Cloudy but Clear

I don’t know if Barry Bonds has ever used steroids. He insists that he hasn’t, and that is all we have to go on until testimony or a test tube suggests otherwise.

For now, it is all suspicion and speculation, and although I don’t totally dismiss or ignore it, I have a couple of interrelated thoughts about it.

The first is that if Bonds’ performance over the last four-plus seasons has been enhanced by an illegal substance, it must be something almost nuclear.

The second is that he continues to soar so far beyond the steroid innuendo that he has turned it to dust.

This is not to condone steroid abuse or denigrate the serious issues of health and integrity.

There should be no excuse for the absence of a zero-tolerance program in the sport.

I am saying only that the San Francisco Giant left fielder is operating in his own stratosphere, a league of his own.

I am saying only that on any basis, we are witness to one of the greatest offensive performances in baseball history.

Is Bonds the best ever?

That’s definitely possible, but I lack the acumen to compare eras and styles.

Legitimate claims can be made on behalf of an entire Cooperstown wing. Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Ted Williams, Willie Mays and Hank Aaron, among others, all have their proponents.

I am saying only that never has a power hitter been more productive with fewer opportunities than Bonds, and only the immortal Babe, among the power elite, dominated a span of years as Bonds has since 2000.

Talk about history.

In a span matching the pitching dominance of Sandy Koufax in the early to mid-’60s, the six-time National League most valuable player has shattered baseball’s single-season records for home runs, slugging percentage, on-base percentage and that new measure of overall skill and seamhead favorite, OPS -- a combination of on-base and slugging percentages.

In the process, Bonds hit a record 73 homers at 36, won a batting title by hitting .370 at 37 and has averaged 53 homers in four full seasons since turning 35 -- all of it while being treated like a ticking time bomb by opposing teams.

Imagine what his statistics would have been if he hadn’t been walked 640 times in those four seasons, 186 of them intentionally. Bonds broke Ruth’s single-season record with 177 walks in 2001, raised it to 198 in 2002 and is closing in on Rickey Henderson’s career record.

No player has ever had a greater impact on game strategy or taken better advantage of the rare occasions when he is afforded a chance to hit.

No player, perhaps, has ever been more confident of his ability to do just that.

Bonds was talking to Mays before a recent game and said, “What do you think, godfather, am I going to get one or two pitches to hit today? I’ll take care of one or the other.”

No kidding.

Since the start of the 2001 season, Bonds is batting .350 with a home run every 7.5 at-bats -- 6.5 when he hit the 73. Last year he slugged 45 in only 390 at-bats while taking 65.9% of the pitches thrown to him, not including intentional walks.

Visiting Anaheim recently, Seattle Mariner second baseman Bret Boone echoed what many managers have said they would do only to pay a price for failing to follow their conviction.

“I’d walk him every time first base was open, even if Albert Pujols was on deck,” Boone said.

Dodger Manager Jim Tracy will be walking the high wire again tonight when Bonds and the Giants open a three-game series at Dodger Stadium.

In a year in which Bonds turns 40 on July 24, having lost his father and mentor to cancer last year and operating without his personal trainer, Greg Anderson, who has been indicted in the federal government’s investigation into the Bay Area supplements laboratory known as BALCO, there has been no letup to his power, production and focus, as Tracy and the Dodgers learned in San Francisco last weekend, when he hit four home runs and drove in eight runs in three games.

The way it most often is now was epitomized Tuesday night when Bonds homered in his only official at-bat against the San Diego Padres, who otherwise walked him three times.

In 16 games, he already has been walked seven times intentionally and 20 overall, but he simply doesn’t miss with a pitch in his zone. He is batting .500 with a slugging percentage (1.342) that tests calculators and nine home runs in 38 at-bats, one every 4.2.

At his current, improbable pace, Bonds would hit 91 home runs for a total of 749, surpassing Ruth’s 714 and closing to within six of Aaron’s record 755. He already is crowding Ruth out of the record book and edging in on his mystique as baseball’s first and foremost power hitter.

The Babe’s most impressive span was a seven-year streak from 1926 through 1932 in which he averaged 151 runs batted in, 144 walks and 49 homers, one every 10.4 at bats.

If Bonds has benefited from an era in which the new parks are generally smaller, the strike zone tighter, the balls livelier and the pitchers inexplicably reluctant to back him off the plate as he leans in with his right arm protected by padding, Ruth’s era had its own comparative perks.

The Bambino did not have to cope with night games or coast-to-coast travel. He did not face pitchers throwing sliders or split-finger fastballs, and he did not generally face fresh relievers in the late innings. There were no African American players and few Latin players enhancing the talent level, and he was fully protected in a Murderers Row lineup (Ruth was not walked intentionally once in his career) while playing home games in a Yankee Stadium built to cater to his left-handed power.

Bonds, by contrast, has maintained his remarkable home run ratios despite limited protection in the Giant lineup and the 81 games he plays in one of baseball’s toughest parks for a left-handed slugger but a park he has turned into his personal haven.

The bottom line?

Comparing players of different eras is a difficult and inconclusive process, but it is enough to say that Bonds is history on parade and certainly comparable to the best hitters of any era.

If steroids, or human-growth hormones, have slowed the aging process and accelerated his bat speed and training benefits, there is no proof at this point.

There is only innuendo, and Bonds’ in-your-face response.

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Big Difference

How much better is Barry Bonds than the rest of his league? One measure of league dominance is by how much a player wins the slugging and on-base percentage titles. Of the top 10 all-time in each category, Bonds is the only player in the last 42 years to appear on the list. A look:

SLUGGING PERCENTAGE

*--* Year Champion (SLG%) Runner-up (SLG%) Margin 1921 Babe Ruth (.846) Harry Heilmann (.606) 240 points 1920 Babe Ruth (.847) George Sisler (.632) 215 points 1924 Babe Ruth (.739) Harry Heilmann (.533) 206 points 2002 Barry Bonds (.799) Brian Giles (.622) 177 points 1926 Babe Ruth (.737) Al Simmons (.564) 173 points 1925 Rogers Hornsby (.756) Kiki Cuyler (.598) 158 points 1922 Rogers Hornsby (.722) Ray Grimes (.572) 150 points 1924 Rogers Hornsby (.696) Ken Williams (.552) 144 points 1948 Stan Musial (.702) Johnny Mize (.564) 138 points 1942 Ted Williams (.648) Charlie Keller (.513) 135 points

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ON-BASE PERCENTAGE

*--* Year Champion (OB%) Runner-up (OB%) Margin 2002 Barry Bonds (.582) Brian Giles (.450) 132 points 1953 Ted Williams (.513) Minnie Minoso (.411) 102 points 1941 Ted Williams (.553) Roy Cullenbine (.452) 101 points 1946 Ted Williams (.497) Charlie Keller (.405) 92 points 1947 Ted Williams (.499) Ferris Fain (.414) 85 points 1942 Ted Williams (.499) Charlie Keller (.417) 82 points 1962 Mickey Mantle (.486) Norm Siebern (.412) 74 points 1924 Babe Ruth (.513) Eddie Collins (.441) 72 points 2003 Barry Bonds (.529) Todd Helton (.458) 71 points 1926 Babe Ruth (.516) Harry Heilmann (.445) 71 points

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Where Bonds Ranks

Where Barry Bonds ranks among the career leaders in various categories:

*--* CATEGORY BONDS’ RANK LEADER ON-BASE PERCENTAGE 434 (7th) TED WILLIAMS .482 SLUGGING PERCENTAGE 605 (6th) BABE RUTH .690 RUNS 1,955 (8th) RICKEY HENDERSON 2,295 TOTAL BASES 5,304 (10th) HANK AARON 6,856 DOUBLES 541 (21st) TRIS SPEAKER 792 HOME RUNS 667 (3rd) HANK AARON 755 RUNS BATTED IN 1,761 (16th) HANK AARON 2,297 WALKS 2,090 (2nd) RICKEY HENDERSON 2,190 EXTRA-BASE HITS 1,282 (5th) HANK AARON 1,477

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Big Men, Big Years

Single-season records held by Barry Bonds and Babe Ruth:

BARRY BONDS

*--* Category Record Runner-up On-base percentage 582 (2002) Ted Williams 553 (1941) Slugging percentage 863 (2001) Babe Ruth 847 (1920) Home Runs 73 (2001) Mark McGwire 70 (1998) Walks 198 (2002) Bonds 177 (2001)

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BABE RUTH

*--* Category Record Runner-up Total Bases 457 (1921) Rogers Hornsby 450 (1922) Extra-base hits 119 (1921) Lou Gehrig 117 (1927) Times on base 379 (1923) Ted Williams 358 (1949)

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