Who could have foreseen Bonds' chase?

Not those who knew him from his time with Pirates

Friday, April 13, 2007



Barry Bonds leaves Three Rivers Stadium in October 1987. Bonds has transformed from a line-drive .300 hitter to one of the most prolific home run hitters in baseball history.

By Paul Meyer, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Some day. Or some night. Somewhere. Somebody. "There's a famous pitcher lurking out there," former Pirates coach Rich Donnelly said. "We just don't know who."

That pitcher probably is in the major leagues now. Or maybe he's in Class AAA at the moment.

But he's out there. "And he has a date with immortality," Donnelly said. At some point this season, that pitcher will throw a pitch that Barry Bonds will drive over some outfield wall to pass Hank Aaron's career total of 755 and become the all-time home run leader.

Who would have thought that when Bonds arrived in the major leagues with the Pirates May 30, 1986? Who would have thought that during Bonds' seven seasons with the Pirates?



Not Jim Leyland, Bonds' first major-league manager.

"But I don't think you think that of any player," Leyland said. "We knew he was going to be a star, no question. But to say he was going to break Hank Aaron's record? I don't think anybody thought that."

Count Bob Walk among that group.

"I didn't think he was ever going to have the home run power to do what he's doing now," Walk said. "Maybe 400, 500 career home runs, yes. But to be up in the 700s? Nobody could have seen that. If they said they did, I think they're pulling your leg."

Andy Van Slyke, who played alongside Bonds in the Pirates' outfield for six seasons, certainly did not think Bonds would be in this position.

"I thought he'd be a 300-plus home run guy," Van Slyke said. "I thought he'd hit 40 doubles [a year], 25 home runs [a year].

"But he went from caterpillar to butterfly. He changed that much [physically]. I think somewhere along the line he decided he did not want to be left behind in the home run derby. He worked hard for this."



Steve Blass, who pitched to Aaron and watched Bonds develop, didn't think Bonds would challenge Aaron's record.

"Barry was this skinny-looking rookie, but you knew after a couple of years he had a chance to be exceptional," Blass said. "But it's like with a lot of young players who start out well: Will he be able to sustain it for 15 or 20 years? That's always the question."

Bonds answered that question emphatically.

Still, who would have thought?

"Back then, Barry was a line-drive, .300 hitter who happened to hit home runs," former teammate Lloyd McClendon said. "If he played long enough, he was going to hit 500 home runs."

"I envisioned him being maybe the best baseball player in the game, but never the home run king," said John Wehner, another former teammate. "I didn't think he'd ever hit that many home runs. I thought he was capable of hitting 40 a year for many years because he had power to all fields and he was disciplined and he hit good pitches.

"But to throw up 73 in a season [2001]? No, I didn't see that happening. But there was no reason to think he couldn't have been in the top 10 of all time."

Former Pirates player, coach and manager Bill Virdon, who played in Aaron's era, also is in the group that couldn't envision Bonds doing what he's doing.

"Not really," Virdon said. "Oh, he had excellent talent. I thought he'd hit 20 to 25 home runs a season, and that would be it. Back then, you thought of him as more of a speedster than as a slugger."

Back then, Bonds was more of a base-stealer than a home run hitter.



He did not hit more than 25 home runs in a season until 1990 (33). That season, he stole more than 30 bases for the fourth time in five seasons.

He had only one more 30-plus home run season for the Pirates, hitting 34 in 1992. That season, he stole 30-plus bases for the sixth time in seven seasons.

He left the Pirates after '92 with 176 career home runs. He was 28 years old.

Who would have thought?

And yet, Bonds arrives at PNC Park tonight only 20 home runs shy of Aaron's 755.

"He was special when he first came up, and he's special now," Donnelly said. "I have five grandchildren and I'll be talking to them about him. People are going to be talking about Barry like Babe Ruth. That's hard to fathom."

But kind of cool.

"I played next to Barry for six years," Van Slyke said. "I guess I could tell people he wasn't good enough to play center field with me there. That's the only thing I can brag about."

Van Slyke laughed. Then he turned serious.

"I think he was as good a left fielder as ever played," he said. "No question he's going to be a Hall of Famer. I think he's one of the top five athletes of all time."

And he began his career in Pittsburgh.

"I was talking to Walkie about it the other day," said Wehner, the kid from Carrick who joined the Pirates in July 1991. "It's pretty neat to think that we'll have played with the home run king. I think it's already pretty neat that I played with him."

"It would be awfully nice years from now to think that for six years I played with the home run king," Walk said.

Or managed him.

"I don't really like to gloat about anything I had nothing to do with," Leyland said. "Barry was going to be a superstar no matter who managed him. I was fortunate enough to be his first manager, but I'm not going to run around saying, 'Hey, you know, I was his first manager.' Big deal."

All of those above are rooting for Bonds to break Aaron's record. Blass, though, isn't among that group.

"In my heart, no," Blass said after a lengthy pause when asked if he is rooting for Bonds. "I don't know. I have this sense of purity about Aaron. I've always put him on kind of a pedestal. I would like to see his record stand. There never have been any real negatives in how he played and how he handled his life. He's among the elites in both those areas.



"There was always this squeaky clean aspect of his whole career. There were never any issues with Henry Aaron."

But there are with Barry Bonds.

There is the threat of a perjury indictment hanging over his head. There is the strong suspicion that at some point he used steroids in his pursuit of Aaron's record.

"That's something he's going to have to live with," Virdon said. "If he did do it, it was prior to [steroids] being illegal or banned. I don't see how you can condemn a guy if it wasn't illegal. If he did it since then, he was wrong."

"Everybody can speculate all they want," Walk said. "I'm sure most people are convinced some of that [power] was artificial, but looking back on it now with the hindsight we have, obviously steroids was a much bigger problem in the game than I ever thought it was. So it wasn't like he was the Lone Ranger out there.

"If he did it, he was just one of -- it looks like now -- maybe hundreds of guys who were doing it. I'm really not going to be part of the set of people that thinks there should be an asterisk or anything like that [next to Bonds' home run total]. Every era of ballplayer has tried to get some kind of an edge over the opposition, and there a lot of people who have crossed the line.

"At least some of the people in the Hall of Fame right now that I know of didn't exactly play by the rules the way they are in the book. I really don't care how he got the power. I just know that he was -- and is -- a great hitter and he was an extremely hard worker. Back in his days with us, he was in the weight room all winter -- every day -- constantly working out."

"All the speculation -- about whether he did it or didn't -- is kind of unfortunate because if he did, he didn't have to," Wehner said. "He was that good. Why risk tarnishing a career that's better than anybody in his time? It won't lessen it to me as far as his greatness. For me, he's the best player of our generation bar none. It's not even close.



"As far as, did he legitimately break Hank Aaron's home run record, yeah, there are some question marks there. Who knows what the final chapter's going to be -- if there's anything proven or not -- but there's always going to be that speculation."

"It still hasn't been proven," said Dave Clark, another former Bonds teammate with the Pirates.

Clark would love to be at the ballpark when Bonds passes Aaron.

"I remember watching on television in 1995 when [Cal] Ripken broke the [consecutive games played] record. It's just special to see stuff like that. And it's even more special when the guy was a teammate and a guy you respect. It was an honor to play with him. He deserves this. And he's earned this."

"I would love to be there," McClendon said. "That would be special. In my mind, he's a first-ballot Hall of Famer. Without a doubt, he's one of the greatest players of all time. I'm a fan of Barry Bonds and I'm a friend of Barry Bonds. I'll back him to the end.

"I think things [over time] have worn on him and left a bitter taste. He's probably one of the most-hated superstars ever. If people knew how generous he was ... but Barry never talked about that. He goes back to Pittsburgh -- where he won two MVPs -- and gets booed. It's really pathetic."

Leyland, too, would love to be at the game when Bonds breaks Aaron's record, but he knows that's very unlikely because he manages the Detroit Tigers.

However, Leyland does have a congratulatory plan in mind.

"I'm sure I'll call him," he said. "And maybe I'll send him 756 silver dollars."


(Paul Meyer can be reached at 412-263-1144.)