For a few weeks, I have been hearing and reading a variety of versions of why Barry Bonds’ 700th home run did not capture the imagination of baseball fans or become a cause for greater celebration.

Each of these accounts, in some form or another, has alluded to some alleged deficiency in Bonds’ character that keeps him from being more popular than he generally is.

Sullen. Silent. Selfish. Standoffish.

He doesn’t smile. He doesn’t grant interviews. He radiates no personal warmth. He lacks charisma.

I have heard them all. To which I say: What a bunch of bull.

Excuse me, but remind me again what cheerful, gabby, happy-go-lucky guys Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams or Hank Aaron were.

Three more hard-boiled men you never met in your life than these.

Willie Mays? Well, we still hear a lot of “Say Hey” references that hark back to his early years as a kid bubbling with enthusiasm. The fact is, however, Mays was pretty aloof for most of his career and a virtual recluse ever since.

Jackie Robinson, by circumstance, kept to himself. In the public eye he confined himself mainly to platitudes about working hard for the team.

Roberto Clemente was not a demonstrative human being. He didn’t do TV talk shows or funny commercials, possibly because no one ever deigned to asked.

Sandy Koufax was as reticent as they come. To this day, you can count on one hand — perhaps one finger — the number of times you even have heard the man’s voice.

Warren Spahn, Bob Gibson, Steve Carlton … oh, the hard bark on those trees. Many a time some unsuspecting stranger approached one of these individuals only to get snapped at as if by a growling Doberman.

So do not give me any of this malarkey about Barry Bonds and his so-called human shortcomings. What we are witnessing is the greatest single baseball hitter of a generation … perhaps of several generations.

Bonds’ 700th home run should have been as anticipated an event as anything in sports in 2004. It is a distinction of epic proportion. Yet I swear to you, Greg Maddux’s 300th pitching victory gained far more attention.

And 22 different men have done that. Only three have hit 700 homers.

Is there an element of racism in any of this? Maybe. I would like to think not, but maybe. A radio producer I recently overheard grumbled the white media did not want to see Bonds surpass the Babe. This stunned me because I was under the impression Bonds was in pursuit of Aaron, not Ruth.

This is all the more remarkable inasmuch as cowardly pitchers are afraid to let Bonds hit the ball. A pitcher from a last-place team recently walked him on purpose in a game the Giants already were winning 5-0.

If thrown to like a normal batter, Bonds would have 800 homers.

A gaping yawn, alas, greeted his 700th throughout much of America.

Oh, he was on the front page of the sports section and at the top of the TV sports news, but there was no ripple effect, no accompanying thrill as there was when Cal Ripken Jr. or Mark McGwire did something remarkable.