Bonds follows heart back to San Francisco

If you're a baseball fan, I'm about to make you jealous. I can't tell you how many times I threatened to pinch myself through the years after walking into the Giants' clubhouse in either Scottsdale, Ariz., for Spring Training or during the regular season in San Francisco and seeing Major League royalty across the way.
The two Willies, both Mays and McCovey. Gaylord Perry. Juan Marichal. Orlando Cepeda.
Now Barry Bonds is back. This works, because this is so Giants. No franchise in sports hugs its legends tighter than the one in (cue Tony "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" Bennett) The City By The Bay. Among other Northern California ties, this owner of a Major League-record 762 home runs spent his youth in nearby San Mateo.
• Bonds returns to help 'keep the tradition alive'
You want more? Well, Bobby Bonds was Barry's father. The former began his Major League career with the Giants during the late 1960s along the way to three Gold Glove Awards and three trips to the All-Star Game as a slugging leadoff hitter with a penchant for spectacular plays in the outfield.
Perhaps you've heard of Barry's godfather -- Mays.
If those things aren't enough for you to see the younger Bonds and the Giants as a lovely pair, he slammed 586 of his home runs during the 15 years he played for the team, and then he retired from baseball after the 2007 season with San Francisco. He stayed away from the game for the longest time, mostly due to his indictment in November 2007 by a federal grand jury on perjury charges. Even so, his conviction for obstruction of justice was thrown out on appeal, and the two perjury charges were dismissed due to a mistrial.
The Marlins brought Bonds back to baseball last year by making him their hitting coach, but he never looked comfortable all season not wearing orange and black. Not only that, but despite his high-profile career, he is more of a behind-the-scenes guy as a non-player.
"I like this role better," Bonds told reporters this week in Scottsdale, where he officially began as a special advisor to Giants president and chief executive officer Larry Baer.

When the Giants break camp, Bonds will travel to spread his hitting knowledge to prospects throughout their Minor League operation, and I'm sure he'll give them a tip or three about whatever else they ask.
"I feel my time in baseball has come and gone," Bonds said. "I feel like I had a great career. I had a lot of fun and have a lot of great memories. At one point in time, I'll be able to tell it all. Right now, that's in the past. I see things differently. I more want to help."
Goodness knows, Bonds can do that, especially with seven National League Most Valuable Player Awards in his possession. If you go by the numbers and dismiss the performance-enhancing whispers around his career, he was the most complete player of his time -- maybe of all-time. He finished with all of those homers, and he had a Major League-record 2,558 walks, a lifetime batting average of .298, nearly 3,000 hits (2,935) and eight Gold Gloves in left field.
That said, because of Bonds' alleged use of PEDs, he isn't in the Baseball Hall of Fame, but he has moved upward every year during the voting process. Most recently, he received 54 percent of the votes, and he needs 75 percent to reach Cooperstown.

Still, the lack of a Baseball Hall of Fame plaque hasn't affected Bonds' standing as a Giants legend. The transformation didn't take long. It happened about the time that he helped the franchise become significant in a flash after he left the Pirates following seven seasons to join the Giants as a free agent in December 1992. Not coincidentally, his new team went from 72 victories the previous season to 103 during Bonds' first year. The Braves won 104, so the Giants were shut out of the postseason during those non-Wild Card days.
There was the Big Picture, though. During that first season for Bonds in San Francisco, he set the foundation for the Giants becoming significant again on a consistent basis for the first time since their Hall of Famers (the Willies, Perry, Marichal, Cepeda) of the 1960s. Along the way to Bonds winning five of his seven MVP Awards with the Giants, the team reached the postseason four times, including a near victory over the Angels during the 2002 World Series. The Giants also remained an NL West threat during those other years.
We're back to Bonds, the baseball, football and basketball star in high school from San Mateo, just south of San Francisco. He came so close to signing with the Giants after his senior year, but he decided to take his baseball skills to Arizona State. The Pirates eventually made him the sixth overall pick during the 1985 Draft, and during the early 1990s, he led his first Major League team to a run of three consecutive trips to the NL Championship Series.
That's not where Bonds left his heart.
Neither was Miami last year, which is why I'm hearing Tony Bennett singing again about San Francisco.
"It's my home, I want to be back at home. I want to help our community, our team, San Francisco, the Giants, you know, the younger guys, the younger players, to keep the tradition alive," Bonds said. "Same thing my godfather's done, same thing my father's done, Mac's done. It's the right thing to do. I'm San Francisco. Raised there, and I want to help our community kids become Giants, and good ones, and keep these traditions alive."
About those traditions: The Wall of Fame for the Giants features the retired numbers of their all-time great players. In the past, team officials have granted such an honor only to those already in the Baseball Hall of Fame, but Bonds will become the exception during this season.
There also are rumors about a Bonds statue in the future. If so, he would be the sixth former San Francisco Giants player with such an honor.
You already know the other five.