Barry Bonds was asked if he has swung a bat recently.
"Are you asking me if I could still hit a home run?'' he said. "Sure. Do I want to do it. No.''
Why not?
"I don't need to,'' he said. "Ain't nobody paying me to do it. There's no need.''
Baseball's all-time home run leader held court for a few minutes before the Twins-Marlins game on Friday to explain why he would want to coach. Bonds, 51, said he wasn't looking for a job when Marlins owner Jeff Loria called him to pitch the idea, but he liked what he heard.
"Right now, I've been here all of three weeks,'' he said. "My job now is to get to know each individual player first before I can analyze them or what they're doing or what the team is doing.''
Bonds said the concepts of hitting are the same for every hitter, it's just a matter of getting each hitter to that point.
Hear the hits
There were some hard-hit balls Friday during the Twins' loss to the Marlins.
First baseman Byung Ho Park hit a 3-1 pitch from Andre Rienzo—a fastball that registered 91 miles per hour — down the left- field line and over the wall for his third home run of spring training. Park went 1-for-3 on Friday and is batting .316 this spring. All three home runs have come on fastballs.
