Photos: 2008 Phillies
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Bonds, who will turn 44 in two weeks, hit .276 last year with 28 home runs, 66 RBIs, and major-league highs with 132 walks and a .480 on-base percentage. He owns a record 762 career home runs but became a free agent when the San Francisco Giants did not bring him back.
"Barry is in shape right now," Borris told the Associated Press. "He's not in game shape, so he'd have to have the chance to hit off live pitching. But he's told me that he would be ready in a very short period of time. He thinks he can be ready 10 days, two weeks."
Borris has said that Bonds would be willing to play for a prorated share of the $390,000 minimum and donate his salary to buy tickets for children.
Bonds was indicted in November on charges he lied when he told a grand jury in 2003 that he did not knowingly use performance-enhancing drugs. A trial is scheduled to start March 2 in San Francisco.
"I hate that he's not here," the six-time all-star reliever told the AP. "Barry usually gave me a ride to the stadium."
Supposedly written on a New York subway one day in 1908 by Tin Pan Alley composer Jack Norworth, who was born in Philadelphia, the ode to baseball is America's third most-played song.
A copy of Norworth's handwritten lyrics and the original sheet music are among the artifacts under a glass case at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's "Take Me Out: Baseball Rocks!" exhibit.
Tim Wiles, director of research at the National Baseball Hall of Fame, said the song was not performed at a ballpark until Pepper Martin and his teammates played it before Game Four of the 1934 World Series at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis.
Oh, in case you hadn't guessed, "Happy Birthday" and "The Star-Spangled Banner" are the nation's most frequently performed songs, according to the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.
Post a question or comment for staff writer Don McKee at
or by e-mail at dmckee@phillynews.com.
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