San Francisco – Barry Bonds peeked out of a hallway at a throng of reporters and headed for another exit. He was dressed casually, wearing a T-shirt featuring late rapper Notorious B.I.G.
It might as well have been the marquee for Bonds’ week. Baseball has a huge problem: Bonds is going to Los Angeles stuck on 754 home runs after failing to go deep in four at-bats Sunday in the Giants’ 8-5 loss to Florida. Hide the women and children, and use the metal detectors to check for batteries, pennies and syringes.
Dodgers fans despise the Giants, hate Bonds and would rather be buried in black and orange than see baseball’s most infamous figure tie or break Hank Aaron’s home run record on their turf.
“It’s going to be absolutely nuts, no doubt about it,” Giants reliever Steve Kline said. “I am not worried about my safety, but who knows what’s going to happen in the stands? Their fans can be rough.”
Any doubt about these teams’ fans contempt for each other was bluntly erased at two of the game’s most widely watched events this season. On the 60th anniversary celebrating Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier, Dodger Stadium echoed with chants of “Barry (Stinks!)” At this year’s All-Star Game at AT&T Park, Russell Martin was booed from introductions to his last at-bat.
Now with the weight of history on his back, Bonds will stick his bat into a hornet’s nest.
“Crazy. That’s what it will be,” the Giants’ Mark Sweeney said. Sweeney predicted Bonds, even with six road games in Los Angeles and San Diego this week, would pass Aaron on the Giants’ next homestand. It is here in San Francisco that Bonds receives unconditional love from sellout crowds. They left disappointed Sunday.
It wasn’t as if the Florida Marlins didn’t give Bonds a chance to launch a celebration. He went 1-for-4, served 11 fastballs in 14 pitches. His best swing broke hearts and his bat. In the third inning against Sergio Mitre, a sinkerball specialist, Bonds struck an 84 mph changeup on the barrel. He stopped to admire the shot, holding just the handle of the bat, the severed lumber zapping the blast of any power as it landed safely in right fielder Jeremy Hermida’s glove.
“It just shattered on him,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said of Bonds, who went 5-for-20 with one home run on the homestand. “He’ll tell you he squared that one up.”
Staff writer Troy E. Renck can be reached at 303-954-1301 or trenck@denverpost.com.
