Mortality encroaches on the phenomenon that is Barry Bonds, circa 2001-04.
As his lone regular-season appearance of the year in Chicago approaches, the San Francisco Giants’ left fielder momentarily has lost his edge. This is no little slump either.
His batting average had plummeted to .360 entering the weekend.
What a slacker, huh?
As recently as April 29, the great Bonds was breezing along at .490 with a .701 on-base percentage and one home run every 5.1 at-bats. Imagine what he would have done if his weren’t the most prominent name linked to sports’ ongoing steroids investigation.
But all you had to do to know something now is going horribly wrong for Bonds was look at the box score from the Giants’ 4-3 victory over Philadelphia on Wednesday.
He not only went 0-for-4 against Randy Wolf and Ryan Madson, he failed to draw a single walk, intentional or otherwise. For one game, anyway, the opposing manager ordered his pitchers to approach Bonds as if he were a player, not a god, and lived to smile about it.
Naturally, with Bonds neutralized, the Giants won. That makes as much sense as how poorly they have played with him putting opponents into panic mode.
Despite his recent 2-for-24 slump, Bonds began the weekend on pace to deliver 46 home runs and 102 RBIs, while scoring 125 runs, in 347 at-bats this season. His OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage) was 1.468, even higher than when he hit 73 homers in 2001 and earned the first of his three consecutive Most Valuable Player awards.
He would be sprinting toward his seventh MVP trophy if his team were following his lead. But the Giants were 15-20 through Thursday, eight games behind the Dodgers in the National League West.
That’s chief among the reasons Bonds has said his level of disappointment is “the most of my whole career.” Bonds never had gone to the World Series before 2002 and saw his Series ring slip away when Anaheim rallied to win Games 6 and 7.
That was one of seven years in which his teams in Pittsburgh and San Francisco have gone to the playoffs. They have won only two of nine series, with Bonds hitting .249.
Back-to-back pennants seemed well within reach when the Giants won 100 games under new manager Felipe Alou in 2003. But Florida won a first-round series in four games, holding Bonds to one single and one double in nine at-bats. The Marlins walked him eight times, giving him 31 walks in his last 16 postseason games.
The Giants lost free agents Rich Aurilia and Benito Santiago, among others, in the off-season but still were expected to challenge in a wide-open National League West race. The stumbling start got to Bonds after a loss to the Phillies on Thursday.
“This is discouraging because most everyone is a veteran player,” Bonds said. “All these guys who came over here this year had good years where they played [in 2003]. This took everybody by surprise.”
Bonds said he worries about a snowball effect that could turn the season into a meaningless exercise.
“Everybody’s pressing,” he said. “Everybody’s at-bats are a little more tense. Everybody’s trying to get the job done. . . . Nobody wants to go out and fail.”
Ownership’s decision to allow Jeff Kent to depart after 2002 and Aurilia and Santiago after ’03 has broken up the nucleus in which Bonds had thrived.
Without giving general manager Brian Sabean the resources to attract productive hitters to replace those who departed, owner Peter Magowan has made it a lot easier for teams to pitch around Bonds. Many are taking full advantage of the opportunity.
During his streak of seven consecutive games with a home run, there was one stretch in which he swung at only one of 29 pitches, naturally hitting a home run with the swing. That’s an absurd amount of patience on both sides of the battle. Pitchers refuse to challenge Bonds; he refuses to chase pitches.
Bonds walked 54 times in the Giants’ first 35 games, a pace that projects to 250 for a full season. A staggering 134 of those, almost one per game, would be intentional walks. He already had 29 of those entering the weekend–more than home run champ Hank Aaron ever had in a season.
Four came in one game against the Dodgers. Mickey Mantle, by comparison, was walked intentionally only six times in 1956, when he won the Triple Crown.
Since the start of the 2002 season, Bonds has been walked intentionally 158 times. That’s more than the career totals of Mantle, Roger Maris, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa.
No wonder he sometimes is exasperated.
While visiting New York earlier this month, Bonds uncharacteristically held court for reporters at his locker before a game. It was during that session that he said he does not plan to play past 2006 and might retire after next season if Magowan does not exercise his contract option for ’06 before next spring.
“I want to leave,” Bonds said. “I want to do something else.”
Barring injury Bonds could break Aaron’s record of 755 career homers late in 2005. He seems more likely to catch the Hammer in ’06, however, as he is 87 away.
Bonds hinted he doesn’t rule out finishing his career as a designated hitter, especially in California, putting the neighboring Oakland Athletics on notice.
Bonds added a caveat.
“Half the stuff I say, I don’t believe,” he said.
Neither does Magowan.
“Barry loves to play the game of baseball,” Magowan told the San Francisco Chronicle. “We go through this every year when he’ll say he has aches and pains, he needs to be a DH or needs to be traded, or somebody said he needs to play first base. I don’t think any of those things will happen. I think he’s going to stay in the National League, stay in left field, stay a San Francisco Giant, and how long he stays is anybody’s guess.”
A sinus infection helped bring on Bonds’ recent slump. He won’t blame it on his health, however.
“It’s baseball, man,” Bonds said. “Everybody goes through it. If you don’t go through this, you don’t play baseball.”
Likewise, Bonds insisted the BALCO investigation has not affected his play.
“Does it look like it?” he asked during that New York interview. “It doesn’t faze me at all.”
Bonds has said he would hate to see Dusty Baker, his former manager, walk him intentionally when he comes to Wrigley Field for this week’s three-game series. The Cubs walked him nine times (and hit him three) in his 25 plate appearances last season.
He might even walk himself if he were managing.
“Pick your poison,” he said. “You can walk me or see it go.”
It’s the best show in baseball, even when he’s not quite right.
MATCHUPS
Bonds vs. Cubs pitchers
MATT CLEMENT
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AVG AB HR RBI OBP
.353 17 3 7 .476
CARLOS ZAMBRANO
AVG AB HR RBI OBP
.000 1 0 0 .667
GREG MADDUX
AVG AB HR RBI OBP
.286 119 8 17 .397
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Bonds vs. NL leaders
As usual, Bonds’ name can be found among the National League leaders. But a minislump has kept the Giants’ slugger from leading any of the three big categories.
LEADERS
HOME RUNS
Steve Finley: 12
Through 34 games
BONDS Through 32 games: Bonds: 10
LEADERS
RUNS BATTED IN
Scott Rolen: 36
Through 35 games
BONDS Through 32 games: Bonds: 22
LEADERS
AVERAGE
Paul Lo Duca: .386
Through 30 games
BONDS Through 32 games: Bonds: .360
