Scottsdale, Ariz. – Outlined against a cloudless, azure March sky, the five batsmen were bold again.
Four of the 39 most prolific home run hitters in baseball history came into the light several yards apart at the park Friday afternoon. A fifth played in another park several miles away.
One crushed a home run.
This homer doesn’t count in that history, but the renowned quintet has a sum total of 2,922 home runs.
Some total.
Their names, ages and standing:
Barry Bonds, 42, second on the all-time list (734).
Willie Mays, 75, fourth (660).
Sammy Sosa, 38, fifth (588).
Willie McCovey, 69, tied-15th (521).
Mike Piazza, 38, 39th and first among catchers (419).
In the fourth inning, Bonds feigned a bunt on the first pitch from Oakland’s Esteban Loaiza.
As if he were Mighty Casey in Mudville instead of Mighty Bonds in Scottsdale, the hitter was booed lustily by the sellout crowd.
“I was just having fun” with the fake bunt, Bonds would say later.
Bonds rejected the second offering. Outside.
Then Loaiza threw what he called “a lifeless fastball” at the nucleus of the plate, and Bonds, with his usual quick-wristed, powerful jolt of a swing, lofted the ball down the right-field line, over the wall, out of Scottsdale Stadium and onto an adjoining practice field.
The same sellout crowd enthusiastically cheered and saluted him with a standing ovation.
Except for Mays, McCovey and Piazza. They sat – Mays and McCovey in the stands and Piazza in the visitors dugout.
Mays doesn’t get around with the bat or his legs very fast anymore. After four knee surgeries, McCovey has to rely on two half-crutches. And Piazza, the new designated hitter for the A’s, wasn’t applauding an opposing player’s accomplishment.
At about the same time, in another Phoenix suburb, Surprise, Ariz., Sosa drew a walk off the Chicago Cubs, his former team.
Bonds’ home run was his first in four exhibitions. (He had been out with the flu.) Sosa went 2-for-3 on Friday and is hitting .500 with two home runs.
Surprise.
The Giants and the Rangers played Saturday. There was no Bonds-Sosa reunion. Sosa stayed back at camp.
Their presence in the desert has been noted, though.
If you’ve just arrived from Pluto, or are Pluto, you wouldn’t know Bonds is madly pursuing Hank Aaron’s home run record, 755, and Sosa is attempting a comeback with Texas after a yearlong layoff (blackball?) from the game.
If you are from this planet and not Mickey Mouse’s dog, you would know Bonds and Sosa are Poster Players for the steroid era in baseball.
Bonds hit 73 home runs in 2001 after his body morphed into the Incredible Hulk and he developed a Mr. Potato Head-sized skull. He remains under federal investigation for steroids, perjury and tax evasion.
Sosa hit 60-plus home runs in three of four seasons (50 the other) and was involved with Mark Mc-
Gwire in the Great Home Run Chase of 1998. He acted in the congressional hearings as if he didn’t understand or speak English, although he understands it and speaks it at camp these days. And he remains under serious suspicion of taking performance-enhancing drugs.
McCovey and Mays are Poster Fathers for the clean-as-clothesline-wash pre-steroid era, but neither would discuss either period Friday as the ex-Giants and forever Hall of Famers sat in the dugout. “Here to enjoy a game,” said Mays, Bonds’ godfather. “Ain’t going there,” McCovey said. “I’ve said what I think,” which has been that Bonds is innocent until proven guilty and he believes the Giants outfielder has been the victim of racism.
Bonds was back in the Giants clubhouse hanging out with his son Nikolai and eating a sandwich at his corner cubicle, reduced to 1 1/2 lockers (one shared with the other Barry, Zito) because his entourage has been banned from the clubhouse. Bonds declined (politely), with a nod and a no to talk about anything.
Most of the morning Bonds spent in the (off-limits) training room. He spoke to no teammates; none spoke to him.
After the game, Bonds said he was “feeling really good.” His worrisome knees “are doing well.” Bonds said the home run wasn’t special. “I don’t take spring training seriously except for getting in shape.”
End of in-depth interview.
Bonds may have been having fun with the fake bunt, but he wasn’t smiling. During the national anthem, he was the only player who didn’t emerge from the deep shadows in the dugout. He didn’t sign autographs and didn’t respond to well-wishers in the box seats and on the grassy knoll in left field. When a ball lasered into left-center, Bonds let Dave Roberts go after it. After the fourth inning ended, Bonds sent a messenger to manager Bruce Bochy that he’d had enough for the day.
Whatever we may think of Bonds and his advance on Aaron’s mark, and despite the fact he has signed a one-year deal with the Giants for $15.8 million, we must recognize it’s not easy being Bonds. He may survive the grand jury and Major League Baseball investigations and the myriad allegations, but he’s a man alone on his own island.
Bochy is batting Bonds third this season (his first time in that position since 2003) to “get him an at-bat in the first inning, and maybe I can get him out of there earlier.” Baseball is a nine-inning game, Plutonians, but, for Bonds, the game is getting shorter and shorter. He generally will play six or seven and sit out many.
Unless he is injured or the body breaks down (which is occurring more often), Bonds, the way he was swinging Friday (a flyout to deep center before the home run to right), should hit No. 756 soon after he turns 43 on July 24.
But when Bonds is 69 or 75, or even 50, he won’t show up at spring training, sit in the dugout and trade stories with the other great home run hitters, sign pieces of paper for the fans or talk baseball with the press.
Bonds is Emmett Kelly’s sad circus clown, who always was trying to sweep away the spotlight and couldn’t paint on a happy face.
Staff writer Woody Paige can be reached at 303-954-1095 or wpaige@denverpost.com.
