News

Fleeting as it was, life in the larger-than-life shadow of Barry Bonds inspired Alex Rodriguez to do some thinking over the All-Star Game break.

The numbers say quite clearly that Rodriguez is the prince to Bonds's King of Swing, the man who will make Bonds's hold on the sacrosanct career home-run record seem almost transitionary.

Bonds began the second half of the major-league baseball season Friday night at AT&T Park against the Los Angeles Dodgers, four home runs away from tying Hank Aaron's 33-year-old career record, in the only place in North America, it seems, anybody likes him. This is Bonds's own little sanctuary by the Bay. He helped build this ballpark and now he's the only reason it stays relatively full. The Giants are Bonds's second team, and in comparison to Rodriguez — now with his third club and with an option to declare free agency in the winter — the New York Yankees' third baseman seems almost mercenary.

Does A-Rod wonder whether he will ever have a comfort zone like this?

"I've been getting cheered by New York fans this year, and it's been really cool — if I told you anything else, it would be b.s.," Rodriguez, 31, said. "I can see now where the support of the San Francisco fans must be like a wave for Barry, something that carries him when he gets tired over a long season. It's a special relationship, where you both feel something for each other and expect something out of each other.

"I haven't come to that bridge, yet."

Bonds is just five steps — five home runs — from crossing the bridge, where he will not find a public waiting for him with open arms. With home run No. 756, he will replace Aaron as the career home-run leader. Baseball purists may think that DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak is the Mount Everest of feats. But society says he who is home-run king stands at the top of the hill, and for that reason, the number is weighty with significance.

Wayne Gretzky holds the National Hockey League's career scoring record with 2,856 points and 894 goals. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is the National Basketball Association's career scoring leader with — what — 38,387 points? Emmitt Smith is the National Football League's career rushing leader with 18,355 yards, and the career leading scorer in NFL history is Gary Anderson, a place kicker, with 2,434 points.

Those numbers aren't ingrained in the North American sports psyche or culture like Aaron's 755 or Ruth's 714 career homers. Nor should they be. After all, baseball doesn't produce a home-run king that often.

Ruth earned the title in 1921 when he passed Roger Connor, a first baseman who played in New York between 1880 and 1897. That took just 132 homers. Ruth retired in 1935, 350 homers ahead of the player closest to him and with a record that would stand up for 39 years.

Aaron's record will have lasted for more than 33 years when Bonds breaks it. But it won't take another three decades for it to fall. Rodriguez went into Friday night's game against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays five homers away from becoming the youngest player to reach 500. He is on pace for 58 homers this year — at this pace, he could pass 756 in the 2013 season. Even if Bonds keeps playing past this season, Rodriguez — blessed with good health and destined to play on teams with perpetually strong lineups because no one else will be able to afford him — will be well positioned to supplant him within eight years.

The son of a player, Bobby Bonds, whose career was characterized by bitterness and criticism about attitude, Barry has been a lightning rod since be broke in with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Since reaching the majors in 1986, he has been portrayed by the largely white, male press corps as the stereotypical angry young black man. In an interview in 2004, he talked about how he was one of only a handful of blacks in his all-boys Catholic high school in San Mateo, Calif.

"Four Mexicans and two or three black guys," he said. "That was it. You were always on the outside."

Bonds is still a man on the outside. Corporate America has all but shunned his pursuit of the record — MasterCard cancelled a planned promotion in 2004 after the San Francisco Chronicle reported Bonds told a federal grand jury he had used performance-enhancing substances provided by Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, but that he didn't know they were steroids — and Bonds (although he hasn't failed a baseball-administered drug test) still has allegations of perjury and tax evasion swirling around him.

Aaron has said he doesn't know Bonds's name. Baseball commissioner Bud Selig's very public hand-wringing about his plans to grace Bonds's pursuit has exacerbated the situation and come into question from the likes of civil-rights advocate Rev. Jesse Jackson, a notable presence this week in the clubhouses of the American and National League all-star teams.

"I'm astonished," Jackson said. "If you start [erasing] the records of accused players, [because of] allegations, you destroy the game. There's no reason to condemn him. If you can't prove it, embrace him and his record. The record speaks for itself. It's like there is no innocence until proven guilty, no due process. In American justice, evidence matters."

Beyond the twin issues of steroids and surliness, race must also be considered a factor. In an ESPN-ABC News poll released this year, black fans were more than twice as likely than whites to want Bonds to break Aaron's record (74 per cent to 28) and 46 per cent of blacks said Bonds has been "treated unfairly," compared with 25 per cent of white respondents. Forty-one per cent of black supporters of Bonds said suspected steroid use was the reason, while 25 per cent cited race and 21 said Bonds's in-your-face attitude was a factor. Two-thirds of white supporters of Bonds said steroid use was the reason for opposition to Bonds. Few mentioned race.

Aaron broke Ruth's record despite an astounding amount of racist hate mail from fans who didn't want to see a black man break a record set by a white man (from his perch in the broadcast booth at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, Los Angeles Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully, who was working the game, told his listeners that "a black man is getting a standing ovation in the Deep South for breaking a record of an all-time baseball idol").

Bonds says he has received racist mail. But he won't elaborate. "I don't talk about it, that's all," Bonds said this week. "Everything right now is what it is. All you can do is take it on the chin and keep on moving and smiling. I'm happy. I feel I'm in a good place. I still don't see people throwing the balls back when they go into the stands. All I see are the flashbulbs. All I hear is their click, click, click, click."

Selig considers Aaron a friend and confidant — they first met when Selig was a 15-year-old boy hanging around the Milwaukee Braves, who were owned by his family. In 1975, with Selig now the owner of the Milwaukee Brewers, he reacquired Aaron, who was 41 at the time, allowing the slugger to finish his career in Milwaukee. Selig unabashedly refers to Aaron as "my favourite player."

Selig has overseen the financial growth and the international direction of the game, but he will be judged by fans and accidental observers in the popular press more for how he handles Bonds's ascent than anything else. Which is why it seemed fitting this week when Selig invoked the name of one of his predecessors, Bowie Kuhn.

Kuhn, who died this year, faced a barrage of criticism for his perceived slight of Aaron in 1974, when he missed Aaron's historic 715th homer because he was in Cleveland attending a meeting of the Wahoo Club, a group of Cleveland Indians supporters. That, too, was viewed through the prism of race, even though Kuhn was in attendance when Aaron tied Ruth on opening day in Cincinnati and even though he had set up the Cleveland meeting well in advance.

Kuhn's name was very much on Selig's mind when he indicated he was more interested in ensuring the Giants don't try to manipulate the schedule so that Bonds sets the record at home than deciding whether he needed to be there in person when it happens.

"Clubs are in pennant races right now, and I would hope the overriding factor would be to put the best team on the field," Selig said. "You can't tell me that a game in July doesn't affect the pennant race. This is not Albert Einstein's theory of relativity. It's pretty easy: You play your best players."

Pretty easy? Aaron tied Ruth's career mark with his 714th homer on his first swing of 1974 against the Cincinnati Reds' Jack Billingsley on April 4 at Riverfront Stadium, then set the record in his second at-bat three games later at home against the Dodgers' Al Downing. It was a pursuit fraught with controversy because Kuhn ordered Braves manager Eddie Mathews to play Aaron in the third game of the three-game series against the Reds, after Mathews sat Aaron in the second game in what was an obvious attempt to manage the schedule so that Aaron would set the record in front of his home fans at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

Aaron grounded out and was called out on strikes in his other two plate appearances, taking a pair of 0-2 fastballs. His passivity stunned the pitcher - Clay Kirby - who threw them.

So how can Selig exercise control over Bonds's use? It won't be easy. Bonds, who will turn 43 on July 24, said he was "surprised at myself right now, because I thought I'd have missed more games," but he was frequently rested by manager Bruce Bochy. Bonds said he "feels good, happy ... not at all drained," but Bochy reiterated on Thursday that he will feel free to rest his slugger.

Bochy said Bonds would likely play all three games this weekend. He was equally clear that with four day games next week as part of a seven-game road trip to Chicago and Milwaukee, Bonds will sit out games. The Giants, who will then return home for four games against the Braves and three against the Florida Marlins, started a streak of 17 games without an off-day last night.

"We've had zero discussions," Bochy said, when asked if he, general manager Brian Sabean and owner Peter Magowan had devised a strategy to deal with the schedule. "I'm sure we'll talk about it as it gets closer. Obviously, we'd like to have Barry do it at home. It all depends where Barry is. If it's at the end of a road trip, that would be a good time for a rest. Sometimes, you have to deviate when a guy's close to 43."

Not to mention close to 755.