'This Record Is Not Tainted'

Barry Bonds' 756th career homer had barely landed in the AT&T Park bleachers last night when the vitriol swirling around his pursuit of Henry Aaron's record began flowing in earnest. Reactions around the country range from dispassionate observation at home ("What does it all mean?" wonders the Chronicle's Gwen Knapp) to resignation and disgust—pretty much everywhere else.

Blasting baseball's overlords, Bernie Miklasz of the Post-Dispatch calls Bonds "just a product of the times." The New York Post's headline wizards refer to Bonds as the "sultan of syringe," and the Boston Herald's Gerry Callahan chimes in, "There is no mystery to this crime story." And in Aaron country, the Journal-Constitution's Jeff Schultz bluntly calls Bonds "a pariah." (More Barry Bonds stories.)