonds, so I take it back, though it does seem they have been trying to get Bonds for just as long as the other guy.

One way to analyze the mixture of boos and cheers - and the absence of any syringes thrown on the field as had greeted Bonds in San Diego before - is that good manners ruled and, sure, had it been New York or, dare we say, even Denver, the vote would have weighed more heavily to disgust.

At his present rate of a homer every 4 1/2 games, Bonds should get the record all for himself by Friday, against Pittsburgh, fifth inning.

Selig or one of his representatives will be there. To observe. Not celebrate.

lincicomeb@RockyMountainNews.com

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