SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Barry Bonds will never go quietly into the night.

He’s having too much fun Just Being Barry.

There was Barry laughing it up down the right field line at Scottsdale Stadium yesterday, putting on a show for his ESPN show, “Bonds On Bonds.”

You would never know that he was again smack in the center of the steroid storm. As his own personal cameraman Anthony Phills rolled on, Barry played catch with a member of his entourage.

“I’ve got to get this glove broken in,” Bonds said. “If I don’t, I’m in trouble.”

Talking about his lack of mobility, Bonds added, “I’m in trouble anyway.”

He sure is. If his batting practice performance is any indication, Bonds, fingered once again as the Steroid Slugger by the new book, “Game of Shadows,” is still the greatest hitter on the planet, but he is moving like an old man because of an aching right knee. I’ve seen a lot of things in baseball over the last 20 years, but I’ve never seen a player sit on a stool between rounds of batting practice.

That’s what Bonds was doing yesterday and that three-legged stool or a folding chair has become a regular routine during his batting practice sessions. On the sixth pitch he saw, Bonds sent a rocket that hit the screen above the 430 mark in center. Then he sat down on his stool like an old man sitting down in the park to play checkers.

His next turn in the cage, Bonds hit one ball that traveled 480 feet, deep over the right field wall. There was one bomb after another.

A few hours later, Team USA held its batting practice in the same park and not one player hit any balls as hard or as far as Bonds did.

A lot of people want Bonds gone, just like Mark McGwire is gone, like Rafael Palmeiro is gone, like Sammy Sosa is gone. But Bonds still hits like Bonds and since he’s getting $18 million this year, he’s not going anywhere unless that knee completely collapses.

And it may. Talking to scouts, the game plan for opponents will be to walk Bonds at every turn and have him clog up the bases because he can’t run. The biggest pain for him is when he decelerates. He couldn’t run yesterday in an exhibition game against the Angels, his first action of the spring, and he probably won’t push it all season.

Bonds talked about the “R” word, retirement, again.

“I think about it every year, I don’t know what keeps me coming back,” he said. “The first and the 15th are something. I don’t know, I pay child support, you all. I’ve got to have a job.

“By July you guys will know,” he added. “By the All-Star break, August, sometime during that time of the season, you guys will know if I’m coming back.”

Bud, the BALCO scandal or booing are not going to get rid of Bonds. A bad knee “Bone On Bone” is about the only thing that will stop “Bonds On Bonds.”

Bonds visited with Ken Griffey Jr. and the two shared laughs. “I saw him in December, in January, three days ago and today, we don’t even talk about the things that come out,” Griffey said. “Our concerns are the family and things like that, the lighter side of family.”

Bonds is sitting on 708 home runs, six shy of Babe Ruth and 47 from Hank Aaron. When he moves ahead of the Babe, Griffey said, “Hopefully the fans will cheer. If not, they don’t. But that’s a whole lot of home runs.”

What about all the turmoil, can Bonds be in the middle of all that and still perform? “He can do it,” Griffey said. “That’s why he is one of the greatest players.”

You may want him gone, but don’t expect Bonds to quit, unless his knee does first.