THE WRITING ON (AND OFF) THE WALL A RUTH-LESS WAY OF GIVING BONDS HIS DUE.

Byline: TOM HOFFARTH

Some brave reporter is going to approach Barry Bonds very soon and dare ask: Considering you're pretty much finished, where would you rank yourself among baseball's all-time greats?

Now there's a loaded question.

Believe it or not, we may have seen the last of this Giant pain in the rear. If the San Francisco super-sized slugger makes good on his threat to jump off the proverbial bridge, and there's no more million-dollar eBay souvenirs hit into McCovey's Cove or rubber chickens hung from the railings, if suddenly the music dies down and the Barry-go-round comes to a stop, where will that leave us?

Pondering history, and debating whether we actually just witnessed the greatest career that the game has ever tolerated.

Baseball's most noted scholars, stat freaks and protectors of the game are already trying to sort out this mess by crunching numbers, adjusted numbers and a number of intangible factors.

With a cloud of steroid use hanging over Bonds' ponderous dome, the consensus isn't as clear as the stuff by the same name that he's purported to have rubbed on his joints to help with the lingering arthritis.

In one corner, there's a new book called ``Who's Better, Who's Best in Baseball?'', in which renowned statistical analyst Elliott Kalb makes a very strong pitch for Bonds as the No. 1 player of his list of the 75 best of all-time, ahead of Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron and Walter Johnson.

In trying to reconcile the 'roid angle, Kalb first writes that even though Bonds did the juice, ``he did it to become the best baseball player he could become. John Lennon and Paul McCartney used illegal drugs - hallucinogenic drugs - to create music that has lasted for 40 years and will be remembered for 400 more. If I studied art history, I would have found many great artists who did the same. Does it mean we dismiss the music and art because the artists had an 'unfair' advantage over everyone else who created works sober?''

Put that theory in your pipe and smoke it.

More research uncovers the eighth edition of ``Total Baseball: The Ultimate Baseball Encyclopedia,'' in which historian John Thorn dedicates an entire chapter on the very topic of Bonds' ``greatest ever'' claim.

Thorn notes that Bonds didn't even make the final cut for the 1999 All- Century team (Ken Griffey Jr. was the only active player who did) at a point in time when neither the media nor the fans ``were willing to call Bonds the greatest player ever, only 'one of the greats.' ''

Thorn's ultimate assessment: ``Bonds' accomplishments outstrip everyone's, including Ruth's, but the Babe lives in memory and we will tell his stories, or our ancestors' stories about him as if they were our own. ... Bonds may retain hold of his records for greatness, but will stories attach to him? Or will his statistics have to speak for him?''

Now, consider Michael Schele, a professor of biostatistics at the University of North Carolina who just published ``Baseball's All Time Best Sluggers: Adjusted Batting Performance from Strikeouts to Home Runs.''

Concocting an elixir of mind-numbing formulas to try to level the playing field for players past and present, he puts Ruth in the top spot and Bonds at No. 4, behind Ted Williams and Rogers Hornsby. But, as Schele notes, his is simply a ranking of hitters as hitters, without regard to speed, defense or media manners.

A year ago, ``Baseball's Best 1,000'' by sportswriter Derek Gentile (Black Dog Publishers) allowed for Ruth at No. 1 and shoved Bonds into a disappointing No. 19 slot, one behind Joe Morgan. Then again, Gentile gives this despondent disclaimer in his introduction: ``Believe me when I say that after Babe Ruth, the next 999 players were a tossup.''

Then why even make the attempt?

Because the aptly named Gentile seems to have been influenced by a man far more self-important: Bill James, who did a Top 100 list in the latest incarnation of the ``Historical Baseball Abstract'' and decided not only that Ruth belonged at No. 1 but Bonds was at No. 16.

Please note, that was done back in 2001, before Bonds' 73-homer season and when he had just 494 career homers and no single-season on-base percentage and slugging percentage records.

``When people begin to take in all his accomplishments, Bonds may well be rated among the five greatest players in the history of the game,'' James was bright enough to write at the time, noting that Bonds is ``certainly the most unappreciated superstar of my lifetime.''

When all is cursed at and done, we'll give Bonds this: He's the greatest player this century has ever seen. Ask again after about 96 seasons and a few million drug tests to see if that changes.

Surely, Pedro Gomez will be there to interview the next victim.

CAPTION(S):

7 photos, box

Photo:

(1) no caption (Barry Bonds)

Getty Images

(2) Stacy Johnson-Klein

(3) PAT SUMMITT

(4) MAGIC JOHNSON

(5) BARRY BONDS

(6) no caption (Jerry Sloan)

(7) - Raiders managing general partner Al Davis, reacting to the fact his team must travel to New England to face the defending Super Bowl champion Patriots in the NFL's nationally televised Thursday kickoff game on Sept. 8.

Box:

Sunday PUNCH

- Tom Hoffarth