Bonds returns to AT&T Park as opponent
SAN FRANCISCO — Not long after the Giants won their third World Series, former outfielder Barry Bonds said of AT&T Park: “I built this ballpark. Y’all just learned how to use it.”
He was joking. But only a little.
Bonds returns Friday night to the house he once electrified. He arrives as, of all things, the Miami Marlins hitting coach.
The all-time home run leader will be at AT&T Park for three games, which raises the question of when he’ll be there forever.
The Giants have not built
Bonds a statue or retired his number or added him to their Wall of Fame. Team executives say it has nothing to do with the steroid cloud and everything to do with timing.
“He’s done more great things than anybody. So I can’t imagine that at the appropriate time that Larry (Baer) and the powers that be won’t figure that out,” Giants vice president Brian Sabean said.
Baer said by phone Thursday that the Wall of Fame is first on the to-do list. In fact, the Giants chief executive officer said they offered to hold the ceremony this weekend, but Bonds felt the timing wasn’t right.
“He said, ‘Hey, look, I don’t know if that’s fair to my new role. I’ve been hitting coach for 15 games and now I’m going to be honored by the Giants?’ ” Baer said.
“He wasn’t sure that was appropriate or fair to the Marlins. And to Barry’s credit, I think this was a very good call on his part.”
The Giants established their Wall of Fame in 2008, a year after Bonds’ final season as a player. According to the criteria, the honor goes to those who played a minimum of nine seasons for San Francisco or a minimum of five seasons with at least one All-Star selection.
Johnnie LeMaster is on the wall. So are Marvin Benard, Scott Garrelts, Jason Schmidt, Bob Bolin, Kirt Manwaring and Atlee Hammaker. But not Bonds. Even without the formal tribute, however, Sabean said Bonds remains part of the AT&T fabric.
“He was the biggest pillar, early, first of all, signing with us and then getting the momentum to open the new stadium,” Sabean said.
“When he was on top of his game, there wasn’t anything he couldn’t do. … For me, it’s a huge impression of how dominant a force he was and how he controlled baseball.”
This will be Bonds’ first game in San Francisco in an opposing uniform since Aug. 23, 1992, when he went 0 for 4 for the Pittsburgh Pirates at Candlestick Park.
It could be jarring for fans to see him in another team’s colors. Once Bonds’ felony obstruction conviction was overturned and his legal issues ended, it was expected that he and the Giants would come to terms on a more visible and defined role within the organization.
Instead, Bonds’ return to major league baseball came when Miami hired him last December.
“The Marlins gave me an opportunity, and (manager) Don Mattingly stamped that opportunity by saying, ‘Barry, I would love for you to be on my staff,’” Bonds said then. “And I told Donnie, ‘I would love to work for you.’ ”
Baer said Thursday that the Giants tried several times to find a role in the organization for Bonds. But they were set at hitting coach. Hensley Meulens, in his seventh season in that job, has been part of three World Series winning teams and is coming off a season in which the Giants led the National League in batting average and on-base percentage.
“We view (Bonds) as a Giant, but in my conversations with him, there is certainly passion around being a major league hitting coach,” Baer said. “There’s passion around it because of his father (Bobby Bonds, a former hitting coach).
“And I think there’s passion around it because Barry — and I think nobody can quibble with this — is somewhat genius-like in the art of hitting.
“And an organization should take advantage of that.”
Bonds did not end his playing career on the terms he wanted in 2007, when he broke baseball’s all-time home run record while at the center of a federal investigation and prosecution of a steroid distribution ring. Giants ownership rebuffed his desire to play one more season, and no other major league club stepped up to tender him a contract.
Baer said Thursday that there is no bad blood and the two stay in “close touch.” He noted that Bonds went out of his way during spring training to catch a red-eye flight for the memorial service of Jim Davenport, the longtime Giant who died on Feb. 18.