Bonds offers little insight on record, or anything

For every boo aimed through cupped hands when Barry Bonds stepped to the plate Tuesday at Dodger Stadium there was a camera flashing when he swung the bat and thousands of people edging forward in their seats to get a better look at the man they love to hate.

Many fans jeered when he strolled out to left field, but they watched and they cared, riveted by the polarizing spectacle the 42-year-old Riverside native has become.

Bonds was 0 for 2 with two walks in the San Francisco Giants’ 5-3 victory over the Dodgers, remaining 15 home runs short of tying Hank Aaron’s record of 755. He’s either one of the greatest home run hitters the game has known or a prime example of better slugging through chemistry, or maybe both.

Despite his late-career home run surge -- he set a single-season record of 73 in 2001, the summer he turned 37, and hit 209 from 2001 through 2004 -- he has never been known to test positive for performance-enhancing drugs. He has denied knowingly using them and told a grand jury looking into the BALCO steroids scandal that he believed substances given to him in 2003 by his trainer, Greg Anderson, were flaxseed oil and rubbing balm, not steroids.

He may have escaped indictment only because Anderson went to jail rather than say whether Bonds’ initials are on calendars that prosecutors allege chronicle the outfielder’s usage of human growth hormone, testosterone and other banned substances.

Bonds doesn’t care what anyone thinks of him and offers little insight into his feelings. He never was warm and fuzzy, and age and success haven’t softened him.

Sitting atop the bench in the visitors’ dugout before Tuesday’s game, facing a semi-circle of reporters, he refused to discuss whether he feeds off fans’ venom and enjoys playing the Dodgers, whom he has victimized for 63 home runs.

“I’m trying to win baseball games. I’m not having that conversation,” said Bonds, who was batting .348 with six home runs and 12 runs batted in before he was stymied Tuesday.

He also rebuffed questions about his approach toward Aaron’s record.

“I don’t even want to talk about that anymore. I just play with my teammates and have fun,” he said. “You guys can count it down on your own.”

Aaron has said he doesn’t plan to watch Bonds break his record and Commissioner Bud Selig has been silent about his plans. Mention of that didn’t ruffle Bonds.

“I don’t have any thoughts about it. I have a lot of respect for them and that’s how I’ll leave it,” he said. “Right now I hope people just come out and see us play.”

He said he hopes that the New York Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez, who leads the major leagues with 14 home runs, hits 100 homers this season and someday eclipses his own final total.

“That’s what the game’s about,” Bond said. “It brings people to the stadium. Go on, A-Rod, do your damn thing. Keep that look in your eye.

“I’m happy with me. I’m happy with whatever I do.”

Bonds said he would talk only about the team, he said, not himself. This from the man who groused about batting second last season to bolster the lineup, the man who’s known to leave the clubhouse before reporters enter and not always run out ground balls.

OK, let’s talk about the Giants. Does he wonder if they can manufacture enough runs?

“I don’t get concerned about anything except I’ve got a 16-year-old daughter who dates and my son, he has a girlfriend, and my 8-year-old, he has a crush on some second-grader. That’s about it,” he said.

The Giants have gotten decent pitching to go with his torrid hitting, perhaps signs of good things ahead. It was suggested that Bonds, who was 11 for 20 over his previous seven games, had been driving fastballs better than he did a few weeks ago. He wouldn’t bite that marshmallow, either.

“Baseball is 162 games,” Bonds said. “You can’t analyze a week. You can’t even analyze a day. It’s every day. It’s an everyday grind.

“There’s going to be times in the game of baseball that you’re not going to be able to do what you do. Period. I don’t care who you are or how great you are.”

The closest he came to introspection was in describing how he handles adversity.

“I don’t worry about things when they’re going bad because they’re already there, anyway. I panic when I’m good because I’m trying to figure how long that’s going to last,” Bonds said.

“I remember my dad [saying], ‘Don’t panic when it’s bad because things are already bad and that will make it worse. Panic when things are going good because it could last for a day, two days, a week or whatever, so when you’re going good, that’s when you should worry.’ ”

By that logic, he should have been very apprehensive before Tuesday’s game.

“Yeah, I’m worried as hell,” he said, with a deadpan delivery. “I’m trying to get you guys outta here so I can join my teammates and start having fun.”

If he wanted to leave his audience laughing, he fell short. And as always, he left more questions than answers.

helene.elliott@latimes.com

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