Ben Margot / AP

San Francisco Giants' Barry Bonds (25) embraces his son Nikolai after hitting his 714th career home run off Oakland Athletics' Brad Halsey in the second inning of a baseball game Saturday, May 20, 2006, in Oakland, Calif. Bonds is now tied with Babe Ruth's second-place home run career record. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

“I don’t know how to express it at this moment,” Bonds said. “It’s just overwhelming really. It’s a lot of relief.”

Some of that relief could be shared with Major League Baseball, which had to be happy the mark was tied nearly at home. The crowd at the Coliseum seemed to be half Giants fans, and there were no ugly incidents to mar the scene like Bonds might have gotten somewhere else.

“Obviously we had some trepidation if it was hit in Philadelphia,” Giants vice president Larry Baer said.

The home runs, meanwhile, will continue to come, though likely with increasing irregularity. That’s pretty much a given since Bonds is a 41-year-old with a body beginning to break down playing a young man’s game.

There’s only one more record to be broken, and even though he’s 41 homers away it’s conceivable Bonds could be the home run king sometime next year in an American League city where he doesn’t have to play the outfield.

Bonds didn’t want to think about that on this day. Too far away. Too many things that could happen in between.

He wanted to savor this moment, and it seemed for once as though he actually was.

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“If he doesn’t like me, give me the ball,” Bonds said.