Sports Redux: Harumph.

Where to begin? When it comes to baseball, most of the news that came out of Tuesday was dreary, almost as dreary as the skies over Boston this morning.

It felt as if it took ages for Barry Bonds to take the final steps in his journey to become baseball's new home run king, but on Tuesday night, the San Francisco Giants slugger did it. Shortly before midnight Eastern time, at a time when many a Boston baseball follower had probably already turned in for the night, Bonds hit a fastball off Washington Nationals pitcher Mike Bacsik that went over the wall in San Fran's AT&T Park and right into the history books. It was career home run 756 for the reputation-tainted slugger and the shot that bumped Hank Aaron down to number two in the record books. Sure, the Giants went on to lose the game, 8-6, but do you think anyone in a few years is going to remember that? It was The Game some folks gleefully anticipated, but public perception as a whole seems to indicate that many glum people out there just wanted to get it over with so the coverage of their respective home team games would no longer be peppered with news of BondsWatch.

Bonds was pretty lucky that he delivered the money hit on his home turf. The Globe's Bob Hohler described the response as "a tumult of cheers" and Bonds was able to thank his hometown fans. It sounds as if it was pretty much an exclusively San Francisco affair, given the fact that baseball commissioner Bud Selig was not in attendance, Aaron elected to send a congratulatory video and, as Hohler ntoes, "absent were many political leaders and dignitaries who typically gravitate to memorable moments in baseball history."

So there we go. It's done.

-- Some folks are starting to murmur that the Sox are done, too, given the fact that the lead is whittled down to five. We here at Bostonist are still refraining from unearthing the panic button, but man, we didn't want to have any late-season excitement from the Yankees and a lead we can count on one hand makes us awfully nervous.

Dan Shaughnessy's telling us not to worry at all - he's predicting that the Sox and Angels are going to be meeting up again in the playoffs, something that might make us feel excited if it weren't for the fact that the Angels beat the Sox again on Tuesday night, 10-4.

It was an ugly game. The Sox jumped out to a 4-2 lead in the fifth inning, but a lousy bottom half of that inning sunk the Boston hopes. Julio Lugo bobbled Garret Anderson's grounder and allowed the bases to load. Gary Matthews Jr. (already on notice for robbing a Crisp home run) singled to score two runs. The Angels wound up batting 'round the order and then some and the team notched five runs.

"It got away in a hurry," Terry Francona said post-game. "That’s the risk you run if you go to the bullpen early. Someone has a hiccup or a bump in the road, and the game gets away.”

-- Zach Hamill signed a three-year deal with the Bruins on Tuesday, and he will be paid $875,000 per season, with an $87,500 signing bonus.

-- Looking ahead to 2008, NBC announced Tuesday that they plan to air more than 3,600 hours of Olympics coverage on its various television networks and online. More than 3,600 hours! Visit NBC.com to watch U.S. athletes sleep in real time! Find out what happens when Olympians stop being polite and start getting real!

Crown image by flickr user stars are grey