Barry Bonds turned up at the ballpark Monday, which is not news; hes turned up before, with the full blessing of the team he helped enrich, in the building he helped erect.But now, fully retired, recovering from two surgeries, a self-admitted felon for obstructing justice and surprisingly chipper in a 35-minute meet-and-greet with reporters before Mondays Giants-Diamondbacks game, he made the game fun again by dropping this little geliglnite-encased tidbit.To quote Comrade Gutierrez: He has talked with Giants President and CEO Larry Baer about re-joining the club, perhaps as a roving instructor, of some sort.Cue Bud Selig shrieking toward the Orion Nebula in three . . . two . . . one . . .Bonds has always enjoyed an odd yet cordial relationship with his former team in his post-playing days. Even though he was hurried off the grounds within days of breaking Henry Aarons home run record, he remained close to the man whose wallet he saved, Peter Magowan, and to the family that bankrolled Magowans play, the Harmon Burnses.Harmon has passed, as has his wife Sue, and their daughters, Tori and Trina, have reduced their holdings in the club in favor of their fathers partner, Charlie Johnson, but it is clear Bonds remains welcome, at least with the top brass.Which will put the brass in direct conflict with Selig, whose feelings toward Bonds run closer to that of fireman and arsonist.And if Bud has any leverage (and he lives on leverage, so assume that the answer to that is yes), he will expend considerable effort keeping Bonds from being that roving anything.Every commissioner seems to have one figure that serves as a bte noirestalking horse. Kenesaw Mountain Landis had the Black Sox. Happy Chandler had the owners who wanted to keep baseball white. Ford Frick had Roger Maris. Bowie Kuhn had Charlie Finley. Bart Giamatti had Pete Rose.And Selig has Bonds. He also has Rose, of course, but he is fighting that one on behalf of Giamatti, who died while wrestling with the Rose conundrum. Bonds is all his.Selig has looked the other way on a lot of the steroid era, but Bonds has always set his neck hair on high. And given that as commissioner, he has the power to approve any and all associations with ballclubs, he has the power to decide whether Bonds is welcome to roam on the Giants behalf.And since we can all assume that Selig isnt going to retire from the commissioners chair no matter how many times he says this is his last contract, we can await the likelihood that he will tell the Giants to back off on completing their rehabilitation of Bonds.Oh, there wont be a press release, and hell likely answer the question of Bonds right after he answers the one about the San Jose blue ribbon panel studying the Three-Headed Easter Unicorn, but if he has his druthers, Bonds will have time to bicycle through Kazakhstan wearing only a fez and an UnderArmour tuxedo before he becomes a fully fledged club rep.Yes, he has looked the other way on Mark McGwire, but McGwire wasnt convicted of anything. That will be the way he can separate one from the other, but it will be interesting to see if he tries to thread that needle. Selig is nothing if not creative.And Bonds? Well, hes become accustomed to waiting for a lot of things. His trial . . . his appeal . . . his recognition as one of the games greatest players . . . quite probably his Hall of Fame election.But it will be a hell of a wait, no matter how it plays out. Because baseball never forgets anything it wants to remember, and never remembers anything it wants to forget.Thats why its good to be the king, and bad to cross the king. Eventually, the king has something The person who crossed the king really wants, and the fun begins when the two collide.And now, back to the Orion Nebula.
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