Barry Bonds is the left fielder for the San Francisco Giants. He currently holds the record for most career home runs in Major League Baseball, with 758. Bonds surpassed the previous record holder, Hank Aaron, on August 7, 2007, in a game against the Washington Nationals by hitting home run number 756. In addition to the home run record, Bonds has won the Most Valuable Player Award in the MLB a record seven times throughout the course of his career.

The graph below shows the overall number of blog postings about Barry Bonds during the timeframe of 08/01/2007 – 08/07/2007, the week preceding his breaking of the career home run record up through the night it was broken:

Controversy has surrounded Barry Bonds for years, as it is believed by players, fans, and the media that Bonds has been using illegal steroids, which give him an unfair advantage at-bat. The infamous BALCO Affair that broke in 2003 thrust Bonds into the spotlight, as his name was on a list of clients for the steroid producing lab. In 2005, the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative was found guilty for marketing and distributing an illegal steroid called Tetrahydrogestrinone, which was nicknamed "The Clear" because at the time, is was not detected in steroid tests. Bonds has never failed a steroid test, yet fans do not believe the test results and have gone as far as to hypothesized that there will be an asterisk next to Bonds' home run record, due to the supposed illegal doping.

Bloggers were fairly evenly split in their sentiment about Barry Bonds. 46% of bloggers made positive comments about Bonds, commending him for the great achievement. On the other hand, 38% of bloggers demeaned the accomplishment, proclaiming that Bonds had an unfair advantage in breaking the record. Few bloggers remained neutral this week when expressing their comments about Barry Bonds.

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