by Ken Gimblin

SCOTTSDALE–Reigning home run champ and former San Francisco Giant Barry Bonds is schedule to arrive at the Giants spring training camp on March 9th as a hitting instructor. Bonds stay in Arizona will be very brief he will leave camp on March 17th.

Bonds will don his old number 25 and will be assisting other instructors at camp former Giants infielders, Will Clark, J.T.Snow, and Jeff Kent. Bonds had been noted in the past to assist hitters at the Giants when the team is at AT&T Park in San Francisco. Bonds appearances for those instruction sessions were very few and it was a surprise when he would show up.

Bonds avoided talking to the media when he would come to instruct he would greet the press with a smile and a wave but would say very little for print. He would also greet some of the reporters who covered him when he was with the team before and during 2007.

Giants manager Bruce Bochy talked about his role with the club this spring, “he’s part of what we do here, he’s going to be part of the group of instructors like Clark, Snow, Kent. He’s going to be like the other guys and help where he can.” said Bochy

There is one thing this camp can turn into is a circus if reporters from around the country and locally want to cover Bonds short return to baseball since being released from the Giants after the 2007 season. You can almost rest assure that if that happens reporters won’t be there to talk to Bonds about his baseball instructions but the subject of his days in baseball and his steroid use.

Bonds will have none of that if he stays true to form and not take any steroid related questions, reporters who have not seen him since he left in 2007 are anxious to talk to him about where he’s been, what his plans in baseball are, and his obstruction of justice conviction.

This whole decision to come back in uniform might be a great success for Bonds who often used to talk about coaching and helping younger players just before he left San Francisco will do a little of that here. Whether he comes back to coach again beyond March 17 is not known.

Ken Gimblin is the SRS investigative reporters for Sportstalk