Dodgers don’t intend to serve it up for Bonds

Barry Bonds’ 500th home run was hit against the Dodgers. So were his record-setting 71st, 72nd and 73rd of the 2001 season.

Today, Bonds is back in Los Angeles within reach of what would be his greatest and most controversial milestone.

Bonds might not play tonight, but the nation’s eyes will be set on Dodger Stadium over the next three days to see if the 43-year-old slugger dogged by steroid accusations can manage two more home runs to transform baseball’s most cherished record into something far more ambiguous in meaning.

Whatever the long-term implications of Bonds belting No. 756 to pass Hank Aaron as the all-time home run leader, the Dodgers don’t want to enable the process.

“I don’t want to be on SportsCenter for the next 20 years,” catcher Russell Martin said.

Said Luis Gonzalez: “I hope it doesn’t happen at our place.”

But if it does?

“I don’t even want to go there,” he said. “We hope he has another series like he did with us last time.”

That was the first series after the All-Star break, when the Dodgers swept the Giants in San Francisco. Bonds was 0 for 12 in the three-game set, including 0 for 5 in the final game, and launched into a profane outburst in which he called himself “an embarrassment.”

Dodgers Manager Grady Little said his team would be cautious with Bonds at the plate, but not because of the record.

“Our pitchers have done a really good job against him this year so far, but it doesn’t take away the respect we have for him every time he steps into the park,” Little said.

Mark Hendrickson, who Wednesday could be the first Dodgers pitcher to face Bonds, claimed he wouldn’t let Bonds’ nearing the record be a distraction.

But at least one Dodgers pitcher said that the particular set of circumstances might cause him to approach Bonds differently if he had to face him.

“I don’t want any part of that ... “ reliever Rudy Seanez said.

Seanez has been in the major leagues for 16 seasons, including at least parts of 10 in the National League, and hasn’t given up a home run to Bonds. He hasn’t even given up a hit to him, as Bonds is 0 for 4 against Seanez with a strikeout and two walks.

But Seanez, echoing Martin’s sentiments, said he doesn’t want to repeatedly see the image of him being made the victim of Bonds’ most famous home run. It’s bad enough, Seanez said, that the highlight clip of Nomar Garciaparra that is shown on the video scoreboard at every home game is of a home run that he served up last season while with the San Diego Padres.

Seanez said he would be “careful,” which, he explained, was different from “nibbling.” “You throw that pitch a little farther outside,” he said.

“Then again,” Seanez said, “I might just change my mind and say, ‘See what happens.’ ”

The subject of Bonds isn’t one the Dodgers were particularly open to discussing last week -- and they were in a spacious clubhouse in Colorado, far from the hundreds of reporters who will descend on Chavez Ravine today.

When one player overheard his teammate being asked about Bonds, he shouted, “They’re already asking you about Bonds?”

Garciaparra is among the bothered, but for different reasons. The source of his agitation is Commissioner Bud Selig, who, after months of deliberation, has decided to follow Bonds’ chase of Aaron’s record. Selig will attend the games in Los Angeles this week, according to the Dodgers.

“In one breath he’s going, ‘Well, in this country you’re innocent until proven guilty,’ and in the next breath he’s saying he’s torn that he’s got to be there,” Garciaparra said. “That makes me chuckle. You can’t talk out of both sides of your mouth. It’s one way or the other.”

And which way does Garciaparra see it?

“He hasn’t been proven guilty of anything,” he said.

Garciaparra said that regardless of the charges leveled against Bonds, the passing of Aaron’s mark would be “a historic event, an unbelievable record. It should be covered that way, as if it was anyone else. If stuff comes out, then you deal with that when it comes out. You can’t take away from something because of accusations.”

Bonds has never been received kindly at Dodger Stadium, but the accusations of steroid use have changed the nature of the boos.

Giants Manager Bruce Bochy said he expected Bonds to be treated the same way that he has in recent visits to the park.

“I don’t think the reception will be any different,” he told reporters in San Francisco. “I don’t think they can take it up a notch. They’re probably the loudest of the teams we play.”

But if Bonds sets the record, Bochy said he wants those same fans to cheer. “I certainly would hope so because of the history that’s being created,” he said.

Giants outfielder Dave Roberts, who was on the other side of the rivalry from 2002 to 2004, had similar thoughts.

“If it does happen and Henry’s record is eclipsed, I think you take a big step back and enjoy the moment and appreciate history,” Roberts said. “Then go back to your boos. But I think that, regardless of [where] it happens, everyone should be fortunate enough to realize what just transpired.”

The fans will be given that opportunity. There won’t be a prolonged stoppage if the record is broken, but the Dodgers will acknowledge the event on the scoreboard and give Bonds a moment to salute the crowd.

Roberts said he would find it “very disheartening and disappointing” if Bonds was booed.

The scene, Roberts said, is something “that’s going to be showed over and over again. With Hank, you saw guys run on the field and everyone going crazy. That’s the way it should be. It’s the greatest record of all time.”

But the Giants’ trip won’t become any more hospitable to Bonds. If he can’t break the record in Los Angeles, he will get his next shot in San Diego, where a fan tossed an oversized plastic syringe at him last season.

Gonzalez has a solution.

“Obviously, the ideal place for him to do it would be in San Francisco because he’s a baseball villain everywhere [else] he goes,” he said.

dylan.hernandez@latimes.com