714. . .

Seven-fourteen came with a home-plate hug for his son, blown kisses for his wife and daughter, and a curtain-call ovation in a rival ballpark from adversarial fans.

Barry Bonds, a controversial figure whose alleged steroid use has raised debate over the legitimacy of the latter part of his career, homered into the right-field seats Saturday afternoon at McAfee Coliseum and tied Babe Ruth for second place all-time.

His 714th career home run placed him behind only Hank Aaron, who hit 755 home runs from 1954 to ’76. Ruth, the New York Yankees icon, held the record from 1921 until Aaron passed him on April 8, 1974.

In a postgame news conference, in which he sat beside his young daughter and had his son standing nearby, Bonds called reaching Ruth “a lot of relief. Well, until something else comes up.”

In Bonds’ 41st plate appearance since No. 713, the Bambino decided he had squirmed long enough.

On the third pitch of the second inning from Oakland A’s left-hander Brad Halsey, at 1:32 p.m. PDT, Bonds turned on a fastball and sent a baseball marked B-71 -- for the purpose of authenticity -- soaring toward right field. The pro-A’s crowd roared in delight as Bonds dropped his bat and pointed to family members seated behind the first base dugout.

“It’s just overwhelming,” he said. “It really is overwhelming.”

He added that the home run that matched Ruth would be more meaningful than the next.

“Once you tie,” he said, “everything after is just passing. Trying to get there is harder.”

Bonds, 41, playing on an arthritic right knee and with bone spurs in his left elbow, has hit six home runs this season. The latest came as the San Francisco Giants’ designated hitter, the ninth of his career as a DH, and while batting cleanup. The ball was caught in the right-field seats by Tyler Snyder, 19, of nearby Pleasanton.

Bonds arrived at the plate and kissed his 16-year-old son, Nikolai, a team batboy who was holding his father’s bat, on the cheek. He would not allow a question to be addressed to Nikolai, saying, “He’s not onstage.”

Seven weeks into his 21st big-league season, Bonds had matched Ruth, and his relief was evident. While he had once been dismissive of Ruth and those who admire him, in recent months he’d lauded Ruth and his accomplishments.

Nearly three years ago, Bonds had said, “Seven-fifty-five isn’t a number that’s always caught my eye. The only number I’m concerned with is Babe Ruth’s. As a left-handed hitter, I wiped him out. That’s it. And in the baseball world, Babe Ruth’s everything, right? I got his [single-season] slugging percentage, I got him on on-base, I got him on walks and then I’ll take his [lifetime] home run record and that’s it. Don’t talk about him no more.”

He’d since softened that view, praising Ruth for “what he brought to the game of baseball.... He changed the game of baseball. We’ve all had the opportunity to add our two cents and all.”

Reminded of his previous opinion, Bonds asked to hear taped proof of the comment. When it was read back to him instead, he said, “I don’t recall that.”

Aaron is 41 home runs away.

“I don’t have to worry about that right now,” he said. “It’s far away. So I can have fun again.”

Bonds, who will be 42 in July, hit his first home run on June 4, 1986, as a wiry rookie with the Pittsburgh Pirates, a year after being drafted out of Arizona State. He played seven seasons in Pittsburgh, where he established himself as a gifted five-tool player, won two of his seven most valuable player awards and began a run of 13 All-Star games and eight Gold Glove awards.

He did not hit more than 34 home runs in a season, however, until 1993, his first in San Francisco, when he hit 46, drove in 123 runs, batted .336 and again was the league MVP.

And so began the affair between Bonds -- the son of former Giants favorite Bobby Bonds, raised in the Candlestick Park clubhouse and schooled in nearby San Mateo -- and San Francisco.

He hit at least 40 home runs four times in his first eight seasons in San Francisco, and in 2001 he hit 73, breaking the single-season record of 70 set by Mark McGwire three years before. Having attached perhaps 40 pounds of muscle to his previously slender build, Bonds followed that with seasons of 46, 45 and 45 home runs, for four consecutive MVP seasons.

In that time, Bonds set the standard for combining power and speed, becoming the first player with 500 or more home runs and 500 or more stolen bases. He entered the 2006 season ranked third all-time in home runs and 33rd in steals.

It was in that period, however, when Bonds was first linked to performance-enhancing drugs.

As baseball took its first steps toward adopting its current anti-steroids program, beginning with survey testing after the 2002 season, federal and local authorities were gathering evidence against the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative. Run by Victor Conte, BALCO was suspected of supplying conventional and designer steroids to dozens of top athletes.

Linked to Conte and BALCO through seized documents, Bonds, along with Gary Sheffield, Jason Giambi, Benito Santiago and others, testified before a federal grand jury in the fall of 2003. More than a year later, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Bonds told the grand jury he did not knowingly take steroids, but described taking substances prosecutors believed were designer steroids provided by his personal trainer through BALCO.

Giambi reportedly admitted to steroid use, and Sheffield gave testimony similar to that of Bonds, who is reportedly the focus of a second federal grand jury inquiry into whether he committed perjury in a December 2003 hearing during the BALCO investigation. But, because of his proximity to Ruth and Aaron, Bonds has absorbed far more criticism, both in the media and from fans in games played away from San Francisco.

In a book written by two San Francisco Chronicle reporters, “Game of Shadows,” Bonds was alleged to have used steroids for at least five years, beginning in 1998. Between innings of the Angels-Dodgers game Saturday at Dodger Stadium, a clip of Bonds’ 714th home run was roundly booed. Bonds apparently has passed drug tests administered by baseball or its agents since the 2004 season.

In March, Commissioner Bud Selig ordered a broad investigation of steroids in baseball. He appointed former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell to lead the inquiry. As of this week Mitchell had not contacted Bonds or his representatives.

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

At 714

The statistics of baseball’s three leading home run hitters at the point at which each hit his 714th home run:

*--* Aaron Ruth Bonds At-Bats 11291 8388 9234 Hits 3510 2873 2764 Runs 2062 2172 2100 RBIs 2136 2212 1868

*--*

THE TOP 10

*--* 1. Hank Aaron 755 6. Frank Robinson 586 2. Barry Bonds 714 7. Mark McGwire 583 2. Babe Ruth 714 8. Harmon Killebrew 573 4. Willie Mays 660 9. Rafael Palmeiro 569 5. Sammy Sosa 588 10. Reggie Jackson 563

*--*

THE TOP 10 AFTER 1976

*--* 1. Hank Aaron 755 6. Mickey Mantle 536 2. Babe Ruth 714 7. Jimmie Foxx 534 3. Willie Mays 660 8. Ted Williams 521 4. Frank Robinson 586 9. Ernie Banks 512 5. Harmon Killebrew 573 9. Eddie Mathews 512

*--*

THE TOP 10 AFTER 1935

*--* 1. Babe Ruth 714 6. Cy Williams 251 2. Lou Gehrig 378 7. Hack Wilson 244 3. Jimmie Foxx 302 8. Mel Ott 242 4. Rogers Hornsby 300 9. Chuck Klein 232 5. Al Simmons 256 10. Goose Goslin 218

*--*