Cashing in on Bonds market

No. 756 has come and gone, and for all the waffling Commissioner Bud Selig did about how to handle Barry Bonds’ record chase, MLB.com seems to have no such misgivings.

“History! Memorialize Bonds’ legendary blast,” the MLB.com shopping page proclaims.

T-shirts and caps emblazoned with the No. 756 logo are available, along with DVDs, bobbleheads, stuffed animals, key chains, pennants and a photo of the historic home run framed along with a commemorative gold coin that has a bit of authentic AT&T; Park infield dirt embedded in it.

We’re still searching for the framed photo with authentic commemorative vials of the cream and the clear.

Trivia time

Which two Angels pitchers combined to throw a no-hitter on April 11, 1990?

Hammerin’ Hank

Good thing Hank Aaron videotaped that message for Bonds that was played at AT&T; Park after Bonds hit the record-breaking home run.

Aaron, 73, was asleep at home in Atlanta when it happened.

“It was 1 o’clock in the morning,” he told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Heck, I’m not going to sit up and watch a baseball game. It’s just like I wasn’t going to be able to travel all over the world to watch. It wasn’t a matter of being disrespectful or anything. It’s just a matter of, hey, the body needed to go to sleep.”

Get a whiff

of this

There is at least one major statistical category in which Bonds has yet to surpass his father: strikeouts.

Bobby Bonds struck out 1,757 times in 14 seasons.

Barry has struck out fewer than 1,600 times in 22 seasons, and hasn’t struck out 100 times in a season since his rookie year in 1986.

Joe Pressbox

There has been a bit of hubbub about Penn State Coach Joe Paterno’s saying recently he might continue to coach from the press box. He finished last season guiding his football team from above after his left leg was broken when he was plowed into on the sideline.

Among other things, the view of the action is better from up there.

“You’re really a cheerleader most of the time down on the sideline,” Paterno said.

“I enjoyed being upstairs, I really did. I sat down, had a nice time, had a cup of coffee. I felt like a newspaper guy. I was even able to watch television.”

Brooklyn-born

If the Dodgers weren’t planning to leave Vero Beach after next spring, we’d half-expect to see Paterno there some year wearing one of those caps with the old “B.”

This from Shelly Anderson in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

“Once, in a moment when he was relaxed and receptive, Paterno was asked about the Dodgers’ abandoning his hometown of Brooklyn after the 1957 season to relocate to the West Coast.

“His shoulders drooped, he shook his head slowly a few times and uttered something that was more of a discouraging tone than it was words. You could almost see the mist forming behind those thick glasses.”

Strike up

the banned

Italian golfer Alessandro Pissilli was suspended by his national federation after a positive test for finasteride, a banned diuretic, and could be barred for up to two years.

Pissilli told officials he has been taking the drug to treat a prostate problem. The drug also is used to treat hair loss but is banned because it can mask steroid use.

Poor guy. Sounds like he was already up too many times at night, trying not to lose his hair, and now he can’t even play any golf tournaments.

Trivia answer

Mark Langston and Mike Witt.

And finally

Jay Leno on Angel Stadium:

“You know how you can tell when an Angels game is a blowout?

“When the rats leave early.”

--

robyn.norwood@latimes.com