One of our premier fan hunters was sitting at a stoplight in rainy St. Louis this weekend, and took notice of the personalized license plate adorning the automobile shown below.  Critics bedamned, this guy was making his allegiances known to the world.



"Bonds 73" in St. Louis?

The question remains, who was driving this car?  We offer a handful of possibilities...

a.) The unfriendly neighbor of Mark McGwire's in-laws, who proudly parks his Mercury Cougar on the street in front of their Collinsville, IL house when he knows Big Mac is in town visiting.  Even he concedes that mowing the lawn while wearing a Barry Bonds jersey is a bit excessive...but he does it anyway.

b.) A passionate Mark McGwire fan who made a bet with his jerk buddy that if Barry Bonds beat McGwire's homerun record in 2001 he would get "Bonds" and the number of homeruns tattooed on his forehead.  They compromised and went with the license plate instead.

c.) Patrick Hayashi 1/2 owner Barry Bonds' 73rd Homerun ball.  The ball sold for $450,000, and he and Alex Popov were told by a judge that they had to share the proceeds.  We're thinking maybe Hayashi wanted to escape the bright lights of San Fran, so he bought a little two story in Alton, a new ride with personalized plates and is whittling away the rest of his $225,000 one Fast Eddie's Big Elwood On A Stick at a time.

d.) Jim Bonds, Berkeley High Class of 1973, victim of an unfortunate coincidence.

Consider us stumped.