Nothing wrong with the Bonds – Kent feud.

An excellent commentary follows by Amaury Pi-Gonzalez, Giants Spanish language broadcaster.

Is anybody here old enough to remember the Oakland A’S when

Billy Martin was managing ?

Billy used to fight his own players,

on camera or not. Remember the

Martin vs. Reggie Jackson brawl when

they were both playing for the Yankees?

That also was cut-on-tape in the dugout.

Players report to Spring Training in

February and they (on the same team)

play together until -sometimes-October.

The Bonds and Kent “fight”during a Giants

Padres game at Quaalcom Stadium in

San Diego was only a show of frustration

by two highly paid and successful stars..

Bonds and Kent have never really liked

each other, ironically, they both have a lot

in common. They’re both MVP’S, they

both are serious competitors and they

both listed riding motorcycles as one

of their favorites things to do.

The Giants clubhouse is always very quiet,

players on this team are not media

favorites, specially not these two !

So when they showed that outburst of

emotion and shoving match in San

Diego, we should not take this as an

indication that this Giants teams is

ready to fight like this (among themselves)

the rest of the season.

Giant’s manager Dusty Baker needs no

more stress. He might retire after this season

anyway. Baker’s contract expires at the

end of this season. Management thought

they put a winning team this year for

Dusty to manage with Shinjo,Bell and

Sanders as their most recent players.

After the prostate cancer operation,

Dusty is doing well, bu he has also shown

at times that he is “getting tired”of the

schedule, the traveling and now he has

to be the fireman of the team, putting

out fires likes the ones between

Barry and Jeff.

But, this is All In The Family stuff. Remember

that most popular sitcom during the

1970’S? There was Love and there was

Hate, there were prejudices and then

there were also family values. Jeff Kent

is a very intense, professional and at

the same time very quiet guy. Kent

gives you the impression that he knows

everything, never seems to matter to him

when he is in the middle of a slump,

he gives you the impression that he

has it all figured out’. They are family

men that would usually spend their

days off with their immediate families

rather than on the golf course.

Bonds on the other hand is a guy that

might walk by you and say Hi, or he

might walk by you like you do not exist.

He is moody and he could be a real

jerk. But there is no better player in

the Giants clubhouse than Barry Bonds

and the Giants have him until he

reitres.

So guess what ? Jeff Kent is probably

not coming back next season with the

Giants. Not a big surprise, and not

because he cannot get along with Barry

but because he is on his last year of

his contract, has not produced the

way the Giants were expecting and

just because in today’s baseball

type of economy, it makes much

more sense for the Giants to either

to trade him or let him go.

There are unhappy guys also with other

teams. Like in Philadelphia, where All Star

thirdbaseman Scott Rolen doesn’t even

talk to his manager Larry Bowa. They

do not like each other. The Giants would

be smart to make a trade for Rolen after

this season.

Giants could have Rolen at third, Aurilia

at short, move David Bell to second (his

original position) Kent was never a

second baseman anyway and then

play your luck at first base with Damon

Minor or get a veteran slugger for that

position. J.T. Snow is probably history

with the Giants also after this season.

I do not worry much about the Bonds and

Kent feud. Are they borh jerks ? Yes, are

they both good players ? Well, Barry is

one of the greatest players of all time,

while Jeff is an overachiever during the

past 5 seasons.

No more fights in the dugout, please, that is

what Dusty is hoping for. Dusty has much

more to worry about that a Bonds and

Kent rematch. Liván Hernández needs to

pitch better in the second half, Felix

Rodríguez needs to be more accurate

with his pitches and overall the Giants

have to start hitting much better with

runners in scoring positions.

In the scheme of things, the Bonds vs.

Kent problem is just SMALL POTATOES.