View Single Post
Old 03-22-2005, 12:10 PM   #1 (permalink)
kutulu
Junkie
 
kutulu's Avatar
 
Bonds could miss half or all of 2005 season

Wow, this is amazing (in a sad way). Without Barry the Giants will have a hard time beating the Rockies for 4th place.

Quote:
A dejected Barry Bonds said Tuesday there's a chance he might not return this season because of multiple knee surgeries.


Bonds


"Right now I'm just going to try to rehab myself to get back to, I don't know, hopefully next season, hopefully the middle of the season. I don't know. Right now I'm just going to take things slow. I feel bad for the guys [Giants teammates] because I want to be out there for them," he said Tuesday after meeting with San Francisco Giants trainer Stan Conte for 1½ hours.

"I'm 40 years old, not 20, 30."

When asked directly if he said he might not be back until midseason or next season, Bonds answered, "Maybe. I told you that before I left, remember? You thought I was joking."

The seven-time NL MVP, who returned to spring camp on crutches Tuesday following last week's surgery, made his remarks while sitting at a picnic table outside the Giants' clubhouse with his 15-year-old son, Nikolai, at his side.

While Bonds was defiant and confrontational during his first press conference of the spring on Feb. 22, he was despondent Tuesday, using the word "tired" 14 times during his approximate 10-minute session.

“ You wanted me to jump off the bridge, I finally have jumped. You wanted the bring me down, you've finally brought me and my family down. Finally done it. From everybody, all of you. So now go pick a different person. ”
— Barry Bonds

"I really don't have much to say anymore," Bonds said. "My son and I just going to enjoy life. My family's tired. You guys [the media] wanted to hurt me bad enough, you finally got there.

"You wanted me to jump off the bridge, I finally have jumped. You wanted to bring me down, you've finally brought me and my family down. Finally done it. From everybody, all of you. So now go pick a different person. I'm done. Do the best I can, that's about it."

When asked if there was something specific he was talking about, Bonds said, "Inner hurt, physical, mentally. Done. I'm mentally drained. I'm tired of my kids crying. Tired."

Bonds originally underwent knee surgery on Jan. 31. Four days later he accidentally hit his knee on a table at SBC Park in San Francisco and the knee had periods of swelling. An MRI last week revealed further tears in the knee.

Conte said there was no way of knowing whether the incident on Feb. 4 caused further damage.

"And we don't care," Conte said. "We're starting with a clean slate. We'll try to get it right."

Bonds begins the season third on the career homers list with 703, trailing Babe Ruth (714) and Hank Aaron (755).

Last September, the Giants dropped a provision that would have allowed them to void Bonds' $18 million salary in 2006 if he failed to reach 500 plate appearances this year or 1,500 combined from 2003 to 2005, including at least 400 this year.
kutulu is offline  
 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360