Right now he’s the circus, the Super Bowl and Mardi Gras all rolled into one.
He’s Barry Bonds. And with all due respect to Ringling Brothers, feel free to call him The Greatest Show on Earth.
Baseball’s biggest star invades Shea Stadium tonight, and the Mets must figure out how to stop, or at least slow down, the monster. It’ll hardly be easy.
This is a man who’s not just the greatest player in the game today but maybe the greatest ever. There is no one way to stop Bonds. Facing him is like trying to guard Shaq with Danny DeVito, like trying to tackle Barry Sanders while playing on banana peels, like trying to stop a Lemieux breakaway while wearing one skate.
Al Leiter said if you try to exploit Bonds’ weaknesses and “miss by an inch or two, it’s a home run potentially.” Even John Franco, who has had the most success against Bonds on the Met staff, admits, “There’s really no particular way to pitch him. Just very carefully, and if he does hit it, hopefully he keeps it in the ballpark.”
“I mean, the guy’s incredible. Let’s face it,” Art Howe said. “He should be in another league.”
Bonds’ stats this year are cartoonish. He’s hitting .463, slugging 1.111 and getting on base at a .704 clip. He has 10 homers, 44 walks and just six strikeouts. Absurd, absurd, absurd.
When the Mets face Bonds tonight, they will have to make some tough decisions. Do they pitch to him, or intentionally walk him? Dare to challenge him and risk ending up on the wrong end of SportsCenter, or pitch around him and hand him first base?
“I don’t know,” said Steve Trachsel, who gets first crack against Bonds tonight. “I think the game will dictate what we do.”
“Am I going to give him something to hit?” Braden Looper asked. “The situation’s going to dictate.”
“We’re going to be very careful with him,” Howe said with a smile. “We’ll try to have him have as minimal an effect on the outcome of the game as possible.”
Pretending Bonds is just like any other hitter would seem to be an exercise in futility. But even so, some Met pitchers insist they will approach him no differently than anyone else. And that means pitching aggressively.
“Stay aggressive, make your pitches, see what happens,” Mike Stanton said. “Only way I’m not going to be aggressive is if they have me walk him.”
“I’m going to be aggressive,” said Jae Seo, tomorrow’s pitcher. “Nothing’s going to change from my pitching. I’m in awe of what he’s done on the field . . . but when you get on the field, it’s a level playing field and we’re both competitors.”
Maybe the only certainty with Bonds is that every at-bat will be memorable.
“It’s a moment you can say when you’re done,” Leiter said, “that you faced the greatest home run hitter.”
It starts tonight. The Greatest Show on Earth is in town.
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The Shea-hey kid
In his career, Barry Bonds has notched 10 homers and 32 RBI – along with 46 walks – against pitchers on the current Mets roster. Bonds won’t face Tom Glavine in this series – against whom he has three homers and 13 RBI – but will see Steve Trachsel and Al Leiter (combined eight homers and 17 RBI). Here’s how the Mets staff has fared against Bonds:
Pitcher + AB + H + 2B + 3B + HR + RBI + BB + SO + BA
Weathers + 16 + 9 + 2 + 0 + 3 + 3 + 9 + 2 + .563
Stanton + 11 + 4 + 3 + 0 + 0 + 1 + 5 + 1 + .364
Leiter + 27 + 9 + 0 + 2 + 2 + 5 + 4 + 6 + .333
Glavine + 78 + 25 + 6 + 1 + 3 + 13 + 11 + 10 + .321
Looper + 4 + 1 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 1 + 1 + .250
Trachsel + 38 + 9 + 2 + 0 + 2 + 3 + 13 + 7 + .237
Franco + 35 + 8 + 2 + 0 + 0 + 7 + 3 + 4 + .229
Roberts + 2 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 1 + .000
*
Probable pitchers for Giants and Mets:
Tonight: Brett Tomko (1-1, 7.57) vs. Steve Trachsel (2-3, 4.50)
MSG, WFAN, 7:10
Tomorrow: Jerome Williams (3-1, 3.93) vs. Jae Seo (1-3, 5.06)
MSG, WFAN, 7:10
Thursday: Jason Schmidt (2-2, 4.70) vs. Al Leiter (1-1, 1.65)
FSNY, WFAN, 7:10
