San Francisco Chronicle - CA, USA - Outside of San Francisco, where Barry Bonds enjoyed the home-field advantage of unconditional love, his pursuit and capture of one of sports' most hallowed records was a mostly joyless affair.

The long ascent to No. 756 was awkward, and sometimes heartbreaking. Away from his kingdom of AT&T Park, Bonds was serenaded by full choirs of boos. Grown men taunted him with giant foam asterisks. Little children held up signs that said, "Cheater."

So it was tempting to contrast Bonds, who falls between plaque and auto exhaust on the likability scale, with the greats of the game — the outsized personality of the

Express - Washington, DC, USA - I LIKE MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL'S All-Star Game.

It's a collection of the best players, with each team represented, in what is normally a competitive game that the American League wins.

The game also signifies the start of something big. No, not the second half of the season. No, not Barry Bonds' drawn-out, juiced-up chase of Hank Aaron. And, no, not the Red Sox choking away a huge lead (sorry, Yankee fans, it won't happen this year).

Rather, the doldrums of the post All-Star break remind us that football is just around the corner.

Two weeks from Friday, the Redskins start training camp. There won't

Los Angeles Daily News - Los Angeles, CA, USA - Needing four to tie and five to move ahead, Barry Bonds' chances of eclipsing Hank Aaron's record of 755 career home runs this weekend, when the Dodgers face the Giants in a three-game series at San Francisco's AT&T Park, don't seem to be all that gigantic.

Which likely leads to a giant sigh of relief from Vin Scully.

Scully, who will be on FSN Prime Ticket's telecast tonight and Sunday, also was in Atlanta in 1974 to call Aaron's home run that moved him past Babe Ruth at 715.

The circumstances are slightly different, with super-sized Bonds approaching this milestone under a cloud

CBS News - New York City, NY, USA - What, Willie Mays and Frank Robinson weren't available?

Barry Bonds* and Ken Griffey Jr. will comprise two-thirds of the National League's outfield when the 78th All-Star Game begins on Tuesday night, and the most notable thing about that is how old those two seem now.

Those aren't bats cracking, they're bones creaking.

And what puts that into focus even more sharply is the influx of frisky colts surrounding them. Just look around. Both All-Star starters, San Diego's Jake Peavy and Oakland's Dan Haren, are doing so for the first time. NL first baseman Prince Fielder's father played against Griffey in the AL while

MLB.com - USA - The first-place New York Mets and Milwaukee Brewers head the list of selections for the National League All-Star team with four representatives apiece for the 78th Midsummer Classic to be played at San Francisco's AT&T Park on July 10.

Three Mets -- center fielder Carlos Beltran, shortstop Jose Reyes and third baseman David Wright -- will be in the starting lineup. Beltran will be starting for the third straight year and Wright will be making his second consecutive start. Closer Billy Wagner also made the team.

Milwaukee's Prince Fielder, the NL leader in home runs with 27, will be starting at first

BlackAthlete.net - USA - Giants manager Bruce Bochy cast a public All-Star Game vote for Barry Bonds on Tuesday, and he won't get an argument from Hall of Fame-bound Tony Gwynn or Cal Ripken Jr.

Gwynn and Ripken said in a teleconference that Bonds should play in the All-Star Game no matter what people think about steroid allegations.

"Yes, there's a shadow hanging over the top of him," Ripken said. "When I think of Barry, I think of an all-star player. Sometimes, especially toward the end of your career, you have to have those all-stars who are considered career all-stars at the games."

San Francisco Chronicle - CA, USA - Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn think it's a no-brainer: Barry Bonds deserves to be on the NL All-Star team. "Yes, there's a shadow that's hanging over top of him. The commissioner and Hank Aaron are torn whether they should celebrate the breaking of the all-time home run record," Ripken said Tuesday. "But when I think of Barry, I think of him as an All-Star player."

Bonds began Tuesday with 749 homers, six shy of Aaron's record. After hitting 11 homers in his first 76 at-bats for the San Francisco Giants, he has four in 109 at-bats since.

Still, his .292 batting