Giants' focus goes beyond Bonds

03/14/2006
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- It's likely to happen in April, probably in a Giants home game, when Barry Bonds will rocket career home run 715, surpassing Babe Ruth's legendary lifetime total.
A moment to treasure, a feat to remember, but surely one of the most controversial events in baseball, with reactions running the gamut of opinions and emotions, but separated into two distinct factions.
For. Against.
There is, it seems, never an in-between for fans' feelings regarding Bonds, who is only seven blasts shy of Ruth's mark. Yet the Giants will play it straight as the megastar circles the bases after the historic blast.
"It's a tremendous achievement," said Larry Baer, San Francisco's executive vice president and chief operating officer, Monday at Scottsdale Stadium. "We don't know exactly what we're going to do ... but it's not something that will go unrecognized. There won't be silence."
Silence, however, is essentially what's coming from the front-office team when the topic is in regards to what managing general partner Peter Magowan calls the ongoing "legal proceeding" baseball Commissioner Bud Selig's office is conducting in the wake of allegations Bonds used performance-enhancing drugs.
Excerpts from the book "Game of Shadows," which excoriates Bonds' off-field life? Reaction to the allegations? Will Bonds be suspended?
"I can't comment on any of this," Magowan said. "It's a position we've taken for two years now. The Commissioner has his investigation going, a review. He had broad power. He has promised to do a careful review and we'll cooperate any way we can. Until we have the facts, we can't comment."
And his emotions about it all? "I can't comment," he said.
One sentiment has been commented on ad nauseam -- that the tornado of questions surrounding Bonds' multiple issues has detracted from the team and its quest to rebound from its subpar 2005 season.
Baer said he and manager Felipe Alou are somewhat distressed over the all-Bonds-all-the-time media mindset.
"We have a damn good team this year," Baer said, "but it's completely lost. That's one of the melancholy feelings I've had. There are 24 other guys going to go north to San Francisco and they've played well. They're top professionals, and I wish that piece wouldn't be lost."
Still, Bonds is the overriding story, the team's main man. Magowan said if he knew everything that would occur with the slugger during the past few years, he would still have signed the seven-time MVP.
"He's a winning ballplayer," Magowan said. "He's helped us win."
And, given relatively good health, Magowan said Bonds will continue to help the Giants win.
"I think from all that I've seen and heard, I think he's going to do fine," Magowan said. "You never know. He could trudge out to left field at any point and his career could be over. But he still seems to be able to hit the ball and he says he's not in pain."
Magowan is confident San Francisco fans will embrace Bonds as rewrites the homer record book. The Giants have sold about 2.5 million tickets already for the 2006 season, and 3 million is all but certain.
Magowan said he is optimistic about this season, yet laughed, saying he had similar thoughts about the Giants prior to their underwhelming performance last year -- 75-87 record, third place in the National League West.
"I think the division is going to be a lot better -- it won't be the laughingstock of baseball like it was last year," Magowan said. "The Dodgers are definitely improved, the Padres are improved, Arizona has improved, too, with some good young players."
The Giants hope Bonds, who played only 14 games in 2005, will play a minimum of 100 games. "I don't know what the number is, but the more he can play the better," Magowan said. "It has to be more than 14, but even if it was 14, we have a better outfield than we had last year."

Source: http://sanfrancisco.giants.mlb.com/