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24 July 2004

Baseball News.

Barry turning 40, still going strong

Age isn't slowing down Bonds as he pursues history

By Barry M. Bloom / MLB.com

SAN FRANCISCO -- What Barry Bonds is doing is truly a rare accomplishment.

Bonds turned 40 years old Saturday still very much on top of his game as an elite Major League hitter with no end to the magic in sight.

Roger Clemens and Randy Johnson are pitching into their 40s, but as the Giants slugger pointed out, it's not quite the same.

"But they go out there every five days," Bonds said recently during an exclusive series of interviews with MLB.com. "Nobody, but nobody, has played just about every day at my age and put up my numbers."

Only Arizona's Steve Finley, at 39, is approximating Bonds' stamina. But Finley isn't vying for the most cherished record in Major League Baseball annals. If Bonds matches his first-half output of 23 home runs, he'll pass the 700 plateau before the end of the season. At this writing, he had 24 and was nestled at 682, having left his godfather, Willie Mays, in the glory dust of 660 since the season's second week.

That should mean that Bonds will take dead aim at Babe Ruth's 714 early next season. And Hank Aaron's record of 755 may be within reach before the page is turned on 2005.

Finley has played more games than Bonds this season and has far more at-bats, but he doesn't approach Bonds' numbers.

"Age is just a frame of mind," said Finley, who like Bonds keeps himself in superlative shape. "Saying that, what Barry is doing and continues to do is mind-boggling."

Other greats
One can only judge Bonds by comparing him to the game's greats.

Ruth quit in his 40th year, having hit his last six homers for the Boston Braves. Aaron was finished at 42, but he played his last two seasons as a designated hitter for the Milwaukee Brewers. In his last three seasons, Aaron hit 42 homers.

Mickey Mantle retired before he turned 36. Bobby Bonds, Barry's late father, was finished at 35. Mays played until he was 42 and retired as a member of the New York Mets. He hit 32 homers in his last three seasons, including 18 in 136 games at age 40 in his last full season with the Giants.

Hall of Famer Ted Williams and Rickey Henderson, at 45 still playing ball for the minor league Newark Bears, are two who put up significant numbers at age 40 or better.

In 1958, the year he turned 40, Williams hit .328 and slugged 26 homers. In 1960, when he turned 42, he hit .316 with 29 home runs in 113 games.

In 1999 for the Mets, Henderson played in 121 games, hit .315 with 12 homers, 42 RBIs, and a remarkable 37 stolen bases.

"But Rickey wasn't playing regularly at 40," said Bonds, who played in 130 games last season. "He wasn't playing regularly at 39."

Even Henderson, with all those years of service in the American League, had the benefit of playing 151 games as a designated hitter. Bonds, who has played his entire 19-year career in the National League with the Pirates and Giants, hasn't had that luxury. Going into this season, he'd been used as a DH only 21 times.

Still plays the outfield
Bonds continues to patrol left field for the Giants, and he walks so many times that his legs take a regular beating on the basepaths. He has a gaudy .628 on-base percentage this season, and has walked an all-time-record 2,206 times in his career.

"Still, the time is coming when I won't be able to keep up with the young bucks anymore," Bonds said. "I'll be lucky to hit 25 homers a year."

Not now, though. Not yet. As he's grown older and become more of an offensive threat, teams have adopted the strategy of regularly giving him first base free regardless of the situation and the game's juncture. His current on-base percentage is almost 200 points higher than his career mark of .439.

Bonds was 36 in 2001 when he hit 73 homers to break Mark McGwire's three-year-old single-season record and was 37 a year later when he hit .370 to win his first National League batting title. Since turning 35, he's hit 236 homers.

"Nothing he does should surprise anybody," said Peter Magowan, the Giants president and managing general partner, who signed Bonds as a free agent shortly after his group bought the team from Bob Lurie in 1992. "Of all the guys around, he's the one guy who could possibly hit .400. He may be doing things now that we will never again see."

Great genes
Bonds credits his strength as a hitter to great genes, a good diet, a strenuous workout regimen and the right mixture of nutrients. One night early in the season after a game at San Diego, Bonds worked out for an hour, emerging from the weight room into an empty clubhouse long after the rest of the team had departed. But he sees the tell-tale signs of age in other parts of his game.

"He'll definitely get to Ruth; whether he gets to Aaron or not remains to be seen. Barry, I'd argue, works harder at it than anybody ever. If anybody can do it and keep up this kind of quality level, I think he can. It's up to him, but I'd like nothing better than to see him do it with us."

-- Giants president
Peter Magowan

"I don't consider myself to be a better player now than when I was younger. I'm just smarter," he said. "I was a better player then because I could do more things on the field. You were not going to second on a ball hit down the line to me when I was younger. I'd throw you out at second base. Now you hit the ball down there I'm praying you don't get to third base. You know what I mean?"

But Bonds still has those reflexes, lightning-quick hands and an uncanny discipline at the plate.

He shuns all the talk and suggestions about steroids use, pointing out that he watched his own father dissipate and wreck his career prematurely. Last year, he watched helplessly as cancer ripped through his father's body, attacking his brain, lungs and liver before he died at age 57.

"It's no secret that my dad was an alcoholic," Bonds said. "I'm the head of my [extended] family now. They all rely on me for everything. Decisions. Money. You name it. I leave the ballpark and that's what I deal with every minute of every day. So you know I'm not going to make that same mistake. I'm very careful about what I put in my body."

A young father
Bobby was only 17 years old when Barry was born on July 24, 1964. The elder Bonds broke in with the Giants four years later. It was no wonder that Mays, then already 37, took the 4-year-old Barry under his wing when Bobby brought the child regularly out to Candlestick Park.

Mays at once became surrogate father, protector and grandfather.

"He was a shy little kid. He used to come into the clubhouse and hide from everyone," Mays recalled recently. "I'd find him peeking out at me from over the top of my locker."

Bonds said he's still shy around adults, but not children. He hates speaking in front of large groups and says he becomes physically upset when he sees large clusters of the media come toward him while he's sitting in his locker.

"When I'm in baseball I don't have to talk," Bonds said. "When a bunch of people come at me, I panic, I freak. If I have to say something in public to a group I can get out about four lines and that's about it. My family will even tell you. When we have Christmas gatherings I'll sit on the outside. I don't know why. It's something psychological. Something in my head. I'm afraid of it."

Dusty Baker, Barry's former manager with the Giants and longtime friend of his father, said Bonds is far more sensitive than people think.

"He's got so much dedication and desire and fire," said Baker, who left the Giants after their seven-game loss to the Angels in the 2002 World Series and is managing the Cubs. "Guys like him have got money, they have records. He could be going on vacation at this point. But Barry is driven like no other man I've ever seen."

Barry's drive
It's that drive that will undoubtedly keep Bonds plodding toward the Babe and Hammerin' Hank.

"If he stays healthy and wants to do it, he'll do it," said Frank Robinson, who retired at 40 only 14 homers shy of 600 and 57 hits away from 3,000 to become full-time manager of the Cleveland Indians. "He still has the reflexes and the vision and that's what usually gets us all at his age."

At times, though, Bonds talks elusively about finishing his career in the AL as a DH or leaving the game early so he can spend time with his two children from a lost first marriage -- a son and a daughter, who he almost never sees.

"That might be the only thing that would keep me from reaching the goals I'm going after," Bonds said.

He wants Magowan to guarantee the 2006 portion of his current five-year, $90 million contract prior to next season. Magowan has promised to take a serious look at it if Bonds finishes this season healthy. The contract, though, vests automatically if Bonds has 500 plate appearances in 2005 or 1,500 total over the course of three seasons: 2003 to 2005. He already has 903 with more than two months to go this year.

Magowan said he is intent on Bonds breaking the lifetime home run record as a Giant.

"He'll definitely get to Ruth; whether he gets to Aaron or not remains to be seen," Magowan said. "Barry, I'd argue, works harder at it than anybody ever. If anybody can do it and keep up this kind of quality level, I think he can. It's up to him, but I'd like nothing better than to see him do it with us."

There's one particular reason why Bonds said he owes a debt of gratitude to the Giants, and will probably finish his career in San Francisco.

When baseball had virtually shunned his father, Magowan brought him back as the hitting coach and engaged Bobby again for the remainder of his life. Though Bobby only played the first half of his 14-year career in San Francisco, he's most identified as a Giant.

Likewise, Barry played his first seven years in Pittsburgh, but will always be remembered as a Giant, along with the greats like Bill Terry, Mel Ott, Willie McCovey, Mays and his dad.

"The Giants organization, these are good people," Bonds said. "They did a lot for me and my family. I can say that from the bottom of my heart. They took care of my dad. I will be forever grateful for that. That's my loyalty to this organization: how they treated my godfather and how they treated my father when nobody else would do anything for him. That's why I stay. And that's why hopefully I'll finish here."

Barry M. Bloom is a national reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.