Charles Kennedy, a fine man and legend at Napa's KVON radio, where he runs the popular Saturday "Swap Shop" show, also stands by and handles the controls for the Artie Reyes sports show that follows. Charles asks some terrific baseball questions.

Some months ago, when I occupied the guest's chair on that show, Charles hit me with an excellent question. "Do you think Barry Bonds, when he breaks Henry Aaron's 755 home run record, will be listed in the baseball books with an asterisk next to his name as was done in the case of Roger Maris?"

The question didn't surprise me because somehow the asterisk myth became attached to Maris and will be forever more.

However, the fact of the matter is Maris never got that asterisk for passing Babe Ruth's single-season record of 60 home runs in 1927 with 61 homers of his own in 1961. The Baseball Encyclopedia and the Elias Sports Bureau people never took the bait foisted upon them by then-Commissioner of Baseball Ford Frick.

So an asterisk never appeared noting that Maris played a 162-game season as opposed to the 154-game seasons Babe Ruth once played. Carrying that nonsense a bit further, no one ever suggested that Hank Aaron's records should bear the same asterisk with the notation that Henry had enjoyed almost 4,000 more at bats than the Babe.

Charles Kennedy then asked, "Why would Ford Frick, commissioner of baseball in 1961, go to the extreme he did to try to preserve the Babe's record?"

That was another great question. I mentioned the fact that once upon a time, before Frick was commissioner of baseball and even before he was president of the National League, Frick was a sports writer and pal of Babe Ruth, as well as Ruth's publicist and ghost writer of the Babe's only book. Charles Kennedy, with a knowing smile, said "Gotcha!"

American myths abound and the Ruth-Maris legend goes on. The next candidate up for the dreaded asterisk, for completely different reasons, will be San Francisco's hero the great Barry Bonds, as if you didn't know.

But baseball doesn't own the copyrights to American legends and myths, they have been with us since this great nation began. So let's review just a few.

Paul Revere, contrary to what we learned in school, never reached the Old North Church to send any signal or alarm to other American patriots. A British patrol intercepted him on his journey and confiscated his horse, so Paul never made it to the church tower.

It was Mary Quantrill who waved "Old Glory" at Gen. Stonewall Jackson's gray-clad Confederate cavalry, not Barbara Fritchie, in the tiny town of Frederick, Md. Barbara did wave "Old Glory," but she waved it in safety at blue-clad Union cavalry when they retook the town. Dispatch writers mixed up the ladies' names and our grade school teachers never mentioned it -- maybe they never knew.

Then there was Teddy Roosevelt and his playboys and cowboys once known as the Roughriders. In an unauthorized charge they dashed (not rode) up Kettle Hill, much to the amusement of ninth and 10th cavalry troopers, who had taken that minor objective hours before. In that case, dispatch writers and friends of Teddy assigned him the key objective, San Juan Hill, in their stories. Those dispatches led him right to the White House.

The lists of American legends and myths are endless, but one more that we kids in grade school were taught was "Lafayette, we are here!" Gen. "Black Jack" Pershing is still credited with uttering those inspired words as the American Expeditionary Force entered Paris in 1917. One problem, however, and that was that Pershing wasn't much of a speaker so he appointed Col. Charles Stratton to come up with inspiring words and the colonel had the genius to say, "Lafayette, we are here!"

But back to the present. We've got a story about to explode, a story that legends and myths are made from, and it will happen this summer right here in San Francisco.

Right now, we are just past the halfway point in the baseball season. Never mind the fact that our Giants are in last place in the National League's Western Divison. This season, unlike all others, was never targeted at winning a pennant, it was dedicated to one man reaching the Holy Grail in his own way and in his own time.

As I write, Barry Bonds stands four home runs away from reaching Henry Aaron's record of 755 home runs, the greatest goal a baseball player can ever attain.

Will Barry reach and pass Aaron away from home? Even without a crystal ball, I respond with a "No way."

As you read this, the Giants just wrapped up a three-game set in the City by the Bay with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Then the sticky part comes into play. The Giants go on the road from July l6 to 22, with four games in Chicago and three in Milwaukee. When Barry reaches home run 754, that old aching knee is going to sit him down unless the commissioner does something at last.

The way I see it, Barry will tie Aaron's record of 755 then break it no earlier than July 23 -- in a white Giants home uniform in San Francisco. Wasn't what this season was all about?

Fifty years from now, baseball fans will still recall the legend of Barry Bonds and myths will abound, fueled by thousand of guys in their 60s who swear that when they were kids, they "almost" caught Barry's 756th home run. Oh, and let's not forget the old guy in 2007, the baseball purist who tried to wrest Barry's 756th out of the grip of a kid and throw that baseball back onto the playing field in disgust. Legends and myths, long may they live!

Ev Parker can be reached at evjenpar@mailbox.com or 224-9956.