Movin' on Up...to the northeast!

Travis Ford is expected to be named as the head coach of UMass later this week.

Say it ain't so, Travis!

Barry Bonds has told the media: "You finally got to me". Is this why he will not play at all this season? Will he retire?

Three, there is public perception, which frankly is insignificant in comparison with the other two issues. Bonds is refusing to hold any interviews when The Chronicle's Giants beat reporter Henry Schulman is present, even though Schulman has not been involved in the BALCO investigative stories the paper has produced. Thus, Schulman is the unwilling face of Bonds' latest "The media is after me" component, one which he reiterated in Tuesday's interview. "You finally got me," he said to the gathered notebooks allowed to watch him lecture them. "You wanted me to jump off the bridge, and now I finally have. .. ."

Bonds' latest media appearance must be understood in a different way as well. He has long been acutely aware of the media's uses and dangers, and the ways in which to make them snap to his needs. Thus, on Tuesday, Bonds showed what he wanted them to show, to paint him as a sympathetic figure being crushed by government and media alike. His son, Nikolai, was there, and Bonds referred often to finding solace with his family away from an outside world that has to a significant level rejected him. He is, in fact, caught on ESPN tape requesting to the cameraman to make sure his son is shown during the interview.

Taken alone, any of these issues would be sufficient burden to depress anyone. Taken together, factoring in the speed with which these developments have occurred, and you've got a wildly imperfect storm that would leave anyone legless and baffled.

What awaits Bonds now is anyone's guess. A month ago, you had to give $10 to win $1 on a "can-he-catch-Hank Aaron" bet. Now, even Babe Ruth seems far away.

Besides, the home run records are now an afterthought. The specter of Bonds in the dock is just as compelling.

This story has grown so many tentacles that it often seems in danger of strangling itself. Tuesday's developments make it more tangled still. Every day there are more members of the "everybody" class, and fewer buffers between Bonds and a hard, cruel world that may get even harder and crueler.

This isn't the endgame, but you can see it from here.