NUMB TO BONDS' NUMBERS.

Byline: STEVE DILBECK

Numbers, such monstrously gaudy numbers. The kind that cannot possibly be ignored. The kind that all by themselves earn Barry Bonds mention as one of baseball's all-time greatest hitters.

Yet you almost want to look away. Bonds piling up records, earning tributes, basking in certain accolades.

He has passed godfather Willie Mays on the career home run list, is within sight of the one player he has said he wants to surpass, Babe Ruth, and making a move on Hank Aaron's all-time record.

It should be a time for the ages in baseball, but it doesn't feel that way. You admire the numbers, but you cannot celebrate the man any more than you can ignore the shadow he plays under.

Barry Bonds is the most disliked superstar in the history of professional sports.

There have been many who were bad people, disdainful and disrespectful, spoiled and self-important, abusive and arrogant. Maybe even some who were more impudent.

But in the modern era of sports, with its mass and instant coverage, with so much media, we have never had such a clear and consistent picture of our athletes' personal makeup.

Never been forced to adulate a figure we clearly know as such a jackass.

Which by itself would give most something stronger than pause in figuring Bonds' place in history.

On numbers alone, there is no question he deserves to be mentioned alongside baseball's handful of all-time greats - Ted Williams, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Ruth, Mays and Aaron.

And an argument can easily be made that he is the game's greatest hitter ever. A player who not only has hit 661 home runs, but also has stolen over 500 bases.

Really, the numbers are staggering. Barely a part of our planet. And that he continues to pile them up while closing in on age 40 takes us to an entire other realm.

You nod in admiration of the numbers but find it difficult to applaud. And not just because it is Bonds, the ultimate boor, but because of the shadow he plays under.

After Bonds tied Mays on Monday, there were several film clips of his first home run with the Pirates in 1985. He was unrecognizable. He was 6-foot-1 and 185 pounds - about the same weight Aaron and Mays played at.

Now he's what? A good 235? Puffed up so much, until perhaps this season, he looked uncomfortable in his own skin. Rounded through chest, neck and face.

Steroids is the easy explanation. The answer most would bet their mortgage on. The one he has consistently denied.

Bonds claims the muscle and weight gain came simply through hard work, legal dietary supplements, improved weight training.

The kind of things his personal trainer, and lifelong best friend, Greg Anderson is supposed to be an expert at. The same Greg Anderson who has been indicted for the illegal distribution of drugs.

Every swing of Bonds' bat is under suspicion.

Never in my 25 years of covering baseball have I seen a player so consistently locked in at the plate over such a duration. Mistakes are almost automatically crushed. Seems he has a bad at-bat once a month.

And I never have seen a player develop such strength so late in his career. As much as Bonds the person is disliked, it will be a shame if it turns out he is cheating. He would have been a great player anyway.

His angry, callous demeanor and the suspicions of steroid use undermine celebrating his achievements and threaten his ultimate place in baseball history.

As it is, Ruth remains the game's greatest player. A man who not only hit 714 home runs, but as a pitcher won 94 games. Who one year threw 35 complete games and had a lifetime 2.28 ERA before finally becoming a full-time hitter in his fifth major-league season. A hitter who responded in the postseason. Who has a mind-numbing, record .690 career slugging percentage.

Aaron, too, still deserves to be listed ahead of Bonds as a hitter. He was amazingly consistent and is not only baseball's home run king but its career RBI leader with 2,297.

Even Mays, who lost almost two complete seasons because of military service, remains well ahead of Bonds in RBI and extra-base hits.

But Bonds has passed Williams, Gehrig and Foxx, flown beyond Ty Cobb, Stan Musial, Hank Greenberg and the rest.

None, though, accomplished so much while being so little revered. You respect the numbers but remain leery of them as you do the man. The hitter the Dodgers will face today has put together some of baseball's greatest numbers. Numbers to admire, but not a player.

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The sour demeanor of Barry Bonds and the suspicions of steroid use undermine celebrating his achievements and threaten his ultimate place in baseball history.

Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press