I don't know if all of you can get at this article by Dan Le Batard, but it is in ESPN the magazine if the link doesn't work (or you can sign up for ESPN Insider). It starts like this:

Everything hurts.

"I've played most of the season with a hamstring tear," Barry Bonds says. "My knees ache. My hands are done. Two bulging disks. My legs don't work. I make a strong throw, I feel it, all over, the rest of the game. Willie and my dad always said the thing that knocked them out of baseball would knock me out, too -- when the pain became too much."

The pain has become too much.

"Losing Dad was the worst thing in the world," Bonds says. "I haven't slept in a month. My mind is always racing. I can't concentrate. What's been happening in baseball the past month? I have no idea. I'm just taking care of Mom, doing all the things Dad said he wanted done at the end. I'm drained. I'm constantly thinking, thinking. It's just too overwhelming. I'm devastated. I spend all my time just trying not to have a nervous breakdown."

He is talking about quitting.

"I'm done," Bonds says. "The young players, it's their turn. I had my fun, and I keep screwing up and coming back. What for? Why bother? I can't do this anymore. I've already told the guys: a few more games, and I'm gone. I'm day-to-day, man. None of those records mean anything to me. My godfather and my father are the only reason I played, for their approval. I admired the rest of them -- Hank, Babe, Ted -- but I wasn't fighting for their approval. I've always played for the acceptance of my godfather and father. That's it. And now my father's gone."

This may be the most positive article about Barry Bonds I've ever read. As his career winds down, he's making the transition from baseball jerk to baseball great. I think a big part of the change is due to the death of Bobby Bonds and how Barry handled that. I think part of it is that players like Jeff Kent came to be seen as even bigger jerks than Bonds, so their complaints became less credible. It's a very good article, the best that I've seen at exploring Bonds psyche; how Bobby and Willie Mays always pushed him, never let him sit on his laurels for a second. How his father let all that go at the end, and now it's just Mays pushing him. Find it and read the whole thing.

Update: Rob Neyer looks at what a Bonds retirement would mean for the Giants.