SAN FRANCISCO, July 1 (Reuters) - Kneeling where some of his most towering home runs have landed, Barry Bonds beamed as he left his personal stamp forever imprinted at San Francisco's Pacific Bell Park on Sunday.
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"I feel like a kid," the future Hall of Famer and current San Francisco Giant said moments after signing his name and placing both hands in wet cement as part of a monument commemorating his 500th home run.
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Bonds, a 36-year-old in his 16th professional season, is no kid.
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But he is enjoying one of the greatest power-hitting runs in major league history. He has reached 39 homers faster than any other player, and is on pace to surpass the single-season home run mark of 70 set by St. Louis Cardinals slugger Mark McGwire.
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Bonds's Giants and McGwire's Cardinals were facing off on Sunday for the last time during the 2001 regular season. The surging Giants, who have won 13 of their last 19 games, were looking for a three-game sweep of the Cardinals, losers of their last four.
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Whether Bonds can chase down McGwire's 1998 record this season remains to be seen. The pre-game ceremony, however, celebrated the slugger's entrance into another exclusive club: 500 career homers. Only 17 players have reached that plateau.
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Team officials also unveiled a bronze plaque depicting the three times Most Valuable Player uncoiling from a home run swing.
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The image was taken from a still photograph of Bonds's 500th homer, hit on April 17 in the eighth inning of a 3-2 Giants win over the Los Anoeles Dodgers.
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Bonds seemed genuinely impressed by the circular plaque, which sits along a promenade outside the park separating the right field wall from a small inlet known as McCovey Cove, where numerous Bonds dingers have splashed.
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HOME RUN HEROICS
"When I walk by this stadium I'm going to look down on that block quite a bit," he said. 'This is special."
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Bonds's high school manager, Dave Stevens, and his first major league manager, Jim Leyland, attended the ceremony.
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Bonds can perhaps use the pre-game ceremony as motivation to resume his home run heroics.
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The player was expected to return to the San Francisco lineup in this final showdown with McGwire after missing Saturday's 5-2 Giants win with a bruised right wrist.
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Bonds injured the wrist on the top of the left field wall while robbing St. Louis rookie third baseman Albert Pujols of a home run.
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Despite his torrid pace, Bonds's power output has diminished recently. He has not hit one out of the park in his last five games, his second-longest drought of the season.
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Bonds could also propel himself up the career homer list with his next blast. With 533 career homers, Bonds trailed Jimmie Foxx by one for 10th place on the all-time list. He was second among active players only to McGwire.
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Leyland, who managed Bonds with the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1986 to 1992, said he expected him to reach his next major career milestone with little problem. "If he stays healthy, 600 homers is a slam dunk," he said.
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If Bonds and McGwire were both to homer on Sunday, it would mark only the third time in history that two 500-homer hitters knocked one out of the park in the same game. Former Giant Willie Mays did it twice -- once with Ernie Banks in 1970 and again the following year with Hank Aaron.
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