An Offering Bonds Can't Refuse

By Elliott Teaford

April 13, 2004 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

Barry Bonds watched the ball rocket toward a splashdown in McCovey Cove on Monday afternoon, raised his arms in triumph, then clapped his hands as he began to take his 660th trot around the bases.

After five games of seeing pitches he couldn’t master, the San Francisco Giant left fielder slammed a 3-and-1 offering from Milwaukee Brewer starter Matt Kinney over the right-field fence for a three-run homer in the fifth inning that tied him with Willie Mays on the all-time list.

Now only Hank Aaron, with 755 home runs, and Babe Ruth, with 714, are ahead of the 39-year-old Bonds, who has averaged 43 home runs a season over the last 10 years and set the single-season record with 73 in 2001.

“Right now, this is a great accomplishment for myself,” Bonds said of No. 660, which propelled the Giants to a 7-5 victory over the Brewers in the home opener at SBC Park, formerly Pacific Bell Park. “I’m not going to try to figure out what’s going to happen next.

“It was like a weight was just lifted off my shoulders. It’s a relief now to be able to stand next to my godfather [Mays] and finally feel like I’ve accomplished something in the game of baseball. It was a big way of getting his approval that I’ve finally done something.”

Mays greeted his godson near home plate, extending to him a diamond-encrusted Olympic torch -- one Giant Hall of Fame outfielder to a future Giant Hall of Fame outfielder. They had each carried the torch before the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.

After a brief embrace, they posed for photographers, Bonds taking off his batting helmet and Mays removing his eyeglasses.

“It’s a great honor to do this today, in front of our hometown fans, to have Willie here,” Bonds said. “I felt I was pushing myself a little bit with Willie with me, traveling. Willie kept telling me, ‘I’m OK, don’t worry about me.’ Willie is my mentor. As an athlete, to have someone like Willie Mays with you is amazing.”

A sellout crowd of 42,548 cheered Bonds, chanting “Barry! Barry!” when he took a curtain call, bounding out of the dugout to acknowledge the fans with a wave.

Children in the left-field grandstand bowed toward him as Bonds took his position for the top of the sixth inning.

Bonds had heard only boos during three games in Houston and three in San Diego. He had been on a three-for-16 slide with six walks in five games since hitting his 659th homer on opening day against the Astros.

“I’d like to do it at home,” Bonds had said after doubling and walking twice in the Giants’ 6-3 victory Sunday over the San Diego Padres.

He got his chance with two runners on base in the fifth inning Monday against the Brewers, and didn’t miss Kinney’s 3-1 delivery, sending it an estimated 442 feet.

“I wanted him to get it over with -- that was No. 1,” Mays said. “When Barry swings hard, nothing happens. If you looked at his swing today, it was an easy, compact swing and the ball went a long ways. In Houston and San Diego, he was trying to lift the ball to give it a little help.”

Monday marked the 28th time Bonds had homered into the cove, named for another former Giant star, Willie McCovey.

Bonds later showed off the ball, snared in the cove by a 53-year-old man from Fairfield, Calif., who was paddling with his son.

The central figure in a continuing federal doping investigation, Bonds and his records are under unprecedented scrutiny, with more on the way as he continues to belt home runs.

Greg Anderson, Bonds’ personal trainer, was one of four men indicted this year on charges of illegally supplying the new designer steroid known as THG, allegedly made by the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative.

Investigators have been told Bonds was one of five major leaguers to have received steroids from BALCO, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Bonds, who has denied using steroids, also was one of seven major league players who testified before a federal grand jury in San Francisco.

Fans in San Diego’s new Petco Park jeered Bonds during the weekend series, some chanting “BALCO! BALCO!” when he came to the plate. Others, in a standing-room-only section behind the left-field fence, held up hand-lettered signs that spelled out BALCO while Bonds played in the field.

The steroids story began to dominate national and international headlines in the days and weeks after the death of Bonds’ father, Bobby, a former major league player, in August.

Bonds has been comforted in the early days of the new season by Mays, who traveled with the Giants to Houston and San Diego in the hope of seeing his home-run total matched.

Mays hit his 660th home run off Cincinnati’s Don Gullett on Aug. 17, 1973, while with the New York Mets.

In the days leading up to Bonds’ 660th, with a healthy contingent of reporters following the club in Houston and San Diego, San Francisco Manager Felipe Alou refused to call the left fielder’s pursuit of Mays a distraction.

“We’ve had kind of a friendly thing,” Alou said. “Now if it was 714, 715 or 756....

“Right now, it’s all in the family,” he continued after a pause.

That much was certain Monday.

“I really wish my dad could have been here to be a part of this,” Bonds said. “I just feel like I completed my family’s circle. Willie took my dad under his wing when he was a young player. My dad was in right field, Willie in center and me in left field.”

Before the game, Bonds received his sixth major league most-valuable-player award from nine-time NHL MVP Wayne Gretzky and five-time NBA MVP Bill Russell. Bonds called it “a great honor to have Wayne and Bill here.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Comparing Top Home-Run Hitters

Comparing Barry Bonds’ numbers with those of Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth and Willie Mays, in photo with Bonds, left. Averages are rounded:

*--* AARON RUTH MAYS BONDS HOME RUNS 755 714 660 660 AVERAGE HOME RUNS PER SEASON 37 46 36 41 40-PLUS HOME-RUN SEASONS 8 11 6 7 LED LEAGUE IN HOME RUNS 4 12 4 2 SEASON HIGH FOR HOME RUNS 47 60 52 73 AT-BATS PER HOME RUN 16.4 11.8 16.5 13.3

*--*

Magic Numbers

Comparing the numbers of Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Barry Bonds and Willie Mays (with their rank on all-time list):

*--* Player Aaron Ruth Bonds Mays Games 3,298 (3) 2,503 (43) 2,576 (34) 2,992 (9) At-bats 12,364 (2) 8,399 (90) 8,747 (71) 10,881 (11) Runs 2,174 (T3) 2,174 (T3) 1,947 (9) 2,062 (6) Hits 3,771 (3) 2,873 (36) 2,604 (68) 3,283 (11) 2B 624 (9) 506 (37) 540 (T22) 523 (31) 3B 98 136 (71) 74 140 (64) HR 755 (1) 714 (2) 660 (T3) 660 (T3) AB/HR 16.38 11.76 13.25 16.49 RBI 2,297 (1) 2,213 (2) 1,749 (16) 1,903 (9) BB 1,402 (22) 2,062 (3) 2,078 (2) 1,464 (17) SO 1,383 (58) 1,330 (71) 1,389 (55) 1,526 (28) SB 240 (NR) 123 (NR) 500 (36) 338 (NR) AVG 305 (NR) 342 (T9) 296 (NR) 302 (NR) OB% 374 (NR) 474 (2) 434 (8) 384 (NR) SLG% 555 (28) 690 (1) 603 (7) 557 (25)

*--*

TIMES LED LEAGUE IN MAJOR OFFENSIVE CATEGORIES

*--* AARON (31) RUTH (67) MAYS (24) BONDS (28) Batting Batting Batting Batting average (2) average (1) average (1) average (1) SLG% (4) OB% (10) OB% (2) OB% (7) Runs (3) SLG% (13) SLG% (3) SLG% (6) Hits (2) Runs (8) Runs (2) Runs (1) Total Bases (8) Total Bases (6) Hits (1) Total Bases (1) Doubles (4) Home Runs (12) Total Bases (3) Home Runs (2) Home Runs (4) RBIs (6) Triples (3) RBIs (1) RBIs (4) Walks (11) Home Runs (4) Walks (9) Walks (1) Stolen Bases (4)

*--*

AWARDS AND HONORS

*--* AARON RUTH MAYS BONDS

*--*

* League MVP in 1957

* Top 10 in MVP voting: 13

* All-Star games: 24

* 3 Gold Gloves

* Top 10 in MVP voting: 2

* All-Star games: 2

Note: First All-Star game played in 1933; first MVP award given in 1931

* League MVP in 1954, ’65