Meanwhile Bonds takes on the racist Red Sox crowd

The Boston crowd likely will chant 'You took steroids' in the city Bonds labeled 'too racist for me'. Boston Globe story here.

His back to the wall and his integrity under siege, America's next home run king pleaded for relief from a crush of reporters poised to confront him about his scandal-tainted quest for glory.

Barry Bonds, a symbol of the steroid era's blight on the national pastime, was headed toward Boston, where he will appear at Fenway Park tonight for the first time in his 22-year career when the San Francisco Giants face the Red Sox in a city he once declared "too racist for me.

Mr Bonds goes to Boston, where Curt Schilling apologized for saying Bonds cheated baseball, his wife, and the IRS.  Where someone at least -- Big Papi Ortiz -- empathized with Barry.  Ex-Red Sox players weigh in:

"There's just an empty feeling in your heart, even though nothing against him has been proven," said former Red Sox pitcher John Burkett, who surrendered Bonds's 300th home run and later played with him on the Giants. "You want to celebrate the record, but you wonder what might come out about him after it's all said and done."

Of course, it is the media's fault Bonds is hounded everywhere he goes:

Bonds has grown weary of it all: the federal grand jury investigating him for possible perjury and tax evasion charges; Major League Baseball probing allegations he fueled his pursuit of Aaron's all-time home run record with illegal performance-enhancing drugs; hecklers chanting, "Steroids" and "Cheater"; the media hounding him at every turn.

As he barnstorms the country in a virtual bubble, Bonds grants only brief news conferences the first day he arrives in a new city and often exploits the sessions to lash out at the media. He tapes the exchanges with a digital recorder, he told a reporter in Philadelphia, "so I can post you on my website, and if you write anything crazy, it's going to be on there, sir."

In a brief interview with the Globe, Bonds attributed his poor public image to mischaracterizations by the media.

"Everything with me is like that, brother, come on," he said. "I don't even get upset about it anymore."

However Bonds was congenial with the Boston meeting as he blew into town for the weekend games:

He said he no longer harbors any malice toward Boston. Bonds's 17-year-old son, Nikolai, spent the 2005-06 academic year at Valley View School in North Brookfield, a private boarding school that describes itself as "a therapeutic environment for boys between the ages of 11 and 16 who are having trouble coping with their family, the world around them, and themselves." Bonds visited the school, about 60 miles west of Boston, for a parents' day.

"I had a good time in Boston when I was there," he said.

Asked what he liked about Boston, Bonds said, "I didn't do any sightseeing. I was just there to visit my son."

Nor did he have much to say about Schilling, who last month asserted in an interview on WEEI that Bonds admitted to cheating on his wife, his taxes, and the game. Schilling later apologized for the remarks.

"I don't even think about him, man," Bonds said.

Bonds was relatively pleasant throughout the interview and extended his hand to the Globe reporter when it ended.