San Francisco – There was finally a celebration at AT&T Park for a Giants’ legend. But it was not for Barry Bonds. The Giants threw a lavish party for Willie Mays, celebrating his 75th birthday.
“This feeling I have in my heart, I can’t describe,” Mays told the sellout crowd, only the Giants’ second this season. “It’s so wonderful.”
The game? Not so much. Bonds didn’t come close to tying Babe Ruth, running his streak without a home run to 19 plate appearances in the 6-1 loss.
He had plenty of pitches to hit, first against Dodgers’ starter Brad Penny, who exited with back pain, and later against reliever Joe Beimel. Bonds’ best at-bat came when he lined out to right field. Other than that it was a forgettable evening as he misplayed a sixth-inning foul ball and was embarrassed by former teammate Jeff Kent for not hustling out of the batter’s box.
Kent dropped a Bonds’ popup in the eight inning conspiracy theorists will say it was on purpose, but it didn’t appear so. Bonds had already turned to walked back to the dugout when he bolted toward first base to narrowly avoid a double play.
Bonds, 1-for-14 with five walks since going deep last Sunday against Philadelphia’s Jon Lieber, plans on playing Saturday’s day game when the Giants face Aaron Sele.
The best contact from the night arguably came from Mays. After he was honored Reggie Jackson, Tom Seaver and Willie McCovey were among the guests Mays couldn’t wait for a knife to cut his No. 75 birthday cake. So he karate chopped the pastry and licked the frosting off his hand.
