Bonds Clubs His 600th

For 14 nerve-racking pitches, the 41,897 fans in Pacific Bell Park held their collective breath before exhaling tepid disappointment.

Barry Bonds was on the brink of history Friday night, trying for the third day in a row to become the fourth member of the 600-home run club, joining Hank Aaron (755), Babe Ruth (714) and his godfather Willie Mays (660).

In his first two at-bats against Pittsburgh Pirate starter Kip Wells, the San Francisco Giant left fielder singled up the middle and grounded out to second.

But in the sixth inning, with camera flashbulbs illuminating the intimate ballpark, Bonds not only entered the exclusive club, he kicked the door down and marveled at his new sanctuary.

On the 15th pitch the right-handed Wells threw to Bonds on the night, Bonds blasted a 2-and-1 offering and sent a towering shot 421 feet into the stands just left of center field, setting off a wild scrum for the ball.

From the moment Bonds swung at 9:25 p.m., he knew the ball was gone, backing out of the box and leaning back to admire the majesty of the moment.

He pointed to the ball’s landing spot and circled the bases as fireworks burst around the bayside stadium, a glowing and smoking pyrotechnics display that read “BONDS 600” rose from beyond the center field wall and the crowd chanted his name.

That Bonds grounded out with two runners on and two out in the eighth inning of the Giants’ 4-3 loss to Pittsburgh took little, if any, bloom off the rose of his earlier accomplishment.

“I don’t really understand how I got here so fast,” Bonds, 38, said of his rapid ascent to baseball’s power-hitting pantheon. “It just seems like my timing is kind of bad with Sept. 11 last year going through 73 [single-season homers] and strike issues and stuff this year with 600. I haven’t had the best timing when it comes to those moments, but at the same time, I’m very happy and proud of it.”

Bonds hit a record 73 home runs last season, three years after Mark McGwire hit 70 to smash Roger Maris’ 37-year-old record of 61.

Bonds, who began the 2001 season with 494 career home runs, was 17th on the all-time list. Combine last year’s record-smashing performance with the 33 times he has gone deep this year, to pass Harmon Killebrew, McGwire and Frank Robinson, and Bonds has leapfrogged 13 places on the career chart.

And at an age when most players begin to slow down, Bonds is accelerating. Since hitting his 500th home run last April, Bonds has needed only 710 at-bats to get his 600th homer. Ruth had been the previous quickest, needing 1,121 at-bats to go from 500 to 600.

Bonds, who came to San Francisco as a free agent from the Pirates on Dec. 8, 1992, re-signed with the Giants in January, a five-year, $90-million deal that should see him challenge Aaron’s 26-year-old mark in the next three years.

Consider: Bonds, a four-time National League most valuable player, needs 156 home runs to pass Aaron ... and 156 home runs ago for Bonds came on Sept. 21, 1999, less than three years ago.

But Bonds eschews such talk.

“That will never happen,” he said. “Every year it’s harder, it gets tougher on me. My number of games will probably go down a little bit as the years go on and after four more years, I’m out of here. That’s it for me.”

Bonds became the second-fastest to reach 600 home runs, in both games played and at-bats needed. He reached the feat in 2,395 games (Ruth did it in 2,044) and hit No. 600 in his 8,212th at-bat (Ruth did it in his 6,921st at-bat).

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*--* The Big Boppers Baseball’s all-time home run leaders: No. Player HR Games AB AB/HR 1. HANK AARON 755 3,298 12,364 16.38 2. BABE RUTH 714 2,503 8,399 11.76 3. WILLIE MAYS 660 2,992 10,881 16.49 4. BARRY BONDS 600 2,395 8,213 13.69 5. FRANK ROBINSON 586 2,808 10,006 17.07 6. MARK McGWIRE 583 1,874 6,187 10.55 7. HARMON KILLEBREW 573 2,435 8,147 14.21 8. REGGIE JACKSON 563 2,820 9,864 17.52 9. MIKE SCHMIDT 548 2,404 8,352 15.24 10. MICKEY MANTLE 536 2,401 8,102 15.12

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