A Giant By Any Standard

Baseball Digest, Sept, 2000 by Jim Caple

San Francisco's Barry Bonds Soars To New Heights Among Baseball's Best

Before he's done, outfielder could become the first player to win four MVP Awards and first to hit 500-plus homers and steal 500 or more bases

THINGS TO CONSIDER ABOUT BARRY Bonds while fans drift in their row boats at Pacific Bell Park's McCovey Cove, waiting for him to go yard:

* Despite missing four games with a painful back injury earlier this season, Bonds was hitting 332 with a major league-leading 26 home runs through June 20.

"I think Barry is trying to prove something this year," said Colorado Rockies coach Rich Donnelly, who was a coach with Pittsburgh when Bonds played there. "Deep down, he wants to prove he's the best player in the game. I know Barry, and he's tired of hearing about everybody else. Enough about those guys, this is my year.

"His legacy means a lot to him. He might say it doesn't, but it does. If you say, `Barry, you're going to be in the Hall of Fame,' he'll go, `I know.' If you tell him, `You're the greatest player who ever played,' he might say, `What about Ken Griffey or Willie Mays?' but deep down ... he just wants to be known as the best."

* Who is baseball's best left-handed-hitting outfielder who is also the son of a former major leaguer? Compare these numbers:

Griffey had 144 more hits than Bonds during the '90s, hit 21 more home runs and drove in 1:5 more runs. Bonds scored 89 more runs than Griffey, stole 192 more bases and walked 443 more times. Each player hit .302 and made 45 errors. Bonds won eight Gold Gloves, Griffey won 10.

So who's better?

"They're very similar players," Seattle manager Lou Piniella said. "They're both multi-talented. Both can beat you with their bat, their glove and their legs.

"When I had Junior here, I thought that because of the more demanding position the played and the age factor (Griffey is 30, Bonds, 36) that he was the one. But that's not to take anything away from Barry."

"It's unfair on my part to compare Barry to Griffey because I never played with Griffey," said Seattle outfielder Stan Javier, who had four seasons with Bonds. "Barry is one of the most complete players to ever play the game. He has 400-plus home runs and more than 400 steals--no one else has come close to that. He'll probably hit 600 home runs, and steal between 550 and 600 bases.

"To me, if you compare both at their peaks in their careers, I think Barry is the better player because of his speed."

So there. That settles it, doesn't it?

* Here's another question: Which is the best father-son combination, Barry and Bobby or Senior' and Junior?

Bonds and his father, Bobby, are the all-time leaders in father-son home runs (803), stolen bases (929) and RBI (2,375). The Griffeys have 570, 372 and 2,060, respectively. The Bonds' combined batting average is .279, the Griffeys' is .296 through games of June 20.

* Bonds has played more than 2,000 regular-season games but, like Griffey, never in the World Series. He has a .200 average and five RBI in four playoff series, including 1991 when he hit .148 with no RBI and his Pirates lost in seven games to Atlanta.

"I saw Barry after we won the World Series in Florida," said Donnelly, who also once coached for the Marlins. "I saw his look and he was jealous. It was like, `I have everything but I don't have that.'"

"That's got to drive him, to get to a World Series," Rickey Henderson said. "He's done everything in baseball except reach the promised land. In the postseason, he hasn't been too successful, and he wants to get there and come through when the chips are down and show that he's a money player, too."

Bonds said the same thing in a recent interview with Sports Illustrated, denying that he is motivated by the attention Mark McGwire and Griffey receive or any statistical milestones.

"If I never reach another milestone and the Giants finally win a World Series--that's all I could ask for. I'd be complete," he said.

* Bonds has an unusual pregame routine.

"He might take some light BP, then he'll go in the back of the clubhouse and lie down and take a nap," Donnelly said. "He'll wake up about 7:25 for a 7:35 game, walk out, play the first inning, and hit the first pitch he sees 400 feet.

"The game is easy for him. He's playing with the best players in the world, and he looks like that one 12-year-old in Little League who's better than everyone else."

* Bonds took a swing last May 13, grimaced, took a few steps and fell to the ground in pain with a sprained joint in his lower back. He rode off the field on a cart.

"That was against us," Donnelly said. "Guys were saying, `Well, he's done.' And I said, `No, he'll be back.'"

He is. Bonds missed four gaines, then returned to the lineup and hit a home run.

* The bit of San Francisco Bay beyond right field at San Francisco's Pac Bell Park is known as McCovey Cove and is baseball's largest body of water reachable by fly ball.

Bonds hit the first four home runs into McCovey Cove. "They're going to name a part of a stadium for him someday," Donnelly said.