Why Bonds Will Never Have to Borrow a Bat (Published 2007) (2024)

Every time Barry Bonds lugs a maple bat to the plate and tries to creep past Hank Aaron, he carries a piece of wood that cost him about $500.It was his own action last spring that assured he would be using what are believed to be the most expensive bats in Major League Baseball.

When Bonds discovered that his supplier, the Original Maple Bat Corporation, was for sale on eBay last year for $3.5 million, he was worried about how its uncertain future might affect him. He has used the Canadian maple bats since 1997 and swung a 2K1 model when he hit a record 73 homers for the San Francisco Giants in 2001.

So Bonds asked Sam Holman, the overalls-wearing founder and the namesake of the company's Sam Bats, how much it would cost to guarantee that he would get his full ration of bats for 2007. Holman exhaled at the question. Bonds soon gave Holman a check for $40,000.

"Barry just said, 'I want to ensure that I get my bats,'." Holman recalled. "He said: 'I don't care if I pay for everyone else's bats. I want to make sure that I get mine.'."

Whether Bonds was motivated solely by helping himself or by helping Holman's cause or by both, his cash infusion helped stabilize the wobbly corporation, which is based in Ottawa. Bonds got his bats, and he is still getting them as he chases Aaron's career home run record. Holman sent 12 bats by overnight mail to Bonds last week and is about to send 6 more. When Bonds needs bats, he, not an assistant, contacts Holman.

"They're not conversations," Holman said with a laugh. "They're e-mails. They're as brief as can be."

But when Bonds is unhappy with the feel of his bats, his e-mail messages are not so brief. These days, Holman said, Bonds has complained that the Sam Bats are too top heavy. Bonds had hit only two homers in the Giants' last 19 games before last night's game against Florida. After homering in the first inning against the Marlins, he was two away from surpassing Aaron's record of 755.

During a telephone interview, Holman read a portion of one of the e-mail messages, in which Bonds emphasized that he needed his 34-inch bats to be precisely 31.6 ounces.

"I'm 43, not 23," Bonds wrote to Holman. "Now, do you understand?"

Holman said that there was nothing "greatly different" from one bat to the next. Still, Holman described Bonds as a genius of a hitter and said he expected him to be consumed by every detail about the bats. Even if that means Bonds grouses about how two bats from the same maple tree feel different to him.

"I almost think that if he's not mad at me, our relationship isn't going to work," Holman said. "I don't mind being the whipping boy. It's respect. I'm here to serve the master, and he's the master."

Bonds's financial outlay assured that he would not need to search for a different style of bat during this pivotal season, and in the process, Holman said, he "saved us." Holman added three partners in April and no longer has the company for sale.

Other major leaguers, from Albert Pujols to Alfonso Soriano, pay about $75 for their Sam Bats. Holman said Bonds's comment about paying for everyone else's bats was apt. The $40,000 allowed Holman to purchase more wood at a crucial time and also helped the corporation become better suited to selling its products to consumers.

"We're here because of his graciousness," Holman said.

He said Bonds would use about 120 bats this season, 80 of which were paid for with the $40,000. The rest were ordered by the Giants.

Because Bonds is Holman's best client on a list that includes 125 major leaguers, he gets the best and rarest wood from Holman's supply. As soon as Holman receives a pile, employees sift through it and find the strongest wood to craft Bonds's bats.

Many players prefer maple bats because they are stronger than ash bats.

Bonds tried a Sam Bat after Joe Carter, his teammate with the Giants in 1998, told him about them. Carter had sneaked an unsanctioned Sam Bat into a game in 1997 while with Toronto.

Before a game in Milwaukee last week, Bonds taped the handles of three black bats, laid them on the floor and studied them. As he strolled across the clubhouse with the three bats in one beefy hand, he said, "These bats are getting heavier by the day."

Holman is both awed and amused by his relationship with Bonds. Even though Holman is cognizant of the suspicions that Bonds used steroids to accumulate some of his homers, he said he based his opinions on what he saw and what other players shared with him about Bonds.

"With all of the controversy and everything else that goes on with him, his peers look up to him," Holman said. "They tell me, 'He still puts wood on the ball like nobody else.' He's the king of what he's doing."