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It's a different situation with Bonds than with any other player in history. Honestly, he has three major things going against him in public view:
1) When the grand jury testimony leaked, it basically showed that he had taken steroids. Now, there can be arguments of whether or not that was cheating (since it wasn't banned by MLB for a few years), but he's now branded as a cheater.
2) Bonds has NEVER had a good relationship with the media, even back to his early days in Pittsburgh. By translation, his relationship with fans has been sketchy at best; it's like he doesn't care what people think about him (although some people around him swear that fan reaction is very important to him). You're not even going to get the half-hearted apology that Giambi gave last season.
3) He's attacking a record that has been held by two of the most-beloved baseball players ever. Ruth, for all his faults, was loved by the nation. Hank Aaron garnered a ton of respect for the way he played, and what he faced (racism, death threats) on his way to breaking the record.
I don't think Bonds is going to last to break 755, but I can't imagine the amount of negative attention that will follow him if he does.
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