Bonds Uses Powers on Tormentor

Chuck McElroy is the epitome of the journeyman pitcher. He’s a left-handed reliever, a role every team needs to fill, preferably cheaply.

McElroy has played for nine teams, not including the Arizona Diamondbacks, who selected him in the 1997 expansion draft and traded him the same day.

So you might say McElroy has had an undistinguished major league career, except for this: To Barry Bonds, he is kryptonite.

But Superman struck back Saturday. With McElroy pitching, Bonds hit a home run. With the world watching, Bonds got him back, at least this once.

Bonds hits good and bad pitchers alike. He caught Reggie Jackson Saturday in seventh place on the all-time home run list, at 563, one from tying Mark McGwire’s single-season record of 70. He has hit more homers off Atlanta aces Greg Maddux and John Smoltz, eight apiece, than against any other pitcher.

And then there is McElroy, now pitching for the San Diego Padres. Bonds is batting .091 against McElroy with three hits in 33 at-bats. In San Diego last weekend, Bonds faced McElroy once and flied out.

“I was nervous,” McElroy said. “Here’s a guy who’s got a chance to break a major league record. Every time you look up at the scoreboard and they show the guy’s stats, it’s unbelievable.”

Even before Saturday’s home run, he knew better than to brag about owning Bonds.

“It’s just a lot of luck,” McElroy said. “The guy’s a tremendous hitter.”

Turns out that despite his success, McElroy has been having nightmares about Bonds for years. In his major league debut, in 1989, McElroy pitched to Bonds with runners on first and third.

“I was shaking,” McElroy said. “He lined out, I said thank you and that was the only batter I faced. I didn’t sleep that night.”

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The Giants sensed this might be a special season for Bonds on opening day, when he hit his first home run without any sensation in one of the fingers in his left hand.

Jon Miller, the Giants’ broadcaster, tells the story:

“He had just thrown out Tony Gwynn at the plate. It was a line-drive base hit to left, and Barry was so anxious to get the ball and make the throw that he got his hand into the glove just a little bit early, and it tore the skin off his index finger.

“He threw the ball with no feeling in his finger and thought, ‘Oh, my Lord, this one may go up into the box seats.’ It ended up being a perfect throw, and he got Gwynn at the plate.

“He immediately runs off the field and into the training room, because there’s blood pouring out of his finger. Then he goes up to the plate. He still had no feeling in the finger, so he just swung at the first pitch and hoped for the best. And he hits it into the center-field bleachers.”

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The Padres’ Trevor Hoffman saved two games at Colorado this week, becoming the first pitcher to record 40 or more saves in four consecutive seasons.

Still, he wasn’t entirely thrilled with the all-too-typical Coors Field series in which the Padres scored 11 runs in one game and led, 8-0, in another--and lost both.

“Blow it up and get rid of the franchise,” Hoffman said. “It’s not baseball. Scoring runs and hitting home runs, I guess that’s what baseball wants to see. It’s just not fun playing here.”

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Ken Marino, a New York City firefighter, is among those missing and presumed dead at the site of the World Trade Center. His wife, Katrina, sent an e-mail to the Cincinnati Reds.

“Ken Griffey Jr. was my husband’s favorite baseball player,” she wrote. “If Ken Griffey could hit an extra home run for Ken, I know he will be looking down with a big grin.”

Red publicist Rob Butcher printed the e-mail and handed it to Griffey before Tuesday’s game against the Philadelphia Phillies. Griffey hit a home run that night, then autographed his bat and sent it to Katrina.

“So many people lost their lives in that disaster and lives have been changed,” Griffey said. “Mine has changed since that day. So to be able to do something for somebody else and for somebody who said I was his favorite player is special. But, no matter what, it doesn’t amount to anything. This guy lost his life to save others.

“It means a lot that somebody took the time to send an e-mail to tell me to hit a home run and I did it. I’m glad I was able to make her smile.”