Posted at 4:21 p.m., Saturday, August 4, 2007
Baseball: Bonds shows up early for batting practice
By Janie McCauley
Associated Press
In a rare move by the San Francisco slugger, he showed up at Petco Park well before he typically would and took early batting practice on the field for close to 45 minutes. Nobody could recall the last time he took early cuts not in the inside cage.
"That's the question of the day," joked Giants bench coach Ron Wotus.
Said manager Bruce Bochy: "Not very often. If he thinks he needs it, he does it."
The disciplined Bonds, 43 years old for a week and a half now, surely saw that Yankees star Alex Rodriguez ended his long homerless funk today and connected for career homer No. 500. Bonds has been stuck at 754 home runs and one from tying Hank Aaron's record since July 27 against Florida.
"He swung well," Bochy said. "He was pleased. He felt he found something. He took a lot of swings. ... He wanted to tweak his swing a little bit. He wanted to get his timing back."
The Giants were set to play the middle game of their weekend series against the San Diego Padres today, and Bonds was expected to sit out tomorrow afternoon's finale before his team heads home to face Washington and Pittsburgh.
He took eleven rounds of early batting practice, hitting 19 home runs.
Nine of his shots landed between center field and left. The first pitcher? Bochy, then hitting coach Joe Lefebvre.
"I had good stuff today," Bochy said.
The slugger, in black shorts and a black T-shirt, even took a few one-handed swings to find his groove. Lefebvre monitored closely and spoke to Bonds several times.
Lefebvre and fellow coach Willie Upshaw have been studying Bonds' swing on film in recent days.
Bonds, who broke up his sessions with a quick water break at one point, leisurely leaned against the cage between turns, right leg over left. His bat-boy son, 17-year-old Nikolai, watched from Bonds' defensive spot in left field and turned to see a couple of balls sail over his head into the navy blue bleachers.
Padres star Mike Cameron came out to catch a glimpse at the end, giving Bonds a high-five behind the cage. They talked for several minutes.
Cameron knows the constant attention surrounding Bonds' pursuit of the Hammer is taking its toll — not to mention the suspicions of steroid use.
"He's competing against a ghost," Cameron said. "He said it's been tough. I told him I'm pulling for him and to stay strong. I'm just enamored by him — in awe. He has all the big records. People forget he's 43. He's had a whole lot to handle. It's hard enough to play the game and then to go through all this kind of stuff. I'm sorry, I couldn't do it."
