The Barry factor.(Closer)

Are we ready to concede that Barry Bonds is the best of our time? He is approaching 700 homers, he has 500-some-odd stolen bases, he has been the MVP five times--and should have been six or seven times.

Bonds has gotten better off the field, too. He's not the greedy guy the whole country thought he was. He has changed, and I'm not saying that out of sympathy. He's changed because it's not all about him 100 percent of the time as it was before. He's aware of people around him, and he acknowledges he needs everybody on his team to help him win, now more than ever.

Barry is the most feared presence on any team in the big leagues. He has no peer, and that works to his disadvantage. There is no doubt around the league: Barry Bonds will not be pitched to if he can win the game. We all say that, and he still hits walkoff after walkoff.

Opposing pitchers know where he is at all times. If there is an open base, he will not be pitched to. The other guys on his team will have to beat you. Not to disrespect anyone else, but you will choose any body else in the league to pitch to than Bonds. It stinks if you're a fan, but as a player you have to play the odds, and the odds with anybody else are better than they are with Bonds. You will take your chances with Edgardo Alfonzo or Benito Santiago with the bases loaded instead of Bonds with a base open. He's just that good.

What is truly amazing about what Bonds does now is that he just waits and is able to accept that he won't he pitched to. He might get one pitch to hit that whole night, and he'll hit it out. If he doesn't hit it out, he'll hit it hard somewhere.

He has no one to protect him like Chipper Jones protects Gary Sheffield ...