Understanding Barry Bonds sometimes requires a translator. His history of grandiose statements makes it hard to tell when he is being serious. Even Bonds once joked that he only believes half of what he says.
Even if that’s true, and Bonds hits only .500 on his proclamations, there is plenty of evidence from his past statements to suggest this exit strategy: Bonds will stick around long enough to surpass Babe Ruth on the home run chart, but he will leave chasing Hank Aaron to somebody else.
He underscored that possibility Tuesday when he said he could miss half or all of this season after undergoing knee surgery last week. He later told an MLB.com reporter, “Certainly I’ll be gone after 2006.”
That time frame would make it difficult to reach Aaron’s record of 755 home runs, a mark that has stood unchallenged since Aaron retired after the 1976 season at age 42.
Bonds, with 703 home runs, needs 52 to tie Aaron, which could be a chore if his remaining playing days consist of less than a season and a half.
Bonds has averaged 42 home runs per year during his 19 big league seasons. He hit a career-high 73 in 2001, but that was the only time he surpassed 50 — which, incidentally, is something Aaron never did.
Only three players have hit 50 or more career home runs after their 40th birthday: Carlton Fisk (72), Darrell Evans (67) and Dave Winfield (59).
Besides the math, there is also Bonds’ insistence, such as it is, that he doesn’t want Aaron’s record.
On April 23, 2002, before playing the Cubs on a cold night at Wrigley Field, Bonds said he would leave pursuing Aaron to younger players.
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At the time Bonds was 37. And though he had made an off-season commercial with Aaron that played off the chances that the record would be broken, Bonds said: “My time is done. It’s not enough time for me, and that’s just reality. I have four or five years left and that’s it. I’m done.
“If you intentionally walk me 100-plus times, that’s time I’ve lost. I don’t have seven more years to make up those differences. They do.”
By “they” Bonds meant Sammy Sosa and Alex Rodriguez. Sosa has 574 home runs at 35; Rodriguez has 381 at 28.
Chasing Ruth, though, is another matter, since Bonds has made it clear several times that passing the Bambino is high on his to-do list. He has said it bothers him that people think of Ruth as the home run king rather than Aaron.
His sentiment all but boiled over at the 2003 All-Star Game when he said, “In the baseball world, Babe Ruth is everything, right? I’ve got his slugging percentage, on-base percentage, walks and I’ll take his home runs. And that’s it. Don’t talk about him no more.”
Compare that to his obviously reverential feelings toward Aaron. At spring training in 2002 he said, “He is somebody that African-American ballplayers are going to look up to for a lifetime — forever. … Regardless of whether the record gets broken or not, I’m just glad you guys are talking about Hank Aaron as the home run king.”
If Bonds returns for even half a season, passing Ruth should be a formality. He needs 12 home runs to do that.
The baseball world is ready. The SportsBusiness Journal reported this week that 20 companies have aligned themselves with Bonds through licensing deals.
The Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., also was poised for the chase. Jeff Idelson, a spokesman, said his organization had planned to approach Bonds when the season started to arrange for some mementos from the chase.
“Whenever a player is on the doorstep of breaking a major record or reaching an important milestone, we take that very seriously,” Idelson said. “But if what Barry is saying is true, it might be a case of `Wait till next year.”‘