No Milestone for Bonds

Barry Bonds uses steroids. Willie Mays doesn’t respect the game.

Which is the more shocking allegation?

As for Mays and respect, the answer came easily once everyone calmed down before the San Francisco Giants defeated the Houston Astros, 7-5, Tuesday night at Minute Maid Park.

Bonds was one for four with a walk, one day after hitting his 659th homer. He faces Roger Clemens tonight in the series finale.

As for Mays, there was agreement that the man many consider one of the greatest players of all time does indeed respect the game.

The short-lived furor was triggered by comments the 72-year-old Hall of Famer made a day earlier about how he planned to honor the 660th home run by his godson, Bonds, a home run that would tie his own mark at third all-time.

After Bonds’ next homer, Mays plans to hand him a diamond-encrusted Olympic torch. The part that irked the Astros was Mays saying the torch-passing would occur at home plate.

“That would bother me,” Astro catcher Brad Ausmus said.

The “You’ve got to respect the game” comments started shortly thereafter. Nobody went so far as to use Mays’ name in the same sentence, but the implication was clear.

Cooler heads, helped by a clarification from Giant officials, prevailed by the end of batting practice.

Should Bonds homer tonight, Mays apparently won’t walk to home plate. He’ll just take a few steps out of the dugout and wait to hand him the torch.

Katy Feeney, Major League Baseball’s vice president of club relations, wasn’t even clear on the torch part.

“That’s a Willie Mays thing,” she said. “The game will not stop. It’s quite an achievement, but it is a milestone, not a record. There is no ceremony. There will be recognition.”

Mays, she said, has permission from the commissioner’s office to come out of the dugout with the team “sort of like a 26th man.”

Drayton McLane, owner of the Astros, downplayed the controversy, not wanting to create the impression that he was a poor host.

“Willie Mays respects the game as much as anybody,” he said.

“Whatever they do won’t interrupt the flow of the game.”

Nothing interrupted the Giants’ steady flow of 15 hits against starter Andy Pettitte and three relievers. It was Pettitte’s first start as an Astro after nine seasons with the New York Yankees. He lasted 5 1/3 innings, gave up 11 hits and six runs, and took the loss.

Pettitte had success with Bonds, getting him to hit into a double play in the first inning and to pop up in the third. He walked him intentionally in the fifth.

Bonds hit a bloop single against reliever Dan Micelli in the seventh and flew out to left field with the bases loaded against Brandon Duckworth to end the eighth.

So Mays didn’t pass the torch on this night. He did, however, get some exercise.

Each time Bonds batted, he walked from the clubhouse to the dugout, climbing 23 steps. Each time Bonds failed to homer, he walked back to the clubhouse.

Bonds doesn’t really like his godfather watching his at-bats from the dugout, saying it adds pressure. But he can’t wait for the home-run moment.

“That’s exciting, man,” Bonds said. “One day when I write my book it’s probably the best story I can imagine. Being a little boy admiring someone and then playing the same game, and to have this man walk onto the field in a situation like that, there’s no better story than that.”

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Barry Bonds needs one home run to tie Willie Mays on the career home run list. A look (x-active):

*--* Player No. 1. Hank Aaron 755 2. Babe Ruth 714 3. Willie Mays 660 4. x-Barry Bonds 659 5. Frank Robinson 586 6. Mark McGwire 583 7. Harmon Killebrew 573 8. Reggie Jackson 563 9. Mike Schmidt 548 10. x-Sammy Sosa 539

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