O'Brien's historic call captured mood, moment
There is a 1969 movie about a whirlwind tour of Europe called, "If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium." Dave O'Brien's recent trip to the West Coast could have been called, "If it's Saturday, or Sunday, or Monday, or Tuesday, This Must Be The Barry Bonds Tour."
O'Brien, best known around here for calling Red Sox games on the radio, also works for ESPN, which called him into action for the "Bonds watch" two weeks ago as the Giants slugger took aim at Hank Aaron's all-time home run record.
More than a week ago, the network flew him to Los Angeles, then he took the red-eye back to Boston for Red Sox games Wednesday night and Thursday afternoon. Then it was back to California.
After calling the record-tying homer in San Diego Saturday, O'Brien headed north to San Francisco, where he held his breath with the rest of the country.
Monday night was uneventful, as Bonds went 0 for 3 with a walk against the Nationals. The next night, though, was full of drama, starting with the fact that ESPN2 was late getting to the game because it was airing the Chicago-Indiana WNBA game, which went into double overtime.
By the time the basketball game ended, the Giants and Nationals were in the bottom of the first. Bonds was on deck, and so was O'Brien. After doubling and singling in his first two at-bats, Bonds delivered the record-breaking homer in the fifth inning.
O'Brien's call:
"[Mike] Bacsik's 3 and 2 again. There's a swing and high fly ball, right-center field. Back it goes. Racing back, [Nook] Logan jumping up, and that ball is gone! No. 756. Barry Bonds stands alone. And on the night of Aug. 7, 2007, in San Francisco, California, Barry Lamar Bonds has hit more home runs than any major leaguer in the history of baseball."
O'Brien said he didn't plan on how he'd call either the tying or record-breaking homer.
"I wanted to keep it as spontaneous as I could, but my whole focus was to capture the right mood," he said. In other words, the mood in San Diego was very different from the mood in San Francisco.
"When he hit 755 in San Diego, we weren't sure how the crowd was going to react," said O'Brien. "There was significant booing but there was also cheering, which made it kind of a bizarre scene. But in San Francisco, you knew he was going to be embraced and loved, that's the only place he his . . . So I think the call has to reflect the mood in the ballpark. And, of course, on television, your director's cutting great pictures, so you really step back and let the moment play out. On radio, you have to be the eyes and the ears, you have to paint the whole picture, that's why those radio calls are the ones remembered for the big plays."
He has since listened to Giants radio announcer Jon Miller's call of the record-breaker.
O'Brien, who trained at Syracuse, kept in mind that a professor once said a broadcaster's job is to "tell me what you see."
So he pointed out the signs with asterisks, commissioner Bud Selig's hands-in-pocket statement, and the video tribute by Aaron.
"Over days it was absolutely necessary for us to document the event," said O'Brien. "To document the mood, and the tenor, and not to draw conclusions for people but just to let everyone know who is not there exactly how it feels. In the end, it was a surreal, fascinating, confusing week for all of us culminating in the greatest record in sports history, and I still don't know how I'm supposed to feel about it -- and I was there."
After the game, O'Brien headed to Washington, where he called last night's Los Angeles Galaxy-D.C. United MLS game. Tonight, he'll be in Baltimore for the Red Sox' three-game set with the Orioles.
Susan Bickelhaupt can be reached at bickelhaupt@globe.com. 
