ESPN.com: ESPNMagazine

[Print without images]

SAN FRANCISCO -- Imagine pitching to Barry Bonds at this time, in this park, when you know everyone in the place wants one thing, and that one thing involves your failure.

You fall behind in the count and 41,000 people are questioning both your manhood and your ancestry. You do anything but throw your best fastball over the fattest part of the plate and you're looked upon with disgust.

That's why Bonds is going to do it. It's not the only reason, but it's in the top five. All the talk about whether Bonds would get the requisite pitches to break Mark McGwire's record has been relegated to just that: Talk.

He hit No. 68, and it's a foregone conclusion at this point. He will hit three over the next three days, and he'll do it because part of being a professional pitcher is standing out there and being a man about it. It's the baseball way.

"Part of being a professional is not being bothered by what the fans think, and part of being a professional is going out there with your best stuff and trying to get him out," said Padres starter Jason Middlebrook, who gave up No. 68 with one out in the second inning. "Unfortunately, I haven't kept him in the ballpark. But really, what can you do?"

Middelbrook is to Bonds what Jose Lima was to Sammy Sosa. The 26-year-old righthander gave up No. 65, and No. 66, and now No. 68. He threw 91 pitches Friday, though, which pretty much removes any chance he'll be brought back in either of the two remaining games of the series.

"He's crushing everything," Middlebrook said.

The homer came on a 3-0 pitch, a belt-high fastball that Middlebrook might have expected Bonds to watch. "I don't know -- nobody on base, he's got 60-something homers, I guess I shouldn't be surprised he swung," Middlebrook said. "I wanted to miss away, and I didn't miss at all."

The Padres gave Bonds several pitches to hit Friday, and if there was a surprise it came in the number of homers he hit. He hasn't missed this many good pitches -- and, by missing, we include his searing two-run double -- in the last month combined.

"I still never anticipate they're not going to throw me a strike," Bonds said. "You never assume you're not going to get the pitch."

After the homer, Bonds sat in the dugout -- alone, as always -- and cried. He cried for his friend and bodyguard Franklin Bradley, 37, who died Thursday of complications that followed abdominal surgery.

"I'm glad I got through today," Bonds said. "I just let God handle it. It felt good to do something for him. It feels good to do something on a day when you really want to do something for someone."

Tim Keown is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at tim.keown@espnmag.com.