Barry Bonds: the best ever? Giants slugger will forever be compared to the greatest major league players and his numbers will rank him as the top performer of his era

Baseball Digest, Sept, 2004 by Joey Johnston

BARRY BONDS. "Just remember you're watching more than a baseball player," New York Yankees right fielder Gary Sheffield said. "You're watching history."

BARRY BONDS.

"When he hits it, I don't know, it just sounds different," Atlanta Braves manager Bobby Cox said.

BARRY BONDS.

"No question, the best player in our game today," Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling said. "No question."

The best player of his generation. Maybe the best player of any generation. That's the attraction for fans heading to ballparks, when Bonds and the San Francisco Giants are in town.

Bonds attracts the normal baseball buzz, of course--maybe like following Fernando-mania, the prospect of a perfect game or a hitting streak going into its second month. But it's also similar to seeing the Beatles at Shea Stadium. It's an event. Or as Sheffield said, it's history.

Throw him a ball just off the plate, and he'll never waver, working you for a walk. Throw him a strike--one--and he'll knock it off a catwalk. Through games of June 27, he had 677 career home runs, just 38 away from passing Babe Ruth for No. 2 on the all-time list, or 79 away from eclipsing Hank Aaron.

"When I was growing up, people always said Aaron's record would never be broken," Devil Rays designated hitter Fred McGriff said. "Break into the big leagues when you're 20. You have to hit between 30 and 40 homers every year for 20 years to get that record. Nobody was going to do that."

Then along came Barry Bonds. The best player of his generation. Maybe the best player of any generation.

'BEST THAT EVER LIVED'

Aaron. Ruth. Willie Mays. Frank Robinson. Lou Gehrig. Joe DiMaggio. Mickey Mantle. Mike Schmidt. Ted Williams. Stan Musial. Reggie Jackson. Ty Cobb.

How would you like to be part of that fraternity?

How about being in another class entirely?

"This guy (Bonds) might be the best player that ever lived"' Tampa Bay manager Lou Piniella said. "I haven't seen Babe Ruth or Lou Gehrig: I didn't see much of Willie Mays. I saw some of Hank Aaron at the end of his career.

"But I've seen a lot of Barry Bonds, and he's pretty damn good. I can tell you that. And he's gotten better as he's gotten older."

When the 2000 season began, Bonds was 35 years old. In some circles, he was considered a level behind Ken Griffey Jr., who was voted best player of the 1990s.

Since then, with his 40th birthday July 24, 2004, Bonds has hit 222 homers--and counting. And the most amazing thing is, nobody wants him to swing, especially when a base is open.

Case in point: May 28, 1998. The Diamondbacks were leading the Giants, 8-6. Bonds came up with two outs and the bases loaded in the ninth inning.

Diamondbacks manager Buck Showalter ordered Bonds to be intentionally walked, forcing in a run.

Huh?

The crazy thing is, Showalter's strategy actually worked. The next batter, Brent Mayne, lined out on a 3-2 pitch to end the game.

"You think you've seen it all in this game," Schilling said. "With a guy like Barry Bonds, you probably see amazing things all the time."

TAKING THEIR CHANCES

Piniella said Bonds wouldn't be frozen out against the Rays when the Giants played Tampa Bay in an interleague series last June.

"We're not engaged in a pennant race of any sort," Piniella said. "Now if it's a game-winning situation in the late innings, the answer is obviously no, we're not going to pitch to him.

"Prior to that, yeah, did our best to get him out and give him an opportunity to hit. That's what the fans came over to see. It is a business and it is a sport, but it's also part entertainment, too. I don't think the fans wanted to come see us walk him intentionally every time he came up. We hoped to make good pitches."

Usually, even that doesn't work.

Before the Tampa series last June, Bonds was walked in his first three plate appearances against Colorado, twice intentionally. Rockies manager Clint Hurdle finally felt safe in the seventh inning with two outs and nobody on. Bonds hit a 2-1 pitch off the right-field scoreboard, barely missing a homer.

"I told our guys that we can't get him out over the plate," Hurdle said. "You can't give a guy a better compliment than that."

ANOTHER MVP AWARD?

What hasn't he done?

In 2001, he hit 73 homers to break the single-season home run record. He also compiled a slugging percentage of .834. Aaron never did that.

Neither did Ruth.

The year after his homer record, Bonds hit a league-leading .370. He's the only member of the career 500 homers-500 steals club. In an era when the 30 homers-30 steals mark was especially meaningful for a season, he averaged those figures for an entire decade.

He's the only player with six Most Valuable Player awards and is shooting for his fourth consecutive MVP honor this season. He has eight Gold Gloves in the outfield. He has won games with his legs, his arm, his bat.

What hasn't he done?

Only one thing that really matters: Win the World Series.

"You look at guys like John Elway and Steve Young, and how long they went before winning the Super Bowl," Yankees manager Joe Torre said. "They were looked upon as guys who couldn't win the big one. It was almost as if they needed that to validate their careers.