I guess mine would be the day he broke the home run record a couple of years ago, when he hit #71 and #72 against the Dodgers (ah, the hated Dodgers) and went 2-for-3 with two walks trying to keep the Giants in the playoff hunt. Incredible, and the pandemonium was great. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see the homers until later; I was "watching" via MLB Gameday while slaving away at work.

I've mentioned mine before: the BP display (about 15 HR on 25 swings) where he bounced one off the hotel, beside the JumboTron. Longest ball ever hit in the building, by quite a bit. Glove in hand, I was foolishly standing behind the visitors' bullpen; Bonds hit six balls over my head into the second deck. In the eighth inning of the actual game, he was just a tad late on a high Politte fastball, hitting it the opposite way for a frozen-rope homer that left the yard like it was a Titleist, not a Rawlings.

Number 600 was pretty cool among TV highlights. His bearhug of Torii Hunter in the All-Star game, and the shot he hit off Halladay, were fun to watch. I'm sure Doc grooved that pitch; he had been ordered to intentionally walk Bonds (the SkyDome fans booed) when the Giants were in town about ten days earlier, so he felt he owed Barry a belt-high fastball.

Mine is his HR against Washburn, in last year WS. It was neat. Washburn smile was telling a lot. By the way, I like Barry as a human being.

I don't get to see Barry hit live (on TV) that often, but that home run off Percival in the playoffs last year (where Salmon mouths "That's the farthest home run I've ever seen") made me leap off my couch.

I don't think I've seen such a beautifully hit long ball in my life. Perfect swing, perfect timing...poetry.

It was my vote for the ESPY award this year.

Graham! You're right. That was a MONSTER. Tremendous homer.

I've mentioned mine before: the BP display (about 15 HR on 25 swings) where he bounced one off the hotel, beside the JumboTron.

Not only was this my favorite Barry memory, it's also right up there as my favorite SkyDome memory. Unlike Coach, I was confident that Barry would be putting on a show and planted myself in the first row of the 2nd deck. I got Alex Popoved going after one ball. But for the most part I still wasn't far enough back and for the hotel shot, wasn't even in the right deck.

There was maybe 1500 or 2000 people in the Dome for BP that day and it was louder than it is for most games. Electric. Having yet to attend a playoff game in person, I can only imagine that's what it must feel like.

Graham has already chosen my favourite.

I've seen Bonds, in person, swat about 20 home runs; he seems to go yard most times I see him play. Right after the 2001 all-star break I went to a game in Seattle, before I moved here, and the Mariners were playing the Giants (naturally), and Bonds homered then. My favorite home run was also two years ago, when he hit #501. (I missed seeing #500 by that much.) Anyone remember that Bonds got off to a relatively slow start that year, maybe preoccupied with #500? Anyhow, Giants were down 2-1, bottom of the eighth, Aurilia on first, Chan Ho Park pitching for the Dodgers.

CHAN HO: I think I'll slip an inside fastball by Bonds. His bat has slowed, he's struggling.
BONDS: I hope this idiot tries to slip a fastball by me.

Inside fastball. WHAP. Bomb to right field. 3-2 Giants. Another loss for Chan Ho Pathetic. I wrote about it in my A's column: you do not try to get Bonds out on an inside fastball. Worst. Idea. Ever.

On TV, I saw Bonds hit a home run in San Diego that I swear is still going -- I think it hit way up on the scoreboard or something in Jack Murphy?

Spicol, it wasn't exactly like a playoff game; the buzz from the crowd was unique -- not so much excitement as awe. Electric, indeed. You could feel the response as well as hear it, and I'm sure it affected Bonds, too -- each time he stepped into the cage, he hit them farther.

Did you notice that Barry came out early that night, while the Jays were still on the field, and made a beeline for Kelvim Escobar, who had struck him out the night before? He spent 10 minutes chatting up Kelvim, laughing and no doubt employing a little psychology, in case they met again with the game on the line.

I was at the game where Barry hit #67 off James Baldwin in 2001 - a screaming line drive that hooked inside the RF foul pole. I've gone to three or four other games between the Giants and Dodgers at Chavez Ravine since that game (including a couple this year) and he seems to get walked nearly every plate appearance. Even the Dodger fans, who boo his very existence, boo a little when they walk him, especially intentionally.

I remember a couple times in 1993 when I was in college in the Bay Area when Bonds came up in the bottom of the 9th and the Giants down a run. Each time, I told my roommate, who didn't follow baseball at all but became a huge Giants fan that season (they did win 103 games, we were ready to go to the one-game playoff but alas), "Barry is gonna hit one here to tie the game." He did it twice that year and when I started looking at Bonds possibly hitting 500 home runs.

Oh, and I saw the moonshot he hit in Game 6 of the World Series last year. I was sitting in the front row of the last section in the upper deck down the first base line and I saw that thing rocket into a walkway. I really thought the Giants were going to win that game until the old Giant fan next to me started counting outs. "Nine more outs! I've waited 48 years!" (He looked like he was in his mid-60s.) I knew right then and there that the Giants were doomed.

I have no specific memory of Barry Bonds, but a general one of watching him hit on TV during last year's playoffs. I have never seen a hitter who looked so close to having mastered the science (and art) of hitting a baseball. It was obvious that he had spent years studying pitchers and fine-tuning his body into the best shape possible. He looked not so much like a human as like a hitting machine: the BONDS 2002 Mark V, genetically constructed to scare opposing pitchers into submission.

I don't particularly care what Bonds is like as a person - I'm not a sportswriter, and I don't have to deal with him on a personal level. But, as a fan, I am awed by his accomplishments. I don't know if he is the best to ever play the game, but he's now, by consensus, among the five best, and that's an impressive accomplishment.

(And to have accomplished what he has while watching his father battle cancer is almost beyond belief.)

It's not a moment. I just like watching him swing. Any time. It's just immaculate.

Yeah, I have Barry nightmares I mean memories - try 3 RBIs in 20 post-season games with the Pirates. 13-for-68 (.191 average) with 3 extra-base hits. Andy Van Slyke was just as bad, but his inability to do anything against the Braves was really frustrating.