SAN FRANCISCO -- Mayor Gavin Newsom has given the city's blessing to the 40th anniversary celebration of the Summer of Love, so guess this is the Summer of Love: Barry Bonds's version.
How did that old Scott McKenzie song go?
If you're going to San Francisco
Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
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If you're going to San Francisco
You're gonna meet some [expletive] people there.
Or something like that.
Now just go away. Yes, you. You, too. That will be the catch line from Bonds's lost weekend in pursuit of Hank Aaron's career home-run record, which came to a lame and profane end yesterday when the future hit king looked into the jaws of an 0-for-20 slump and, after saying "Cameras ... no cameras," said: "It's an embarrassment to me wearing this [expletive deleted] uniform the way I'm playing. Now go away. ... I'm embarrassed to have this [expletive] uniform on the way I'm performing. Now get out of here."
And with that, Bonds stood and waved away the small knot of reporters clustered around his locker.
Then he tipped over a laundry cart. (Can we count that toward 3,000 career hits?)
He was as dismissive as the Los Angeles Dodgers were in shackling him en route to a three-game sweep of the San Francisco Giants.
Bonds, who hit into three double plays in the first two games of the series - the first time he's done that in consecutive games since 1991 - didn't hit a ball into the outfield until he flied out to centre field in his second at-bat yesterday. It was the only time all series that he managed to get the ball out of the infield.
"He's hitting .280, so he's definitely not the Bonds he was four years ago," intoned Brett Tomko, yesterday's Dodgers starter who, erm, lowered his earned-run average to 5.58 from 6.18 in five innings. Indeed, Tomko was almost apologetic when he said, "I wasn't in a lot of situations where, you know, I needed to nibble."
True story: One of Bonds's teammates spotted a familiar notebook hanging around in the Giants' clubhouse on Friday and asked said reporter how he planned to cover Bonds's pursuit of Aaron's career record of 755 home runs.
The response?
If he doesn't hit any over the weekend, probably best to wait until he's at 753 or even 754 and pick him up. "Dude," the player said, "if you're going to wait until 754 ... see you some time in September."
Ya think? Bonds hasn't had a hit since singling against the Cincinnati Reds' Bronson Arroyo in the fourth inning of a game on July 5. And it wasn't because the Dodgers didn't give him anything to hit: They did, whether it was soft-tossing Mark Hendrickson floating 87-mile-an-hour fastballs by him or Tomko getting him to swing and miss at a 90-mph fastball down the middle and crossing him up with a changeup or Joe Beimel making him look, well, 43 years old as he swung and missed at a 76-mph curve with two men on.
"He's a little pull-conscious right now," said his manager, Bruce Bochy.
Dodgers manager Grady Little credited his Canadian-born catcher, Russell Martin, with executing and, in some ways, developing the game plan for Bonds.
Martin, who had three more hits yesterday to raise his average to .317, just shrugged.
"With Barry, you just have to see how he feels," Martin said. "We were careful the first two games, and then we became a little more aggressive. We went right at him. Hey, he's human and there are times when he's not going to be swinging the bat well. We got lucky."
So Bonds is stuck on 751 homers and now the Giants open a seven-game trip at Wrigley Field tonight with the first of four games against the Chicago Cubs. Bochy has already determined that Bonds will skip one of the two day games in Chicago (Wednesday or Thursday) and he will also likely give him a day off in Milwaukee next weekend. (Note to commissioner Bud Selig: It's safe to take the weekend off.)
This whole dynamic was turned upside down last Thursday when Giants owner Peter Magowan decided to give general manager Brian Sabean a two-year extension and announced the club was rebuilding. In San Francisco, that's code for: enjoy Bonds while you can, because the pursuit of his next statistical goal (3,000 hits) will come in another uniform.
This is a lineup that hasn't offered Bonds much in the way of support this year to begin with.
Now, they're going to rebuild? Nice. In the meantime, some of us are going to take Bonds's words to heart. Later, dude.
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