So, how much money have you made off Barry Bonds? If you are the San Francisco Giants' owners, perhaps the number is in the hundreds of millions of dollars. If you are the Giants' radio or television rights-holders, perhaps in the tens of millions. If you are a longtime teammate, your twice-monthly paycheck proof of the franchise's Bonds-built prosperity, maybe it's in the millions. The lawyers, the agents, the personal trainers, the BALCO boys, the memorabilia dealers, the authors, the freelancers, the kayakers, the local bar and hotel owners, the commissioner of baseball — the Barry Bonds era has been good to all your bottom lines.
And someday, perhaps soon, it will be over.
In the winter of Barry Bonds's career, there is unease throughout. The delicate dance that often occurs between a fading star and his franchise over the future of their relationship is even more complicated in this case, because he is Barry Bonds, and everyone here must grapple with a Faustian equation — how much money he has made for them versus how much of their souls it has cost them.
On Monday, Bonds spent his 42nd birthday quietly with his family in Washington, where the Giants open a three-game series against the Nationals at RFK Stadium on Tuesday night. Also on Monday, the fan who caught Bonds's 715th home run ball in May, which gave Bonds sole possession of second place on the career list, put the ball up for sale on eBay, with the auction expected to fetch as much as $500,000 — another half-mil earned by another profiteer from the sweat of Barry Bonds.
But this gravy train — among the most profitable in professional sports history — is slowly grinding to a halt after 14 seasons in San Francisco. Bonds, whose home run total sits at 722 — close enough to make a run at Hank Aaron's career record of 755 next season — is in the final year of a five-year, $90 million contract, and his expressed desire to remain in San Francisco for another season has been met with mostly silence from the team.
"Yeah, I would want to come back here" next season, Bonds, a Bay Area native, said in a brief interview in the home clubhouse at AT&T Park. "You'd always like to stay in one place. This is my home. But [players] don't make those decisions."
The Giants' principal owner, Peter A. Magowan, who in past seasons has all but guaranteed Bonds would never again play in another uniform, these days will barely touch the question of Bonds's future.
"We have said many times that is a question we are not prepared to deal with until after the season," Magowan said. "There are too many variables here, including his health and the performance of the team."
Another variable, no doubt, is how much money Bonds can still bring in, relative to how much he would be taking out in salary. The Giants are paying Bonds $18 million this year. It is not so much a negotiation as a calculation.
Uncertain Future
The last time baseball experienced a convergence of hometown hero, hometown team and the winding down of a historic career, the celebration lasted all summer and spread to cities all across the nation when the hero came to say goodbye.
But this is not 2001, and Barry Bonds is not Cal Ripken. In fact, he is, in many ways, the anti-Ripken, as vilified throughout the game as the Iron Man was exalted.
"They are two very different animals," said one Giants source, when asked whether the team might give a Ripkenesque farewell to Bonds this season. "I don't think that could happen."
Asked how he thought his farewell might play out in San Francisco, Bonds said: "I'm not into 'farewell' right now, so I can't even answer that. It's a little premature for this conversation." As for the uncertainty over his status with the team, Bonds shrugged and said: "It was the same way when I hit 73 [homers] in 2001. It was the last day of my contract. I didn't know if I'd be back."
Bonds, of course, did come back to the Giants the following season, and over the next three seasons he extended what was possibly the greatest stretch of offensive production in baseball history. He also led the Giants to the World Series in 2002.
"I would think the Giants would make every attempt that is humanly possible to keep Barry in a Giants uniform," his agent, Jeff Borris, said. "Whether or not they will, time will tell."
If the Giants pass on Bonds, it could also signal the end of his career, despite his own desire to keep playing. If the Giants, after all he has done for them, decide the baggage is too great, would anyone else disagree?
Teams don't generally line up to sign 42-year-old outfielders to begin with, and Bonds's baggage — always burdensome — now includes the possibility of a federal grand jury indictment on perjury and/or tax evasion charges. The grand jury is looking into whether Bonds lied when he testified before a separate grand jury when he said that he had not knowingly used steroids, and whether he paid taxes on cash sales of memorabilia.
Conventional wisdom holds that Bonds, if the Giants let him walk away, would seek to go to an American League team, where he could serve as designated hitter in an attempt to reduce the wear and tear on his surgically repaired knee.
But informed observers point to only two teams that could be willing to take a chance on Bonds in 2007 — the Oakland Athletics, who play across the bay from San Francisco and who could use the attendance bump of having Bonds make a run at 755 in the Bay Area, and the Detroit Tigers, whose manager, Jim Leyland, was Bonds's manager in Pittsburgh and remains close to the slugger.
"Other than those two," said one AL executive, "I don't see anyone else who'd be willing to deal with [the baggage], and I don't even know that [the A's or Tigers] would want him."
It is useful to note that Sammy Sosa and Rafael Palmeiro, who were linked last year to baseball's steroids scandal, went unsigned after their most recent contracts with the Baltimore Orioles ran out. Both have expressed publicly a desire to continue playing, but nobody seems to want them.
Still, a major difference with Bonds is that, at age 42 and with three knee surgeries under his belt in recent years, he remains a highly productive player.
Although he is in the midst of his least productive season with the Giants, his on-base percentage of .477 is the highest in the majors among players with at least 300 plate appearances, and his on-base plus slugging percentage of .986 ranks fourth in the National League, behind only Albert Pujols, Lance Berkman and Chipper Jones.
"He's attacking the ball," said Giants Manager Felipe Alou. "That knee . . . is not a problem for him now."
Bonds is also still a capable left fielder. In 524 1/3 innings on defense this season, he has yet to commit an error. And his range? On Saturday night, in the Giants' 4-3 win over the San Diego Padres — which gave them, briefly, sole possession of the NL West Division lead — Bonds sprinted towards the left field line to grab a flared base hit, then spun and fired a quick strike to second base, holding the batter to a single.
"He's a solid everyday left fielder, and there's no reason for me to consider that he couldn't continue to be a solid everyday left fielder next season," said Borris, shooting down the notion that Bonds would be restricted to the AL in 2007.
However, Bonds's legal problems are another disincentive to signing him. Should an indictment eventually materialize — last week, the U.S. attorney in charge of the investigation declined to seek indictment, but convened a new grand jury to continue the investigation — it could come during the 2007 season and open Bonds up to the possibility of a suspension from Major League Baseball.
A Happy Home Field
When Bonds jogs out to his spot in left field at the start of a home game, the sections of fans in both the outfield bleachers and down the left field line rise to their feet and applaud. Bonds acknowledges both sections with a wave of the glove and a head-nod. When he steps into the batter's box for the first time in the bottom of the first inning, any boos, if they are out there, are completely overwhelmed by the cheers.
This is Bonds's farewell tour, such as it is.
Here, his accomplishments are celebrated and memorialized, instead of ridiculed.
Here, everybody still loves Barry unconditionally, and — not coincidentally — a good many of them have profited from him.
When the Giants signed Bonds away from the Pittsburgh Pirates after the 1992 season, the Giants' franchise was valued at $100 million, according to Forbes magazine, and its average attendance at windswept Candlestick Park was 19,272.
Last season, the franchise was valued at $381 million and average attendance at AT&T Park was 39,259. Revenues have increased from around $65 million in 1992 to about $171 million last season. Care to take a guess as to who is most responsible for the windfall?
"Bonds's burst of prodigious performance took the Giants from a team that was only of lukewarm popularity in San Francisco . . . and lifted the team to a whole new level," said Andrew Zimbalist, a professor of economics at Smith College. "Without Bonds's heroics it's questionable whether the ballpark would have established itself the way it has. They basically play to capacity crowds there every day."
Still, as Bonds's productivity has slowed, so has the gravy train. In 2005, when Bonds's knee injury limited him to only 14 games, attendance fell by an average of about 1,000 per game. In 2006, despite Bonds's relative health, it is slightly down again.
If the Giants fail to re-sign Bonds, it could be interpreted as a sign they no longer feel they need his presence to fill seats. In 2007, AT&T Park will host its first all-star game, an almost certain guarantee of a sold-out stadium all season long — since Giants season-ticket holders get first dibs on all-star game tickets.
In other words, it will be a brand new money machine for the Giants — one that doesn't cost nearly as much maintenance.
