By Kevin Kelly
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Of all the records and numbers Barry Bonds continues to chase, no figure is more impressive than the one he continues to defy.

Age.

Baseball's most feared slugger turned 39 last month.

The Giants left fielder marked the occasion with a game-preserving throw to home plate followed by a game-winning home run before rushing off to visit his cancer-stricken father, Bobby, in the hospital.

"I think for much of his career he's been unappreciated by the public and underrated," baseball historian Bill James said this week. "There were a lot of people who said the player of the decade in the 1990s was Ken Griffey Jr.

"Griffey was never in Bonds' league. He just wasn't. Griffey was a very, very fine player, but he was not Bonds."

What has separated Bonds from his peers is a remarkable fusion of speed, power and patience.

They are but some of the traits that continue to define his professional career more than 19 years after it began.

"He's the best player in the game," said Cardinals outfielder Albert Pujols, who is vying to become the first National League player to win the Triple Crown since Joe Medwick did it in 1937. "If he's not the best right now, he will be the best ever.

"The numbers that guy puts up are amazing, hard to describe."

Coming off his second consecutive MVP season and first major-league batting title, Bonds visits Great American Ball Park this weekend as the Giants play three games against the Reds.

He was leading the majors with 33 homers (one every 8.7 at-bats), 98 walks, a .731 slugging percentage and a .509 on-base percentage through Wednesday.

"I ain't the best player, not all around," Bonds said before last month's All-Star Game when asked how he rated with today's superstars, such as Alex Rodriguez, Vladimir Guerrero and Pujols. "I'm good, don't get me wrong, but I can't stay up with them."

An eight-time Gold Glove winner as an outfielder, Bonds' offensive numbers are almost unfathomable even in the era of watered-down pitching and bandbox ballparks.

"His offensive contributions are simply extraordinary," James said. "It's not just that he is about to become the third-greatest home run hitter of all time. There's an awful lot of other offense there."

Much of that offense has come lately.

"His entire career has been at a very, very high level," James said. "Even before the last three or four years, which have been just unbelievable, he was still one of the greatest players of all time."

Bonds has set the single-season records for home runs (73 in 2001), on-base percentage (.582 in 2002), slugging percentage (.863 in 2001) and walks (198 last season) during the span.

"He just has one of those great abilities to recognize a pitch and hit that pitch, especially if the guy makes a mistake," said Braves pitcher Russ Ortiz, who played with Bonds in San Francisco from 1998-2002.

"I've never seen anybody capitalize on so many pitchers' mistakes than I've seen with him."

Earlier this season, Bonds became the only player ever to hit 500 homers and steal 500 bases.

Of baseball's top 50 all-time home run hitters, only his godfather, Willie Mays, stole more than 330 bases during his career.

"There's nothing you can take away from him," Griffey said. "Later in his career he's learned how to elevate the ball. He understands now what it takes."

It is Mays whom Bonds is chasing for third place on the all-time home run list. Entering Thursday, he was 14 behind, with 646.

Next stop? Babe Ruth hit 714. Hank Aaron holds the record of 755.

"Hank Aaron can keep those 755 home runs," Bonds said. "Where he has come from, with Willie, Jackie Robinson and some of the Negro League ballplayers, it's now giving us the opportunity as African-American ballplayers to be where we are today. We are the next generation."

While his offensive numbers continue to ascend, it's clear that Bonds' body, which had averaged 143 games before this season, needs more rest.

Ted Williams, a career .344 hitter and the last man to bat over .400 in a season, retired at age 42 after playing in 113 games for the Red Sox in 1960.

Maybe a spot as a designated hitter in the American League will suit Bonds as he grows older.

"As long as I'm in the group where I feel like I can play at their level, I'll play," Bonds said. "It depends how down I get out of that group. If I can go out on that field and play, I will. But I'm not going to play just to play."