It's prime time for Bonds

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© St. Petersburg Times
published October 19, 2002

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- There have been days of glory and seasons of achievement. He has led the league in batting and led the league in home runs.

For Barry Bonds there have been 2,439 regular-season games and, until now, not a single World Series.

So, today, there is one thing we all want to know.

How did the World Series get along without him?

I suspect you have never seen such a hitter in the Series. Not unless you were around the day Babe Ruth called his shot in 1932.

Argue, if you will, about Reggie Jackson in 1977. Or Mickey Mantle in '60. Maybe Willie Mays in '54.

Forget them all. Not since Ruth has a player arrived at the Series with his legend already in place and his skills intact. The failure of Bonds to reach the World Series before now was our loss as much as his.

Sure, this may be a difficult concept to embrace. Heaven knows Bonds has never been the embraceable type. If he is standoffish, it's an improvement over surly. If he is condescending, be grateful he is not overtly rude.

You do not have to adore the man, just appreciate him. And there has never been a better time. This is not a young Mays coming out of the Army to carry the Giants. Or Hank Aaron winning a Series with the Milwaukee Braves years before anyone knew what he would become. With Bonds we have a player who has posted Ruth-like numbers and is in his prime.

Consider the distress he causes among other teams. Nobody asks how to pitch to Bonds. Instead they ask whether to pitch to Bonds.

How else do you explain a player who was walked 198 times in 143 games?

Mays is held up as the epitome of the complete ballplayer, but he was not feared to the degree of Bonds. Aaron hit more home runs than anyone before or since, but pitchers did not run scared from him. Add their best seasons together and Mays and Aaron never combined to walk 198 times.

Bonds was walked intentionally 68 times this season. That's not just a record, it's a joke. No one else -- not Mays, not Aaron, not Mantle -- was ever walked intentionally more than 45 times in a season.

Bonds was walked intentionally with nobody on base. He was walked intentionally with runners on first and second in the ninth inning of a tie game. Buck Showalter once walked him with the bases loaded.

Cardinals manager Tony La Russa did everything he could to avoid pitching to Bonds in the NLCS, and the Angels may adopt the same strategy.

"I don't think you can discount anything with Barry," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "You'll see things that maybe, in other eras, would seem unconventional or way out there. But they make a lot of sense with Barry in the house. It's absolutely a compliment to his talent."

It is not simply that he is the single-season home run king. Roger Maris held that record for 37 years and didn't make the Hall of Fame.

What Bonds has done is take the most impressive records of the most impressive players, and he has made them his own.

He broke Mark McGwire's home run record with 73, he broke Ted Williams' record for on-base percentage with .582, he broke Ruth's record for slugging percentage with .863. He even broke his own record for walks with 198.

"He has had the two best seasons ... in the history of baseball," Scioscia said. "There's nobody who can look at his numbers, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, the home runs, and say that anyone has had a better season in the history of the game. I don't know how you argue that."

Nor can you argue the credentials Bonds brings with him. When was the last time you saw a player in the World Series with 600 home runs? Or, for that matter, with 500? It has happened only three times before.

The most recent were Mays in 1973 and Eddie Mathews in 1968. Both were fading heroes in unfamiliar colors.

Mays was winding down with the Mets, Mathews finishing up with the Tigers. When their respective Series ended, so did their careers.

The only other player to come to the Series with as many as 500 home runs was Ruth in 1932.

And then there is Bonds. This is a guy who won three Most Valuable Player awards in the 1990s, and then got better.

Until now the only knock on his resume was the lack of a pennant. Bonds was a dud in his first five postseason appearances. His teams never survived the first round, and Bonds did little to change their fortunes.

He hit .196 with one home run in 27 playoff games with the Pirates and Giants.

"My legacy is going to be what it is anyway, whatever you guys say it's going to be," Bonds said. "It's your opinion, not mine."

Being a playoff flop should not overwhelm what a player accomplishes in his career. Nor should it be ignored.

The postseason is baseball's grandest stage. The stakes are high, the pressure intense and the rewards immense.

This is where lore is created and disappointments are never forgotten.

This is where Barry Bonds belongs.

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