Bonds Comes Up Short Yet Again

The baseball soared high into a cool spring night, arcing toward left-center field in the top of the ninth inning Sunday, with camera flashes dancing around the ballpark and a sellout crowd beginning to rise to its feet.

Barry Bonds knew better.

This was not going to be his 660th home run. He would not tie Willie Mays for third place on the all-time list, fixing his sights next on Babe Ruth’s 714. This was just another long out in the San Diego Padres’ spacious new downtown ballpark.

“It’s not Bonds-proof, it’s baseball-proof,” the San Francisco left fielder would say after the Giants’ 6-3 victory over the Padres in front of 41,492, who booed and jeered his every move.

“Not Tonight Bonds,” read one hand-lettered sign at Petco Park.

“It’s going to come no matter what,” Bonds said. “It’s a matter of when.”

It could happen this afternoon in the friendlier confines of the newly renamed SBC Park, in the embrace of Giant fans, during the team’s home opener against Milwaukee.

Hockey’s Wayne Gretzky will present Bonds with his sixth most-valuable-player award, tops in major league history, during a pregame ceremony. Mays will attend, as he has for each of the first six games.

“Fine with me,” Bonds said when asked whether he preferred to tie Mays, his godfather, at home. When asked whether he was pressing in an attempt to hit No. 660, Bonds replied, “What’s there to press so early in the season? Everyone’s trying to do something, but everything is dying out there.”

Bonds might have had his historic homer in the series opener Thursday, but Jay Payton gloved his laser at the center field fence, not far from the 411-foot marker. Petco Park’s unusual outfield dimensions, including a distance of 402 feet to the power alley in left-center, were the main topic of discussion for Bonds on Sunday.

“It’s odd,” he said of the park. “It’s an odd feeling. It’s really odd, more for the center fielders, who have to cover a lot of ground. It’s odd when you have only one home run hit [during a three-game series] in San Diego, period. I mean, come on.”

San Diego has been good to Bonds. Or rather Qualcomm Stadium, the former home of the Padres, was good to him. Bonds hit 39 homers there, more than at any other visiting park.

But he is on a three-for-16 slide with six walks in five games since hitting No. 658 on opening day. He had a double and walked twice in five plate appearances Sunday.

“No, no pressure,” Giant Manager Felipe Alou said. “He’s kind of disappointed with the way they’re pitching him. But they are pitching to him. I don’t believe Barry Bonds knows what pressure is.”