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Dispatch

2/21/06

BASEBALL

Giants stay calm about Bonds’ talk, late arrival

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Josh Dubow
ASSOCIATED PRESS

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SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Shortly before 9 a.m. yesterday, an alarm went off in Scottsdale Stadium and caught everybody’s attention.

"Barry’s not here yet," Armando Benitez shouted out in the San Francisco Giants’ spring training clubhouse.
It was just a fire alarm — Barry Bonds’ arrival would have to wait.

One day after contradictory reports that Bonds was either ready to retire after the season or set to play 10 more years, the Giants slugger did not show up on the voluntary reporting date for position players.

That was no cause for concern, Giants general manager Brian Sabean said, because Bonds’ agent told the team last week that Bonds would come a day or two later _ still well before the Feb. 28 mandatory reporting date — because he needed to straighten out some "personal stuff."

After three knee operations that limited Bonds to 14 games last year, the Giants are eager to learn what they can expect from the 41-year-old outfielder.

"Given the fact that Barry didn’t play practically the entire season last year, we’d like to see him here early," manager Felipe Alou said. "But we can’t bring a guy here by force before the first of March."

Alou said he expects Bonds in camp today and has him listed in the first group of hitters for batting practice.

He said all the reports he has heard on Bonds’ knee have been positive but admitted that it concerned him to hear his star talk about how baseball is no longer fun for him.

"Usually when a guy feels like that, it’s time to think about retirement," Alou said, adding that he believes Bonds’ outlook will change once he joins the team.

Bonds told USA Today that his injured knee has forced him to take pain pills and that he plans to retire after the season, then said to MLB.com that he was just "playing psychological games" and his knee brace feels so good he might play another decade.

"Of course everything Barry Bonds says gets multiplied and is huge," Giants shortstop Omar Vizquel said. "People tend to talk about everything and every comment he makes. I’m pretty sure there are other players who say that too, and they don’t even care. ‘You are? OK, good luck.’ But he’s Barry Bonds."

Bonds is in the final season of his five-year, $90 million contract and will be eligible for free agency after the World Series, meaning his time with the Giants could be up even if he doesn’t retire.

The injuries last season slowed his pursuit of Hank Aaron’s career home run record, but he did hit five homers in 42 at-bats in his brief September return to give him 708 in his career.

He is seven shy of passing Babe Ruth for second place and 48 from breaking Aaron’s record. Since Bonds has hit that many only twice in his 20-year career — including his record 73 in 2001 — it seems unlikely he’ll break the mark this season. He turns 42 in July.

Vizquel thinks the retirement talk is premature because Bonds could decide to move to an AL team, where he could be a designated hitter.
"After being out for so long now, he’s going to come back and he his going to feel that kind of pain, the aching of the muscles and all that," said Vizquel, who turns 39 in April. "I think it’s just part of the game and part of the human body. . . . He’s 41. Every year it’s a lot harder. I think it’s just how he’s feeling right now. When you get used to the groove again, the traveling and everything else, you’re body starts feeling the same."