Insider: With Bonds* buzz diminishing, reality sets in for Giants, fans

Short Hops | Love Letters

SAN FRANCISCO -- Nobody ever sees who cleans up the confetti following the parade. The brooms and shovels go mostly unnoticed while the revelers move along to their next destination, hoarse and weary, awaiting the next big party.

While the ride has been fun for Bruce Bochy, things are about to get tougher in San Fran. (US Presswire)

While a tired Barry Bonds* took a personal phone call from President Bush on Wednesday and said he received roughly 80 messages on his telephone from friends and other assorted well-wishers, the San Francisco Giants began the process of cleaning up after the celebration.

It was a mixed-blessing sort of day because, while everyone around here eagerly anticipated homer No. 756, once it achieved lift-off against Washington's Mike Bacsik a night earlier, the grim reality of a lost season set in for a bad baseball team.

"To me, it is a different chapter now," Giants manager Bruce Bochy, whose team is last in the NL West, 13½ games behind Arizona, said Wednesday. "The focus is not going to be on Barry -- he's hit the home run, and it's going to be on the ballclub.

"He's probably going to have to deal with less attention. I think he's liked the attention. We'll see how he handles it."

The different world will be evident in the coming days, starting with the diminishing buzz. Culminating in Tuesday night's record, the Giants played a remarkable 28 consecutive games in front of sold-out crowds -- 16 on the road, 12 at home.

Though much of this homestand remains mostly sold out for obvious reasons -- the Giants played the Nationals on Wednesday and Thursday and host Pittsburgh for three games beginning Friday -- the crowds are expected to shrink quickly.

The congratulatory videos the Giants have been playing on the jumbo center-field scoreboard, featuring celebrities ranging from Muhammad Ali to Michael Jordan, now will cease -- or, at the very least, take on a different meaning.

No more will Larry Baer, the Giants' chief operating officer, be responsible for the biggest secret of the season -- the video tribute Hank Aaron recorded for Bonds* the first week of July. During the last road trip to Los Angeles and San Diego, Baer personally carried the video in his briefcase, checking with the visiting clubs to make sure they would play the tribute on their scoreboard, swearing Dodgers owner Frank McCourt and Padres vice-president Sandy Alderson to secrecy.

"The only thing in Atlanta more top secret than this is the Coca-Cola formula," Baer quipped.

Where the Giants are concerned, Bochy long since has been attempting to balance the monster that the Bonds* situation has become over the years with an overall team concept and, despite his best intentions and the Giants' public proclamations, the two haven't always successfully merged.

Following his record-setting homer, Bonds*, at a news conference late Tuesday, lectured that the Giants brought him back this season to win, not simply to set a record.

Yet Bochy removed his slugger in a double-switch following No. 756, which came in the bottom of the fifth and put the Giants ahead 5-4. Bonds* at the time was 3-for-3 with a homer, double and single, and San Francisco went on to lose 8-6 in a game in which the Giants could have used Bonds'* bat late in the game.