IT’S BONDS AWAY!

Maybe this is his way of defusing the pressure and expectation that will escalate in company with his home run total, but Barry Bonds sits quietly in a corner of the visitor’s clubhouse at Qualcomm Stadium and insists he is not pursuing any regular-season records. The goal is postseason redemption.

His is now the most prolific first-half home-run pace in baseball history, but it’s the specter of his .196 average for 97 playoff at-bats that he hopes to erase, Bonds says, not the 70 home runs that Mark McGwire hit in 1998.

Of course, maybe he can do both.

Maybe he can maintain his astounding ratio of a home run every 5.6 at-bats this season, wipe out the McGwire record by attaining his current and equally astounding projection of 86 homers and help his San Francisco Giants extend their season into October, his cruelest month.

Maybe even people can work through the haze of some long-standing media perceptions and learn to embrace Bonds as they did the amiable and accessible McGwire and Sammy Sosa during their home run battles of 1998 and ’99. Maybe people will now recognize how good he has been for 15 seasons and Bonds, 37 next month and even better now in some ways, can learn to enjoy the embrace.

After all, hasn’t he been hearing a smattering of cheers now even on the road, along with the chant of Bar-ry?

Didn’t he grin in his clubhouse corner and ask, “Who doesn’t want to be loved?”

Well, if this is to be the real thing, if Bonds is to generate and sustain a display of national passion, producing the affection and admiration that eluded him even as the Sporting News’ player of the decade in the ‘90s, as an eight-time Gold Glove winner and a three-time winner of the most-valuable-player award, he will have to cope with the same media and spotlight he has often shunned--and, of course, keep those homer-meters purring.

In that regard, Bonds said he is simply not in McGwire’s class as a home run hitter, doesn’t have his size and strength, and there’s “little or no chance” he will break the record.

Perhaps, but at an age when most power hitters have begun to fade (Henry Aaron being one of the few exceptions), Bonds is physically pumped and primed, happier in his home life than ever, driven, many believe, by his imminent free agency and the desire to show the Giants they made a mistake in not extending his expiring contract during the spring and driven as well, many also believe, by a desire to prove that he and not teammate Jeff Kent should have been the National League MVP in 2000.

Maybe all of that plays into what Bonds is doing, which includes a .325 batting average and 68 runs batted in. Maybe no one should be surprised, considering how good he has been for so long.

Maybe, with McGwire, Ken Griffey Jr. and Nomar Garciaparra injured for most of the first half, with Alex Rodriguez somewhere deep in the heart of Texas, with a fading Cal Ripken in his final season, Bonds has more of the stage to himself and has forced us to pay attention--to “rediscover” in some ways, as Giant Manager Dusty Baker put it--just how good he is.

He has primarily done it with 38 homers in 72 games through Thursday. No one has ever hit more before the All-Star break. No one has reached 38 in fewer games.

Approaching the halfway mark in a 162-game schedule, Bonds has twice the number of homers as singles (38-19) and a slugging percentage of .920. He has vaulted from 494 homers at the start of the season to 532, only two behind Jimmie Foxx, who is 10th on the all-time list.

Suddenly, Aaron, with his career record of 755, and McGwire, with his season record of 70, are within view, but Bonds says both are safe.

Although he has averaged 40 homers a year for the last five years, hit a career-high 49 last year and has had 10 consecutive seasons of 30 or more, only two behind the major league record held by Foxx, Bonds sat by his locker and said he could “guarantee” he would not have the energy or endurance to play the six or more years needed to catch Aaron, who hit 163 homers after turning 37 and extended his career as a designated hitter.

Bonds added:

“I’m sure that Luis Gonzalez [the Arizona outfielder who is second to Bonds in homers with 31] and myself are more shocked by what we’re doing than the people trying to analyze what we’re doing. Everyone is trying to figure out what’s going on and I give the same answer to everyone. Ask God. If I knew what was going on, I’d have done this a long time ago.

“I mean, Mark McGwire is the big man, the home run man. He’s averaged 50 home runs for the last four or five years and I’ve never even hit 50. He’s been hitting home runs since he was born, and I’ve had to learn how to hit them. He hits it 520 feet when he’s tired, I hit it 220. I don’t think about McGwire’s record, I don’t want McGwire’s record, I won’t care if I don’t get it.

“People can say what they want, that Barry does really care, but I don’t. I do care about his World Series ring. I definitely do care about that. I want a World Series ring, that’s the key for me, but I don’t need personal records. I have quite a few of those.”

Haunted by his performance in three playoffs with the Pittsburgh Pirates and two with the Giants, Bonds said he gained further incentive and inspiration from seeing Ray Bourque of the Colorado Avalanche win his first Stanley Cup after a long and distinguished career. He also smiled and said he tries to “ask God every day” why, in a sport of offensive spurts, He has never blessed “me with the type of home run binge in the playoffs that I’ve been on this season. I mean, I don’t want to hit .196 in the playoffs. I don’t want to let my team and myself down. I don’t want to feel my career is incomplete. The best of times for Barry Bonds will come when I’ve reached the promised land of the World Series and I can hold up my hand with a ring on my finger. That will be all the gratification and satisfaction I need.”

Perhaps, but Bonds knows it will be difficult to escape the McGwire comparisons, especially this weekend, when they go mano a mano in St. Louis. The reality is that he could have 45 or more homers by the July 10 All-Star game, 55 or more by August. Of course, on a team struggling offensively, he may become more of a target and get even fewer pitches to hit. He has walked 117 or more times in five of the last six years and is among the all-time top 10 in on-base percentage, .489 this year.

Bonds is also the only player to have hit at least 400 homers and stolen 400 bases (477). However, running less as he has gotten older, he has redefined his body through diet and training--he has three nutrition and conditioning specialists on his personal staff and two travel with him--to add muscle and flexibility, with the aim of elevating and powering the ball. Is he bigger and stronger?

“Absolutely,” said teammate Eric Davis, who is a lean 6 feet 3 and 180 pounds. “He came [to the majors] at my size. Now he’s 220, 225, solid muscle with the same bat speed. I don’t think anybody has ever choked up [on the bat] and hit 500 homers, so that’s amazing in itself. He probably has the shortest swing of any power hitter I’ve seen in a long time. I think what makes him special is that [his power] goes from foul pole to foul pole. He hits it just as far to left field as he does to right field, and that’s what separates him. His ability to do it all for as long as he has is what greatness is about.”

During his current rampage, Bonds has consistently gone up and over defenses massed on the right side of the diamond, but as teammate Benito Santiago told the San Diego Union, “I haven’t seen the one shift that might work--outfielders floating in balloons, or maybe circling in gliders.”

The impression watching from the dugout, said Tony Gwynn, the San Diego Padres’ eight-time batting champion, is that “Barry’s recognizing pitches the split second they’re leaving the pitcher’s hand . . . the instant, the millisecond. When you have a hitter of that ability recognizing pitches that early, it spells trouble.”

Said Baker: “Barry is at a point in his career where he’s like an upperclassman playing with freshmen and sophomores. He’s simply eliminated a lot of the guesswork through experience. To a certain degree the game has become easier for him, and the scary part of what he’s done so far is that he’s always been a second-half home run hitter, which a lot of guys are. Pitchers start to wear down. They don’t get as much movement and sink. If he stays healthy, I wouldn’t be surprised by anything he does. Barry and Rickey [Henderson] are the only guys I’ve seen who can get ready, turn it on and go attain a goal, no matter what it is or what the obstacles are. I mean, for Barry, he’s treating it like a day at the office. He’s focused, on a mission. I don’t know what the mission is, but I hope he stays on it.”

A mission? Bonds disputed that. He said it implied he is treating this season differently than others, when, in fact, “I will always try to live up to the standards I’ve established, no matter how many years I have left on a contract.”

In addition, although admittedly happier and more settled in his home life since his 1998 marriage to Liz Watson, better able to prioritize and enjoy his three children, Bonds said he has “always been able to play the game, to separate what was happening off the field from what I have to do on it.”

The reference was to his previous marriage having ended in a long, ugly and costly divorce proceeding that ultimately reached the California Supreme Court and, in Baker’s view, put “Barry through hell. The job was an escape. If you’re happier at home, it stands to reason you’ll be happier at work.”

There is the uncertainty as to where and for whom Bonds will work next year, but he also dismissed the unresolved contract issue as the source of any mission. The last time Bonds came up to free agency was 1992. He won an MVP award with the Pirates and signed a six-year, $43.75-million contract with the Giants. He is winding up a three-year, $22.9-million extension.

Agent Scott Boras approached the Giants in March and proposed a four-year extension under market value, according to Boras. The Giants continue to say they want to re-sign Bonds but first have to get a thorough reading on second-year revenue in Pacific Bell Park and how his signing would affect the rest of the payroll.

Bonds was raised in the Giants’ organization, his father (Bobby) and godfather (Willie Mays) having each been a signature player, but there will be no discounts when the season ends, and the price will be higher than it was in March.

“I’m not disappointed [by the Giants’ decision],” Bonds said. “I don’t want anyone misunderstanding how I feel about the Giants or any other organization. It’s a business. I’m grateful to have been able to wear the uniform I wanted to wear as a kid, but I can’t help it if the employer says that’s enough. The good part is, I will have a job, whether it’s with the Giants or not, and I’ll have no hard feelings if it’s not. They can make whatever decision they want, but they have to live with that decision. It’s their right, and I hope it’s understood and accepted by people that I also have the right to make a decision that’s best for me and my family. If people accept and support what the Giants decide, it’s unfair to assume I’m greedy or ungrateful if I make a decision to leave.”

Perceptions, of course, are difficult to shake.

Bonds has long believed that the public perception has been colored by a media portrayal as “surly and standoffish” simply because he has always chosen to be his own person, getting in his work, doing his job, rejecting the spotlight for the most part. He believes that fans in general have missed the opportunity to enjoy his performances because their view has been clouded by that media profile. Now, of course, he will have a chance to change the image, providing he lets the media in as he closes on McGwire.

Although interview requests are channeled through a personal publicist, Bonds has told the Giants that he recognizes his responsibility and will be receptive to group sessions with the media when the time is right. He said, however, he is concerned about doing anything that will separate him from the team, a concern McGwire has often expressed, but is hopeful the media and public will show him the respect in that regard they have McGwire.

For the time being, Bonds added, it’s all premature.

Besides, isn’t he chasing a ring and not a record?