The Mets beat the Giants, 9-7. Barry Bonds hit his 711th career home run. That took barely a dozen words to say. The New York Times took a few hundred words, three different ways: The Associated Press's early report, the staff-written game story by Ben Shpigel, and a column by Jack Curry. Shpigel and Curry traveled across the country to witness the semi-seminal event, costing their employers a fair chunk of change. Perhaps in the future, extra Times writers can take seats vacated by the Sacramento Bee, which has decided to go in a different direction.

The Bee has realized information about a game's results is a commodity, instantly available on espn.com, mlb.com, and any website that carries the AP feed. In a column Sunday, Bee public editor Armando Acuña explained the paper's decision to use wire services for game stories, and to send reporters only to home games, primarily to write "magazine-style, behind-the-scenes coverage of the teams, players, issues in baseball, and the like." (Skipping road games saves money.) Last night apparently was an exception: The Bee's Nick Peters covered the game straight, probably because Bonds is three home runs shy of Babe Ruth's career total. But the intent is good.