Bob Cook

No one, outside a workaholic or deadbeat dad, has faced pressure to attend a ballgame like baseball commissioner Bud Selig has to see Barry Bonds hit home run No. 756.

Selig watched Bonds tie Aaron on Saturday, but didn't look happy about it. Like that workaholic or deadbeat dad who actually shows up to his kid's game for once, Selig had to be shifting in his seat, wishing he were anyplace else.

After all, his attendance — and Bonds’ 756th home run Tuesday night — are symbolic much beyond mere presence and numbers. Selig has to suffer for the sins of his own commissionership, and the sins of commisionerships past. If Selig had ended up part of any on-field celebration, it would have been the most awkward moment between a commissioner and a member of his sport since NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle handed the Super Bowl trophy to Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis in 1981, a time when Davis was suing the league to move his franchise to Los Angeles.

Showing up, it turns out, would have been the lesser of two evils. But even so, Selig should have been there and been proud. Selig had a role in creating the Bonds we know today, so take credit, why don't you?

Selig appeared to acknowledge implicitly that he believes Bonds’ record is tainted by the steroid allegations around him. Not only that, Selig acknowledged implicitly that the home run-fueled baseball “revival” of the late 1990s was a steroid-fueled sham, one that he capitulated to on his watch. Sure, baseball’s union was fighting any testing, but Selig wasn’t exactly giving them an ultimatum to fight over, either.

Selig added to the long list of baseball commissioners who appeared to let personal feelings get in the way of giving their blessing to historic moments. (Other sports don’t have this problem. For example, no one gave Paul Taglibue grief because he wasn’t in attendance when the Cowboys’ Emmitt Smith broke the career rushing record held by the Bears’ Walter Payton. Then again, no one outside Dallas and Chicago can remember what Smith’s and Payton’s totals are without looking them up. To save you the trouble: Smith, 18,355; Payton, 16,726.)

More on Barry Bonds, new HR king Bonds passes Aaron with 756th HR Opinion: Record-setting night was a blast At Bat blog: Bonds is San Francisco's treat Beyond Bonds: Candidates for homer crown   Charting Bonds' career  |    Funny fans Compare 700 club |   Discuss | Stats

Ford Frick, the former sportswriter and Babe Ruth ghostwriter/bridge partner/golfing buddy who invented the asterisk so Roger Maris couldn’t conceivably break Ruth’s single-season home run record of 60, didn’t show up to see Maris hit No. 61 in 1961. Bowie Kuhn’s obituary, written only in March after his death at age 80 from respiratory failure, prominently featured his decision that it was “beneath” the office of the commissioner to hang out at Atlanta Braves games while Hank Aaron chased Ruth’s career home run record in 1974. Thus, Kuhn was having dinner in Cleveland when Aaron hit No. 715 on April 8, and his absence, on top of the racial hate mail and other vitriol Aaron received for besting Ruth, was seen as one more insult.

Selig should have to explain why he was in attendance in 1998 when Mark McGwire hit No. 62, beating Maris’ single-season record, and why he was there in 2001 when Bonds hit No. 70, tying McGwire’s record. Selig had a good excuse for missing No. 71, which happened the day after No. 70 — he was in San Diego honoring Rickey Henderson for breaking Ty Cobb’s all-time runs record, and Tony Gwynn for retiring. So Selig should have to explain why it was necessary to honor the holder of the all-time runs record, but not the holder of the all-time home run record.

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