Fans get very little return from Bonds

The Major League Baseball All-Star game is about show and entertainment. The home field advantage may rest on the outcome, but that does not take the game above the glitz that surrounds the week.

Barry Bonds was the obvious center of attention. The game was in his yard and he had eked out a starting role based on the vote of fans in the final week.

Bonds will break Henry Aaron’s all-time home run mark soon unless the rumored connection between the star and steroids comes to reality before then and he is suspended.

The chance of that is the primary reason commissioner of baseball Bud Selig has held off saying if he will be on hand for the “historic” moment.

Most of the public is ambivalent about Bonds and the record.

Bonds milked the moments in front of his home crowd at the All-Star game. They have remained supportive of him, while he is vilified in all other major league parks.

He took his bows, doffed his cap, and proclaimed how he would never forget the moment.

As with all things with Bonds, there is always more.

He would not participate in the home run derby, claiming age and wear and tear on his body as the reason. The ownership of the Giants wanted him to be in the derby as a way to say thinks to both the organization and the fans for their support.

Bonds did not bother to show up for the press conference on Monday where all the players met with the press by taking positions at different interview sites at the St. Francis Hotel.

Bonds could have played the full nine innings or close to it on his home field if he chose. He did not. He took his two at-bats and came out of the game. He was tired.

There are few, if any, who deny Bonds the stature as one of the most skilled players ever to play the game. That is the shame of the whole steroid/performance-enhancing drug thing.

He never had to do anything but play to be a Hall of Famer. If the evidence shows he in fact did use steroids, it will have been for what reason?

Bonds left the All-Star game the same way he came to it.

He is one of the game’s great players. He will probably break Aaron’s mark shortly. He will probably be a human asterisk even if he avoids direct proof of steroid use.

He took the fans’ applause and soaked in what benefited and pleased him but gave little back. He vilifies the press because it seeks answers on issues he doesn’t want to discuss.

All the while, he is kowtowed to by the press and baseball and his hometown fans.

The ring of the bat when he breaks Aaron’s mark will be hollow.

Old Town native Gary Thorne is an ESPN and ABC sportscaster.