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Will fans bond with Barry? Bonds' legacy hinges on how he handles home run chase
With apologies to Mark McGwire, who doesn't believe a Home Run Chase begins in earnest until somebody has 60 home runs in September, the Barry Bonds Watch is officially on. FOX split its screen during coverage of the Yankees-Mets game Saturday to show Bonds' first at-bat against Oakland. This is in the middle of June, folks. And why not? Already the fastest to 36 homers (in just 67 games), Bonds needs just one more dinger in the next three weeks to tie the record for most home runs before the All-Star break (set by Reggie Jackson in 1969 and matched by McGwire in 1998). East Coast fans wake up wondering if Bonds went deep while they slept. Out-of-town scoreboards are ripe with possibility every time a run goes up next to the Giants' total. San Francisco manager Dusty Baker has already said that Bonds, barring injury, will break McGwire's record of 70 home runs. "He's going for it," said one former teammate. "I talked to Dusty and he said Barry's looking to go deep all the time. Oh-and-two, runners on, nobody on, it doesn't matter. He's only got what, 11 singles? He can do it if he's got his mind set on it. And if you tell Barry he can't do something, then he really wants to do it." Health is obviously one issue that will determine Bonds' total. The other is how he handles the crush of attention that will come his way. McGwire and Sammy Sosa did an amazing job of making themselves available to reporters and fans and treating them with patience and class. That never has been Bonds' M.O. "He might just tell reporters, bleep you," said Boston reliever Rod Beck, another former teammate of Bonds'. "I've seen him do it. I've seen him push a writer out the door and nearly get sued. Barry doesn't care. He'll tell people to get lost." Bonds offered an interesting insight early in the season when he said he was uncomfortable with the intense focus on him during his countdown to 500 home runs. He said perhaps that gave him a clue as to why he has performed so miserably in the postseason. So how will Bonds react when a crowd of reporters surrounds him after a game in September and wants to know why he was "only" 1-for-4, including a single, but no home runs? How will he handle his only trip of the season into Big Mac Land -- St. Louis -- this weekend? How will he handle the demands on him at the All-Star Game next month, where he will be the primary focus? How will he deal with the New York media on his only trip into Gotham this year Aug. 24-27? If this is a chance for Bonds to improve how he is thought of inside and outside the game, lets hope he does better than John Rocker. Did you catch his act at Yankee Stadium June 9? Rocker did a splendid job of blowing fastballs past Paul O'Neill in the eighth inning on his way toward closing what became a 10-6 Braves win. After the game, the controversial closer saw a crowd of reporters in the clubhouse and walked to his locker, a signal that perhaps he might answer questions from the media. This was his opportunity to take the high road, to talk about the at-bat against O'Neill and to dismiss any questions about his infamous comments from last year and his notoriety in New York. It wouldn't have required much -- just taking baseball-only questions and getting the focus back on the field -- and the returns for him would have been enormous. So what does Rocker do? He waits until the Atlanta and New York media gathers around him in a semicircle three-reporters deep. He has orchestrated the whole moment, like a child pulling the wings off a fly and thinking it's funny. He has been rehearsing a little line in his head that he thinks is so witty. "Guess what," Rocker says. "It's payback time. I'd rather mop the floor at a peep show than talk with you guys." Classy, huh? Then Rocker turned on his heels and walked out the clubhouse door. And right then you knew for certain: Rocker will never get it. How silly that we could ever expect such an utterly uncouth person to show an ounce of dignity. This is the same guy who a week later in Atlanta, as he walked by local reporters, pressed his hands against his cheeks and blew air out of his mouth to mimic the sound of passing wind, then grinned. Mature. Very mature. This is the same guy teammate Chipper Jones chastised for inciting a bench-clearing incident with Toronto. It is the same guy Blue Jays manager Buck Martinez called a "knucklehead." It's not fair to compare anybody to Rocker. That's not the intention here with Bonds. This is about how to dissipate notoriety. It is a choice. Never mind the spin about "handling the media", which agent Scott Boras has tried (not completely successfully) to educate Bonds in over the past two years. This is about how you treat people, a large segment of the earth's population to which reporters just happen to belong. One of the more amazing developments from the Summer of '98 was that fans began booing their own team's pitchers if they threw even one pitch out of the strike zone to Sosa or McGwire. Baseball fans wanted them to break the record. Will crowds have such goodwill toward Bonds? According to a recent Gallup poll, even though Bonds has been ahead of McGwire's pace, most people don't think he'll break the record. (See below.) Will fans root for Bonds? Will players root for Bonds? No segment of the players rooted against McGwire or Sosa, but will the same be said for Bonds? Will pitchers pitch to him? "I think the unbalanced schedule could be a key," said Red Sox pitcher David Cone. "Usually down the stretch you'll get a bunch of meaningless games. Now, because you're playing so many games in your division, you won't have so many of those games. You can't just go after him with the division on the line every night." Twenty-five of San Francisco's final 31 games are scheduled against NL West rivals Arizona, Colorado, Los Angeles and San Diego. The other six are against NL Central contender Houston. (Circle this September trip on your calender: a combined six games in Coors Field and Ten-Run Field.) The West has been a tight race all season. It's difficult to imagine that many of those final 31 games would be considered meaningless. Bonds already is a Hall of Famer. But in more subtle ways his legacy as a player and person could be altered in the second half of this season. All of us will be tuning in. The LineupOn June 8 the Gallup organization asked 503 baseball fans if they thought Barry Bonds would hit more than 70 home runs this year. Here are the responses as indicated by percentages: Yes, he will:
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The Gallup people also asked the 503 baseball fans what they thought of the possibility of contraction. Here are the responses: Good idea:
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Sports Illustrated senior writer Tom Verducci covers the baseball beat for the magazine and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com. Click here to send a question to his weekly baseball mailbag. |
