BASEBALL WINTER MEETINGS : Giants Finally Get Their Bonds : Contract: He is guaranteed a record $43.75 million for six years, plus fringe benefits that include hotel suite on road.

The new owners of the San Francisco Giants will take uniform No. 24 out of retirement so that it can be worn by Willie Mays’ godson, Barry Bonds, who shed tears and talked with emotion Tuesday at the long delayed official announcement of his signing.

Bonds otherwise will be laughing his way to the bank, since he is guaranteed a record $43.75 million for six years, with the possibility that it will top out at more than $50 million through interest on deferred salary.

The contract is guaranteed no matter who owns the Giants or for which team he plays.

Which team?

An unprecedented arrangement that lawyers have been working on since the tentative agreement was announced on Saturday and then left in legal limbo specifies that:

--If the new ownership--headed by Safeway chairman Peter Magowan--were not approved, which is unlikely, the team would remain the property of Bob Lurie, who would then have a week to decide if he wanted to keep Bonds and the contract.

--If Lurie decided he didn’t want to assume it, which is obviously what he would decide, since his concern that he would be left holding it if Magowan’s group was rejected is what led to the legal entanglement, Bonds would become a free agent.

--The club that then signed him would be obligated only for the amount of that club’s agreement. The Magowan group would remain responsible for the difference between that amount and the terms of his deal with the Giants. If Bonds, for example, signed with the New York Yankees for $36 million, Magowan and associates would owe $7.5 million.

“I needed and received the guarantee that I wouldn’t have any responsibility, no matter what happened,” Lurie said.

The $100-million sale of the Giants from Lurie to the Magowan group is expected to be approved within 10 days. The only hang-up, according to a member of the ownership committee, is a minor language technicality in the agreement between the Magowan partners.

Bonds’ contract with the Giants calls for a $2.5-million signing bonus and yearly guarantees of $4 million, $4.75 million, $7.75 million, $8 million, $8.25 million and $8.5 million.

He will also get a hotel suite when the team is on the road, bonuses for postseason awards and will have $500,000 deferred from each year’s salary at 9% interest.

He will draw the deferred income for 10 years, starting in 1999. There is also a no-trade clause, but Bonds has excluded only Toronto and Montreal.

Magowan conceded that baseball has obvious financial problems but said, “When you have a chance to sign the game’s best player in the prime of his career you have to go for it.

“It’s expensive and risky, but we’re starting from behind. We haven’t sold one ticket. We’re looking for a jump-start, and we think this is a powerful message to the fans of Northern California regarding our commitment.”

Bonds, 28, a winner of the National League’s most-valuable-player award in two of the last three years with the Pittsburgh Pirates, said it was the most exciting day of his career.

“I want to work as hard for the Giants as Peter has worked (to get the deal done),” said Bonds, who grew up in Northern California, idolized Mays and often visited the Giants’ clubhouse as a youngster when his father, Bobby, was a star outfielder with the team.

“I can’t tell you how joyous it is for me to be going back to the city I grew up in, to be able to share the Giants’ tradition with my father and to have the opportunity to show my children what Willie Mays means to me,” Bonds said in a cracking voice as his father stood nearby. “I want to thank the Giants for allowing me to help keep the Mays name alive.”

It was Bobby Bonds who asked Magowan if it would be possible to activate No. 24, which Barry has always worn.

Magowan said that Mays was honored and delighted.

“We’re building for the future while connecting with the past,” Magowan said.

It is believed that Dusty Baker, a longtime friend of the Bonds family, will be named manager of the Giants shortly and that Bobby Bonds could be his hitting coach, but Magowan said, “We’re taking one step at a time.”

Agent Dennis Gilbert and attorney Steve Schneider thought they had taken this Giant step on Saturday, believing, as Magowan did, that General Manager Bob Quinn, in conversations with previous general manager Al Rosen, had received the necessary consent from Lurie.

Lurie, however, said he never gave that consent, and a Sunday news conference to announce the signing was called off moments before it was scheduled to begin.

“We absolutely felt we had Bob’s approval to go forward, but there was obviously miscommunication,” Magowan said Tuesday.

As lawyers worked to find a solution that would exempt Lurie from any future commitment to Bonds, it is known that Quinn and Rosen engaged in at least one shouting match over what had been said in their previous conversations.

It is also known that Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf, although appalled by the size of the contract, as were many other owners, agreed to a request by Gilbert to help get Magowan and Lurie together.

Magowan said that Bonds’ impact on attendance should help defray costs of the contract and that roster decisions, such as not re-signing free agents Cory Snyder and Mike Felder, would also help.

“We still need improvement but we have three power hitters in the middle of our lineup now who are all under 30,” Magowan said, referring to Bonds, Matt Williams and Will Clark.

Clark will become a free agent when his four-year, $15-million contract expires after the ’93 season and can be expected to seek a Bonds-type contract.

But Magowan said, “I think we’re in even better position to re-sign Clark because Clark wants to play for a winner, and that’s how we should be perceived now.”

Bonds hit 34 home runs last season. Eleven San Francisco outfielders hit 27. Pressure? Bonds dismissed that, saying he should thrive with this opportunity to share in the tradition of his father and godfather.

About 10 1/2 years ago, the Giants drafted Bonds at Serra High in San Mateo. The young Bonds asked for a signing bonus of $75,000. The Giants offered $70,000, and Bonds went to Arizona State before ultimately signing with the Pirates for a $125,000 bonus as their No. 1 pick in the 1985 June draft.

The $5,000 misunderstanding of 1982 became a lot more costly for the Giants this week.