In the hours before Bonds' final Giants home game, you heard louder voices in the clubhouse, not the icy hush of the past 15 seasons. You saw real conversations between teammates.

You felt more energy, though assuredly not emanating from the space that Bonds has claimed and controlled for years. The energy was coming from everywhere else — from Bengie Molina, from Randy Winn, from Matt Cain, from the young players jamming all corners of the big room.

At times, the noise and energy even intruded a bit on the Bonds wing, and that's very, very different.

You know, I've always said that I couldn't imagine a Giants clubhouse without Bonds, but yesterday I started to see.

Call it the Giants Clubhouse of Tomorrow, and it was happening already.

"How will it be different?" Winn said of Bonds' imminent departure. "There probably will be much less media and nobody wearing No.25. Beyond that, I don't know. I've never been here when he's not here."

To be fair to Bonds' achievements and to the respect his teammates have for those epic totals, the clubhouse also buzzed with anticipation for yet another Bonds milestone. For the last Bonds milestone in a Giants uniform, after 15 thunderous seasons.

"You're just so used to seeing him here, and seeing him contribute," said Rich Aurilia, a Bonds teammate for 10 seasons.

And to be accurate, there was also some of the same lingering tension that has always surrounded Bonds.

Owner Peter Magowan and manager Bruce Bochy huddled in the dugout tunnel for 10 minutes, speaking animatedly, and I'm betting it wasn't about the 24 non-Bonds players.

I'm guessing it was about Bonds giving off signals that he might not want to stick around in this game beyond the middle innings.

One last night of Bonds drama . . .

And that's why Bonds' teammates were so loose — after they were tight for so long, yesterday felt like the last day of school mixed with New Year's Eve.

We don't know what's going to happen next, but we know that it'll be brand new, that it has been long overdue, and that many key members of the organization have been wishing for it for a while now.

"When you lose a star player, your go-to-guy, it's going to change the personality, the culture of a ballclub," Bochy said before the game.

How big a change?

"Ask me in a couple weeks," Bochy said. "I'll be able to answer a little better.... I think it's fair to say our personality's going to be a lot more oriented toward speed and defense and not as much toward power."

Of course, Bonds has always been power to the billionth degree: Nobody hit more home runs or exerted more power over a franchise or a clubhouse.

Now that he'll never again dress in a Giants uniform, the power will be spread out, if there are powerful voices to be heard.

"You had someone who won seven MVPs, so there's going to be an imprint," said Larry Baer, the club's executive vice president. "Bruce Bochy's probably a better person to ask this question of, but I'm sure there's going to be a change."

Shortstop Omar Vizquel said: "It's going to be completely different. Completely different."

Molina, the catcher who quickly emerged as a counter-weight to Bonds this season, is already a key voice — without Bonds, and with the pitching staff rising in influence, Molina will be the link and the leader.

If the Giants land a marquee free agent — say, Alex Rodriguez — then surely A-Rod will be a loud, leading voice.

But no matter who is added, Cain will be a cog, too. He is not yet 23 but showed so much levelheaded grit through this frustrating season — 16 losses despite a 3.65 ERA — that he was justly named the team's Good Guy by the Bay Area chapter of the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

Cain chuckled when told he was receiving the award for dealing so well with the same repeated questions after the same repeated tough results.

"Next year," Cain said, "let's come up with something new."

That's guaranteed. You could see that with every private smile on the face of a Giants employee and feel it with every burble of excitement in the clubhouse.

The next time the Giants gather in their home stadium, it will be 2008, and someone else — or several others — will occupy the bank of lockers on the far side of the clubhouse.

Next year, the Giants finally will come up with something new. It'll be a little scary for them, and challenging. But it will be lively and it will not include Bonds.