By Jim Litke
The Associated Press

ANAHEIM, Calif. - After all these years, Barry Bonds found out what he's been missing. It only made him want it more.

"I'm not going to lie, it was fun. It was great. I can say I was more ready for it than ever.

"But," Bonds said, "we were on the short end of the stick."

Like or loathe him, there is no more debating whether Bonds ranks among the best of all time, only where. After a World Series performance like few others, even in defeat, history has precious little wiggle room left.

Last weekend, as this wacky, wonderful best-of-seven searched for its groove, Willie Mays lingered in the hallway outside the Giants' locker room.

The Say Hey Kid is 71 now, and Bonds' godfather besides. But after battling the likes of Mickey Mantle and Ted Williams and the ghost of Babe Ruth to secure his place, Mays doesn't step aside easily.

"If people want to say Barry is No. 1, they won't get an argument from me," he said. "As long as I get to be No. 2."

Mays would get no argument from the victorious Anaheim Angels, either. To a man, they confided that seven games didn't begin to provide enough clues on how to stop Bonds.

"I can't imagine anybody better than him in the game, and I don't care if you throw in Ted Williams or whoever," Anaheim coach Mickey Hatcher said. "Every time he walks up to the plate, he scares everybody."

The only gap on Bonds' resume was a lack of postseason success. Despite his final game being his weakest of the series, that hole has been filled in with capital letters.

But even that couldn't erase the bitter taste of losing. It took Bonds 17 seasons just to reach the World Series. Now he heads home empty-handed.

"One-for-three with a walk was a good night," Bonds said, turning to face the crush of reporters surrounding his locker. "Am I supposed to go 3-for-3 with three homers. What do you want from me?"

Much of the public looks at Bonds and doesn't like the cold, calculating visage that stares back. Maybe those final few glimpses of Bonds sitting in a dark corner of the dugout, stunned as his chances of winning slipped away, will make him a more sympathetic figure. Maybe not.

His calling card - the home run - has been tainted by shaky pitching, shrunken ballparks and accusations of steroid use, which he strongly denies. More disappointing still, Bonds' leadership on the diamond highlights his refusal to accept the same responsibility away from it.

"My friends, they say, 'You're a big baseball player, you can do this, you can do that.' I just want to go to the ballpark, do my job like anybody else, go home and be with my family," Bonds said.

"That's all fine and dandy, but that's not why I chose to play baseball. I chose baseball because I want to be the best at it, whatever that is for me. I'd rather just show it on the field."

The memories of postseasons past - five times his teams failed to reach the World Series while he hit a miserable .196 - now seem as faded as photographs of Bonds starting out in 1986 as a skinny leadoff hitter for the Pirates.

In their place are a succession of laserlike home runs launched into the night by a thickly muscled cleanup hitter with perhaps the keenest hand-eye coordination in the game.

"I was born to hit a baseball," Bonds said not long ago. "I can still hit a baseball."

Ask Jarrod Washburn, Anaheim's Game 1 starter, about that. He challenged Bonds in his first at-bat and turned just in time to see the baseball fly over the right-field wall as if it were made of flubber.

Ask anyone else on the Angels' staff who got the green light to pitch to Bonds. Better yet, ask their manager.

Mike Scioscia began saying the Angels would take a situational approach, but grew more conservative each time Bonds waggled that black Canadian maple bat with even the remotest possibility of doing damage. By Game 4, Scioscia had enough.

"I didn't need to see Barry hitting any more home runs to gain any more respect for his talent," he said.

That respect produced one moment that left even veteran Bonds watchers stunned.

In the first inning of Game 6, after Jeff Kent produced a two-out single, Scioscia had right-hander Kevin Appier walk Bonds - even though it moved a runner into scoring position.

Then Appier walked Bonds again leading off the fourth, sending him past Ruth in the record books for most walks in the Series. Then Scioscia switched course again and let rookie reliever Francisco Rodriguez try to sneak a fastball past Bonds.

Instead, Bonds drilled it into the seats for his fourth homer of the Series, moving within one of Reggie Jackson's Series record.

It might be the snapshot he commits to memory. Despite seeing few other pitches to hit, Bonds also challenged the all-time Series marks for batting average, and on-base and slugging percentages.

It wasn't enough and it wasn't everything he wanted.

But it was all Bonds had to show - for the moment, anyway.

"They outplayed us. They deserved it. They beat us. They're world champions.

"We'll go to spring training," he said quietly, "and start again."

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Jim Litke is the national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jlitke@ap.org