If record comes, how will it be recorded?

NEW YORK — If they happen, the calls will be memorable.

And yet, if Barry Bonds eventually does pass Babe Ruth, then Henry Aaron, to become baseball’s all-time home run king, how will those calls be made?

While many mouths blithely talk about affixing syringes rather than asterisks if the name Bonds makes it to the top of that hallowed list, what will the mouth, actually making the call, include in his description?

Will the word “steroids” be used shortly after the ball flies over the fence?

Will the word “tainted” be used?

“You make the home run call. If you are going to debate something you do it after the fact, after Bonds is back in the dugout,” Joe Buck, Fox Sports’ voice of big league baseball, who is also a member of the Cardinals broadcast team, said Thursday.

Buck could be in line to call Bonds making history. Then again, he might not. Between now and the beginning of the season, executives at Fox and Major League Baseball will take the public’s temperature on the steroids issue and continue to monitor it.

Now there is certainly outrage. Still, sports fans are fickle and forgiving. And these fans, not the media, will determine if putting Bonds in a potential record-breaking game, on prime time TV, will produce big-time ratings.

Ratings potential will be the only criteria.

Not a roomful of ranting radio sports talkies.

Or a press box full of columnists.

Six years ago, when Mark McGwire was making his assault on the record books, Fox aired the 1998 game in prime time when he hit his 62nd homer, breaking Roger Maris’ single-season record. Buck made that call. Yes, there was McGwire’s “andro” controversy, and there were other big boppers with bigger bodies, but a play-by-play man didn’t have to concern himself with chemistry lectures.

“It was like the elephant sitting in the middle of the room,” Buck said. “How much do you want to say and how much can you condemn a guy from the booth when it’s all speculation. Now it’s a different situation. You’ve got something you can put your finger on. … It will be really tough to sit up there and talk about this without condemning these guys.”

When it comes to Bonds, Ted Robinson, the TV play-by-play voice of the Mets, also used to operate in a gray area. For nine seasons, he was a member of the Giants broadcast team and still resides in the Bay Area. In 2001, Robinson called a few of Bonds’ milestone home runs on radio, including his 70th against the Astros in Houston.

“I remember talking about how the Houston crowd was standing and cheering for Barry,” Robinson said Thursday. “So I guess you could say if they stood and booed, I would describe that as well. Although we knew nothing about BALCO back then, there was still suspicion about Barry’s size. So the only way I could handle that call, and be responsible to the audience, was describe the moment – describe what I was seeing.”

But what if Robinson is at the microphone, with 50,000 at Shea, and Bonds passes Ruth?

“I’m completely theorizing here, but the steroids thing could be the subject during his next at-bat,” Robinson said. “If the 50,000 stand and boo, that’s cause to immediately describe that moment and explain why it’s happening. But when he hits the home run, our job is to chronicle the moment, not editorialize.”

If it ever comes to pass that either Buck or Robinson is faced with calling a Bonds breaker, both announcers will have the freedom to say what they feel at the time. The same probably cannot be said for the Giants voices.

Despite Bonds’ cryptic grand jury testimony, the hometown fans are standing behind him. And from an economic standpoint, Giants brass is so financially tied to Bonds there is no way announcers – paid by the team – are going to weigh their commentary down with talk of steroids or BALCO.

While this may fly in San Francisco, it certainly would leave any voice open to historians wondering if something was left out of the play-by-play. Of course, there’s always the chance there will be no need for a record-breaking call.

“I was always looking forward to the time baseball would crown a new home run king,” Buck said. “My opinion on that has changed.”