Pressure of HR Chase Becomes Too Heavy A Burden for...Bud Selig?

Once again, Bud Selig insists that he, not Barry Bonds, is the story in the quest for the all-time home run title. Witness his latest personal headline on mlb.com:

LOS ANGELES -- Commissioner Bud Selig indicated Wednesday night that his days following the Barry Bonds home run chase may be numbered.

He won't be at Thursday night's game at Dodger Stadium -- in which Bonds most likely will play -- and will be subbed by Hall of Famer Frank Robinson, now a consultant for Major League Baseball....

Selig [...] added that he plans to be in San Diego on Friday night and remain with the Giants through at least this weekend's three-game series at PETCO Park against the Padres. After that, he has made no plans yet to return to San Francisco for next week's seven-game homestand that begins Monday night against the Nationals.

"This has been a tough experience for me," Selig said during a press conference to announce that Major League Baseball has donated $100,000 to the Dodgers' new ThinkCure cancer foundation before Bonds again went homerless in a come-from-behind, 6-4 Dodgers win. "I have a lot to do and there's an awful lot going on. We have owners' meetings coming up [Aug. 15-16 in Toronto]. I'll do the best I can. I've been at eight games and I don't think anybody can say anything about the effort."

Wow. You're right, Bud, your effort to sit on your ass in a luxury box at eight non-consecutive baseball games (that's right, he only went to three games in SF, out of a seven-game homestand) has really been heroic. Thank you, thank you for your sacrifice. I'm sure that the media circus, omnipresent camera flashes, and scrutinous interrogations from the press have been unbearably onerous. You're an American hero.

Now go take a well-deserved vacation, perhaps to someplace like Antarctica.

UPDATE: Bud also had this to say, evoking mythological references, no less:

"Depending on the weekend, we'll be up to 11, so I don't think there's anybody that can say that I haven't made a Herculean effort," he said. "In fact, I've been having a lot of people who are stunned that I'm still at this."

I'm just more stunned that he's still serving as Commissioner.