\I think we have other issues in this country to worry about that are much more serious,"" San Francisco Giants outfielder Barry Bonds said to the media when asked about the plethora of controversies surrounding the not-so-certain Hall of Famer.
Wow. I love this man. Really, I do. No other athlete has been so gifted, so troubled and so surly with the media. Bonds has hated the media for years. He's accused them of everything from creating steroid talk out of thin air to being the reason for everything evil in this country. Well, almost. In his recent interview, Bonds ripped the press for not talking about the good things many athletes have done for the victims of Hurricane Katrina and instead asking about Congressional steroid inquiries.
That's enough about my beef with Bonds and his issues with the sportswriters of America. Let's talk about something incredible. As much as I dislike Barry Bonds, (the above statement was sarcastic in case you missed it) he has a chance to tie Babe Ruth in the next 10 days. Bonds has 10 games in 10 days in which he needs to put seven balls out of the National League ballparks. You may hate the guy, but this will be interesting to watch.
You may say, ""Seven homers in 10 games? Connor, you're crazy!""
I am. Or am I?
Bonds' next three games are against the Rockies in Coors Field. Not that I need to tell you, but I could hit a homer in Coors Field. The place is a launch pad and it doesn't hurt that the left-handed Bonds will see right-handers Jeff Francis, Sun-Woo Kim and Jamey Wright, who have combined to give up 56 dingers this season.
The following four games are all in PETCO Park, which is a larger ball field but is more tailored to lefties than righties as it was built with Brian Giles, Ryan Klesko and Sean Burroughs in mind. Bonds and the bay-siders have motivation. The Padres are five games up on the Giants for the division lead, and the way San Diego has been playing, it might as well be a one-game lead. To top it all off, the Padres are going to have to pitch to Bonds and would be right to do so. Bonds is hitting .318 with four home runs in eight games this season but it's a small sample size. The rest of the Giants lineup isn't so terrible that they can force Bonds to do it all, so look for Padres pitchers to have to challenge Bonds. And hopefully, for my column, get beat doing so.
Bonds will finish the season with a three-game series against the Diamondbacks in San Francisco. Bonds loves to hit at home and will do his best to not disappoint his fans. This home run race is just the icing on the cake of some of the tightest wild card action baseball has ever seen. If nothing else, Bonds can at least be a reason to keep an eye on the NL West. It's a shame, but somebody's got to win it.
E-mail Connor McKnight at cgmcknight@wisc.edu
