Bonds and Beyond

After the Conrad Black trial finally wrapped up, it was back to the diamond for me. Among my first assignments after Lord Black's trial was Barry Bonds' arrival at Wrigley Field for possibly the last time in his career. So even though it was back to sports for me, things hadn't quite returned to normal since Bonds was only 4 home runs away from tying baseball's all-time record. My job the first two games of the series was to cover everything Barry: fans, signs, and if Bonds ever popped out, the man himself. Of course, Bonds was held out of the starting lineup both nights I was there, so all I got to shoot was a whole load of signage:




He did finally make a pinch-hit appearance in the second game. As expected, he was booed viciously by the Wrigley faithful, there were a fair number of San Francisco fans cheering him on as well.




In that particular at bat, Bonds flied out harmlessly to left field which led to a lock of mock cheering by the Cub fans...



But he did hit two bombs against the Cubs a couple of days later in a losing effort. As of this writing, Bonds is now only one home run away from tying Hank Aaron's career home run record.

But, that's not my problem anymore since he's back in San Francisco. Which means for me, it's finally back to "just baseball."