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Looking for a pitch With nothing to hit -- nothing close -- Bonds stalls at 69
Updated: Monday October 01, 2001 9:44 AM
SAN FRANCISCO -- One lousy pitch. That was it. One crummy pitch. Four times to the plate, 11 half-hearted throws in his direction, a ton of expectations, a veritable flotilla of kayaks and rafts and small boats filled with dozens of would-be sailors toting dreams of thousands of dollars, a stadium packed with almost 42,000 fans hoping to be in on a tiny slice of baseball history. And one lousy pitch to hit. Welcome to Barry Bonds' world. The San Francisco Giants' incomparable home run maker did not hit a homer Sunday, which in the strange world of baseball is big news. Bonds stalled in a setting ripe for history making, still one long ball away from tying Mark McGwire's record for most homers in a season. It was all there for the storybook: a beautiful, warm San Francisco day, a park filled with Bonds fans, a pennant race, the commissioner of baseball on hand. McCovey Cove, the small inlet that sits behind right field at Pacific Bell Park, was fore-to-aft with boaters waiting for another Bonds splashdown. The seagulls soared. The ceremonies were planned. It was all there for the taking. Instead, the San Diego Padres did the taking by giving absolutely nothing to Bonds. Nothing. The Padres didn't pitch around Bonds. They didn't pitch to him at all. "It's not frustrating for me," Giants manager Dusty Baker said after the 5-4 San Diego win. "It probably is for him." Bonds wasn't saying. But with the record so close, with the setting so perfect -- "You get to enjoy it a little bit more at home," he said the other day -- we can only assume that he is shaking his head a little. Bonds has been pitched to carefully all season, which is why he's now only three walks away from the major-league record of 170 in a season Babe Ruth set in 1923. But, good night, there's careful and ... well, there's this:
Low and away. Ball one. High and in. Ball two. Low. Ball three. Way outside. Ball four.
Sharp groundout on first pitch, to shortstop D'Angelo Jimenez, who was playing on the right-field side of second base.
Low and away. Ball one. Inside and low. Ball two. Low. Ball three. Low. Ball four.
Inside. Ball one. The next pitch hits Bonds. And that was it. Eleven pitches -- including the one that hit him -- and just one that could have been considered anywhere close enough to take the bat off his shoulder. Bonds finished the day standing on the on-deck circle. "I didn't want to be in the record books," Tollberg explained. So Bonds hovers at 69 with six games left in the season. One homer to tie, two to break still seems like a sure thing for Bonds. Except ... what if the Houston Astros, who the Giants play in a three-game series beginning Tuesday in Enron Field, decide not to pitch to Bonds? The Astros are fighting for their playoff lives. Can they afford to give Bonds any pitches at all? What if things come down to next weekend, the season's last? What if Bonds returns to Pac Bell still needing one to tie, or even the one to break the mark? The last weekend is against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Bonds is hitting only .140 against them. What if he hasn't done it by next weekend? What if the Dodgers won't pitch to him, either? Bonds has had only one extended homer drought this season, a 14-game cold spot right before the All-Star break. He was walked 17 times in that stretch and hit by a pitch twice. Still, when you hit as many home runs as Bonds has this season, there's never too much downtime. The record is still his for the swinging, for sure, and there are millions of fans -- and not just in San Francisco, either -- who are pulling for this marvelously talented player. If only he can get a couple of pitches to hit. John Donovan is a senior writer for CNNSI.com. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer. Comments? To e-mail Donovan, click here.
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