[vincesanity82]

After Larry Baer, the Giants' chief operating officer said "everybody" told him that Hank Aaron would not "do anything" for Barry Bonds, Baer asked Terry McGuirk, the president of the Atlanta Braves, for help in May. McGuirk set up a conversation between Baer and Aaron about two weeks later, and they hatched the idea of a video. Aaron told Baer he would consider it. According to Baer, Aaron spoke to his inner circle, which undoubtedly included Commissioner Bud Selig, a close friend. A month after Baer's request, Aaron agreed to do it. He taped the message in early July in Atlanta. Baer toted the tape with him to road games because the plan was to unearth it as soon as Bonds swatted 756. "Nothing more secretive than this has come out of Atlanta since the Coca-Cola formula," Baer said. Bonds did not know about the tape. "It meant absolutely everything," he said. What Aaron did was bless Bonds's achievement. Unlike Selig, whose statement included a reference to the "issues which have swirled around this record," Aaron made no such references. Because Aaron was cordial, it signaled that he approved Bonds's ascension. -- NY Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/09/sp...tml?ref=sports