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| [an error occurred while processing this directive] | | Tuesday, 2 October, 2001, 16:40 GMT 17:40 UK Bonds clinches American dream  72 and counting: More homers to come from Bonds? BBC Sport Online profiles baseball's single-season home run record holder Barry Bonds. When Barry Bonds struck Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Chan Ho Park to right centre-field, a nation held its breath. Only three years after Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa memorably duelled their way past the long-standing home-run milestone of Roger Maris, Bonds has surpassed them all.
The veteran left-hander had never before hit more than 49 home runs in a season. This year, he raced past that mark in August. But his rapid improvement should in no way hint at a lack of batting pedigree. In a 16-year MLB career at Pittsburgh and now San Francisco, Bonds has belted more than 560 homers, a feat matched only by McGwire, Babe Ruth and five other baseball legends. Bonds, who hits for average as well as power, has been a National League Most Valuable Player (MVP) three times and made his 10th all-star appearance in Seattle in July. Widely touted as the best all-round player of the 1990s, some even rank him alongside icons Ruth, Joe Di Maggio and Willie Mays.
Unlike power-hitting contemporaries McGwire and Sosa, Bonds can boast excellent fielding and nifty base running as key assets. And yet, for all his quality, he has not captured the public imagination in the same way that his NL rivals did in the fabled summer of 1998. As Sosa and McGwire marched towards Maris' record, America looked on with baited breath and outstretched baseball glove. Every home-run ball had huge symbolic and financial value. This year, the interest in Bonds' solo assault has been somewhat muted. In part, this has to do with timing. Fans' enthusiasm understandably dipped in the wake of the terrorist attacks of 11 September.
MLB spokesman Patrick Courtney said: "McGwire's effort was so universal and so new. It's different when it took 37 years to break a record compared to only three. "That doesn't at all diminish Bonds' feat, but this is a completely different feel." It also has a different feel because of the personalities involved. McGwire and Sosa were fun-loving, outspoken and friendly in 1998, but Bonds has kept his distance in 2001.
Certainly he has a profound distrust of the media. He is also reluctant to revel in the enormity of his achievements. "I told him he should have some with it," said San Diego Padres legend Tony Gwynn. "But he doesn't really care what people think." Numbers game This is an unusual attitude for a sportsman and one that has clouded his miraculous hitting season. Ultimately, however, Bonds will be remembered for his numbers. Few will have hit more home runs, few will have batted with such consistency and few will deserve their place in baseball's Hall of Fame more. | |
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