Gonzo: In a bubble by the bay

SAN FRANCISCO - The world is full of heroes and villains. Barry Bonds somehow qualifies as both.

Nationally, Bonds was long ago dismissed as a Giant caricature, a PED-popping phony who refuses to abandon his ridiculous charade and cop to what everyone already knows.

Locally, the opinion is different. The Giants could have picked anyone to throw out the first pitch of the first National League Championship Series game held here since 2002. Willie Mays. Will Clark. The guy whose name was lent to the cove with all the kayaks.

The organization chose Bonds instead. That says a lot - not just about what Bonds still means to the franchise but about the kind of reception the team anticipated he would receive from San Francisco.

Giants fans didn't disappoint. The orange-and-black clad lemmings plunged one after the other off the embarrassment cliff Tuesday.

As Bonds walked onto the field at AT&T Park before San Francisco's disheartening 3-0 Game 3 win, he was greeted with an impossibly warm welcome. The crowd rose and clapped as though it was hailing a conquering war hero who had just returned from fighting fascists overseas.

Some people think the natives are numb or maybe clueless to what Bonds represents. They aren't. They know full well how Bonds is perceived outside the Bay Area, and they're equally aware of how supporting him makes them look. They understand that he was chemically enhanced and then accused of lying about his conduct to a grand jury. They get it. They just don't care.

It was a remarkable thing to behold - tens of thousands of people applauding a man who's much more than a common cheat. Bonds has become the symbol of everything that was wrong with baseball during a ridiculous two-decade stretch that went from scandalous to sad to an SNL-worthy sketch comedy skit. The only thing that could have made Bonds' laughable public denial about taking steroids funnier was if he had joined Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro and the rest of the finger-wagging stooges when they went to Washington to testify before Congress.