It was late last Saturday night and the newspaper was ready to print. All the work had been done in the newsroom, the press operators were ready to start rolling and the motor carrier fleet was waiting in the parking lot to pick up their bundles of Sunday papers.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, Barry Bonds stepped up to the plate in a Major League Baseball game with a chance to break the all-time home run record. If he succeeded, it meant the newsroom had to go back and update the paper, despite the delays it would cause for everyone.

He didn't homer, though, so the newspaper went out the door on time.

Best of all, when our newspaper reached doorsteps the next morning, nothing had changed. Bonds was tied with Hank Aaron at the top of the home run list, just as it said in that day's paper.

Like just about every daily newspaper in the country, we were paying close attention to the Bonds home run story over the past couple of weeks. On most days we were in a fortunate position because of our status as an afternoon paper, so getting overnight news from the west coast into the paper is not too difficult. But on Friday and Saturday nights, when we publish for morning delivery, it was not so easy.

Bonds, who took quite a while to hit the record-tying and record-breaking home runs, did his best to prolong our pain. We had a person working extra late most nights just so we could ensure the best coverage possible once the record did fall.

As most people know by now, Bonds finally broke the record late Tuesday night in front of his home fans in San Francisco.

Unlike some papers that had to go to press earlier, The Citizen was able to provide coverage of this historic moment in the Wednesday edition. We had a front-page banner tease above the masthead directing readers to the sport section, and then devoted a significant portion of the sports section front page and an entire inside page to coverage of the record.

When it comes to news about historically significant events, newspapers have a unique responsibility. Many readers look to get the newspaper almost as a collector's item. It's important, then, that we give them something special - beyond the typical story, headline and photo.

Thanks to some good luck in the timing of this record-breaker, along with a great effort by the team that put the pages together, we succeeded in that mission.

Executive editor Jeremy Boyer's columns appear Saturdays in The Citizen and he can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 231 or jeremy.boyer@lee.net