What steroids? Giants fans are Barry biased, By: Mike Berardino
July 10, 2007
SAN FRANCISCO -- The lunchtime crowd has begun to filter in, and Tom O'Doul is stationed at his favorite stool, nursing a pint, ready to talk baseball.
You gather this from the Giants cap that sits atop his head and the black All-Star Game T-shirt he is wearing.
No, he doesn't own the place, but he does get to drink for free whenever he stops in. That's because his late cousin, Bay Area baseball legend Lefty O'Doul, started this eponymous restaurant and cocktail lounge just around the corner from Union Square.
"He opened it in '58," Tom O'Doul says proudly. "Same year the Giants got here."
You tell him you've just come from the Barry Bonds news conference in a fancy hotel across Geary Street, and O'Doul smiles and nods. It's the unavoidable topic, no matter how much Major League Baseball would like to make it all go away.
For starters, there is tonight's pregame tribute to Willie Mays, still the greatest Giant ever. Yet no one expects that to lessen the scrutiny on his infamous godson, now just five home runs away from passing Hank Aaron atop the career major league list.
There's also the curious matter of signage for this event at AT&TPark. The huge sign that normally covers most of the left-field wall, the one that carries Bonds' image and the words, "A Giant Among Legends," has been papered over with ads for a taco chain and a satellite-radio provider.
Even more blatant is the makeover in deep right-center.
The men who rank first, third and fourth on the all-time homer list – Aaron, Babe Ruth and Mays – are still listed along with their power totals, but the part at the top that would ordinarily read "Bonds 751" has given way to a sign for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, baseball's official charity.
O'Doul waves off any thought of a conspiracy, noting the rubber chickens are gone as well. Those are usually displayed down the right-field line to mock those who pitch around Bonds.
Like most fans in these parts, O'Doul prefers to keep his blinders on.
"I like Bonds," O'Doul says. "Don't quote me on the roids thing. I don't get into that. But just talking purely about hand-eye coordination and bat speed, you either have it or you don't, and he's got it."
A friend of O'Doul's on a neighboring barstool offers that Bonds also has a head that "looks like it belongs in a Mardi Gras parade," but the man with baseball in his blood doesn't laugh.
"San Francisco likes Bonds," O'Doul says. "Sure, he is bigger, but [Mark] McGwire really beefed up, didn't he? Bonds hasn't been convicted of anything. Besides, how many corked bats did Sammy Sosa have?"
This March O'Doul retired at age 65 after 44 years as a mail carrier in suburban MarinCounty. A few days later he was at the Giants home opener, sitting in his newly purchased season seats, four rows up in the left-field bleachers.
Could have had seats in right field, he says, but he preferred left. You're a little closer to the action out there, he says, and much closer to Bonds, who won't rest until he makes the history most of America doesn't want him to make.
Even Bonds' selection as an All-Star starter is clouded in controversy, with some message boards alleging a late push was helped along by a handful of computer hackers. If that's true, Bonds might not have the "2 million friends" he's been bragging about in recent days.
This much is certain: When Bonds is introduced tonight, he will be cheered wildly in his home ballpark. Should he pass Aaron at home in the coming weeks, the moment will be relatively warm and fuzzy.
"Best relationship on the planet," Bonds says Monday of his curious connection to Bay Area fans. "We grew up together. We're deeper than just me in a uniform."
Do it on the road, though, and the boos almost certainly will rain down on the complex man who still wears a BALCO bull's-eye.
"There aren't many perfect swings in this game," O'Doul says. "Ted Williams had one, and Ted said Lefty O'Doul had the best swing he'd ever seen. Bonds is the same way, one of the greatest players of our time."
What would Frank "Lefty" O'Doul, gone since 1969 and a member of the Japanese and Pacific Coast League halls of fame, say about Bonds if he were still alive?
"I think Lefty would have looked at him and said he was a great hitter," Tom O'Doul says. "I think he would be impressed with Bonds, with his style."
