Bonds at peace with his new role
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Barry Bonds sat in the Giants’ dugout at Scottsdale Stadium on Wednesday and was so relaxed it was hard to picture the contentious news conferences he held in the same spot 10 years ago, in front of 10 times more reporters and cameras.
That part of Bonds’ life and career has faded and no longer seems part of his oeuvre. At 52, he is a coach, a teacher and an ambassador, and he likes it that way.
“I feel like I could still play for about an hour,” Bonds said before he started his first day in nearly 10 years as a full-time Giants employee.
“I feel that my time in baseball has come and gone and my time now is to help others. I feel I had a great career. I had a lot of fun. There’s some great memories. At one point and time I’ll be
able to tell it all. That’s in the past. Now I see things differently. I more want to help out.”
Bonds’ main responsibility with the Giants under an agreement announced Tuesday — besides representing them in the community — will be teaching prospects how to hit.
Bonds returns to the Giants after one season as the Miami Marlins’ hitting coach, a job he enjoyed but which was not a great fit. He acknowledged Wednesday he is not a video guy, not an advanced metrics guy. A full-time hitting coach in the 2010s needs to be all that.
“I wouldn’t know what OBAplus means,” he said. “Remember, I can’t read and I really didn’t get good grades in school. That really would not even work for me. I am monkey see, monkey do. If you show me and I can see it, I can do it better than you, except for cycling. I’m trying. But my weight is in the way.”
Bonds can best help the Giants by imparting his vast storehouse of knowledge to young players rising through their system.
His year in Miami was not a waste. Bonds said he learned the ins and outs of coaching and, just as important, convinced himself that teaching would be a great way to continue his post-playing life.
“You need time to mature yourself and realize what’s best for you,” he said. “I’ve been away now for quite some time. I had an opportunity to coach for the Marlins. I feel like this is what I’m supposed to be doing.”
Bonds called his new arrangement with the Giants “the right thing to do,” following the path of his godfather, Willie Mays, his father, Bobby Bonds, and other great San Francisco players who still have a place at AT&T Park.
“All I ever wanted to do was make my godfather and father proud of me, and I had that opportunity,” he said. “I wish my dad were here to see this.”
Bonds mostly lives in San Francisco and can be spotted enjoying his new avocation. He even cycled past the ballpark in February, chatting up fans waiting to enter FanFest.
“San Francisco community is my family,” he said. “I ride my bike there every day. I see everyone along the road. Everyone is awesome to me and my family. It couldn’t be any better for us.”
Of his new deal with the Giants, Bonds said, “The timing is just right. Sometimes I believe you need to get away from the game as a player and just regroup on everything, think about all that’s gone on, what’s gone on around you.”
Bonds will spend some time with the big-league club during the season but made a point of saying he will stand “behind” hitting coach Hensley Meulens.
The Giants stood behind Meulens when Bonds wanted to be a hitting coach, one of many reasons a formal agreement with the club was delayed.
Bonds always has projected indifference or hostility toward anything that did not involve hitting a baseball. But he admitted he would have been “a little hurt” had the Giants not wanted to bring him back to the fold.
“I think anyone would have been hurt,” he said. “My feeling is with the community in San Francisco. As long as I have San Francisco people, the Giants go hand in hand. As long as I get to have the city of San Francisco behind me, they both go hand in hand.”
He had no thoughts about the prospect of having his uniform number retired or his Hall of Fame chances, which are improving, and said he has no plans to participate in any home run contests even though he knows he still could beat a lot of the players he will coach.
“I will never compete ever again in my lifetime,” he said when asked about bicycling competitively. “I did that for 22 years. I competed. I will compete for myself to stay in good shape and healthy. I will never compete in any sport, in any capacity. That is so draining.”
We’ll see.