Exhausted slugger: Bonds apologizes in advance if he doesn’t homer

 

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -Pooped after a long night of partying, Barry Bonds apologized ahead of time.
“Forgive me when I go 0-for-5. The party was more fun,” Bonds said before Tuesday night’s All-Star game. “I don’t stay up past 11 or 12 ’cause I get up and train every morning.”
This time, it was the morning once the 42-year-old Bonds finally hit the bed – as in about 3 a.m.
“Nap time. I’m still tired from last night. Hey, Junior, wake me up at 2:45,” Bonds said to close pal Ken Griffey Jr. of the Cincinnati Reds. “I’m brain dead. This game may not work out too well for my hometown. I didn’t know what else to do but have a party.”
Bonds then pulled a sock over his eyes and tied it behind his head as a makeshift mask, hoping for even 10 minutes of shuteye.
Yet he wasn’t too tired to do what he naturally does best.
Bonds, followed by dozens of cameras as he sauntered out from the dugout to take his pregame cuts, splashed the first batting-practice pitch he saw into McCovey Cove beyond the right-field arcade. He hit four out in all.
Bonds signed one of his jerseys for AL All-Star Jorge Posada of the New York Yankees.
And the seven-time NL MVP held a hitting discussion at his locker for a few of his National League teammates, who were thrilled to get 20 minutes with someone likely to be the new Home Run King soon.
Bonds has 751 homers at the break, four shy of matching Hank Aaron’s record. He held court in his corner spot with Prince Fielder and Orlando Hudson as Griffey looked on in amusement.
“I just laugh at him. I’ll never understand it,” said Griffey, joined by son, Trey. “This is his day.”
Bonds was batting second – a move by NL manager Tony La Russa to get him more at-bats – and starting in his regular spot in left field. Bonds last batted in the No. 2 hole in a regular-season game on June 6, 1987, though he hit there in the 1993 All-Star game at Baltimore.
“I’ve never been in the last (batting practice) group and I’ve never hit second,” Bonds said before closing his eyes again.
He then reminded Griffey about the wake-up call, but the Reds star had stepped away. When Griffey returned, he said, “2:45, I know.”
Hudson, meanwhile, was planning to soak up a little more from watching Bonds during BP.
“Picking the guy’s brain about the game and hitting, not a lot of guys get that treatment,” the Arizona second baseman said. “All that he’s done, it’s beyond what you could ask for to get 20 minutes. He said so much, it’s too much to grasp right now.”