San Francisco Giants Baseball Team

SAN FRANCISCO -- Brian Sabean sat alone at the end of the home dugout Friday afternoon, bundled up in a black jacket beneath gray skies and persistent drizzle, watching this year's edition of the San Francisco Giants take batting practice. The Giants could be dreadful this season, perhaps historically so. Sabean, the general manager, cannot put a happy face on this product, and to his credit he does not try.

If Barry Bonds is indicted, the San Francisco Giants can void his contract. If they do, the Giants could have to defend themselves in arbitration before Bonds would have to defend himself in a trial. The contract finalized by Bonds and the Giants late Monday -- for one year at $15.8 million -- stipulates that the team can terminate the deal if he is indicted and that he would not ask the players' union to file a grievance on his behalf.

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and the San Francisco Giants said Wednesday that they would team up to place the first solar energy system at a major league ballpark. But storm clouds are gathering over the plan to install nearly 600 solar panels at AT&T Park, the Giants' home field. Consumer advocates contend the project is little more than a publicity stunt and that shareholders, not ratepayers, should be footing the bill.

Who knows which fan will catch the historic blast that crowns Barry Bonds as baseball's all-time home run king. But the teenager who caught the one tying Babe Ruth's 714 had this to say: He hates Bonds. Just 21 swats shy of besting the record 755 home runs set by Hank Aaron a generation ago, the Giants slugger has emerged not as a role model but as the most divisive figure in all of professional sports. Bonds -- and many of his fans here -- couldn't care less.

Barry Bonds might speak up this week. Bonds doesn't much care for public speaking, as you might have heard. But he's a few swings from history, so the Giants hope he'll sit for a mass interview whenever they roll into a new town. They hit the road for the first time this week, off to San Diego and then Pittsburgh, so we'll see. When Bonds does not talk -- and even when he does -- he has Jeff Borris to speak for him.

Just days before his 43rd birthday, Barry Bonds showed his powerful wrists and fighter-pilot eyes are still a match for anything baseball can throw at him, including a wind blowing in off Lake Michigan. Stuck in an 0-for-21 slump and battling sore legs, Bonds had been reduced to a pinch-hitting role for the first three games of San Francisco's four-game series against the Chicago Cubs.

The summer of mum rolled on for Bud Selig, another day with little to say about what should be a glorious time for his sport. The Barry Bonds Home Run Chase rolled into town Friday, into this city where the commissioner lives and works. Selig showed up to watch, but said he did not talk to the most recognizable player in the game. Bonds stalled at 753, two home runs shy of Hank Aaron's all-time record.

In the offices of Dodger Stadium, executives will meet this week to discuss a scenario that could horrify Dodgers fans: If Barry Bonds ties or breaks the home run record in Los Angeles, how would the Dodgers commemorate the occasion? The question is not merely theoretical, not with Bonds stuck at 753, two shy of tying Hank Aaron's record. The San Francisco Giants play at home this week, then visit Dodger Stadium, and Bonds has not hit three home runs within a week in more than two months.

The Great Home Run Chase -- Barry Bonds' pursuit of Hank Aaron's all-time home run mark, probably the most hallowed record in sports -- brought about 400 media members to AT&T Park on Monday night, a sobering reminder in the home clubhouse of what a one-man show the sad-sack San Francisco Giants have become. "It's kind of hard on everybody because we're trying to win, and the home run deal is more important," Giants catcher Bengie Molina said.

For weeks, Bud Selig seemed unwilling to make a commitment to Barry Bonds, the Giants slugger whose pursuit of baseball's all-time home run record has been shrouded in controversy. Tuesday, the baseball commissioner went all in, traveling to AT&T Park to attend Bonds' games through Friday, a gesture that seemed more a tribute to one of sport's most hallowed records than the man who is on the verge of breaking it.