Bonds, back in baseball, ready to help Marlins

Miami Marlins hitting coach Barry Bonds, baseball’s home run king, made it clear “I’m a Hall of Famer” at an introductory news conference Saturday.

Bonds, in his familiar No. 25, wore a major league uniform for the first time in nine years – aside from a weeklong stint as a guest instructor with the San Francisco Giants two springs ago.

Bonds, 51, said it felt “natural” to return to the fields and batting cages of spring training as he joined new manager Don Mattingly’s coaching staff.

He last played in the majors in 2007, unable to find a team to sign him due to a cloud of reports regarding his longtime use of performance-enhancing drugs.

Bonds finished his career in 2007 as the all-time leader in home runs (762), walks (2,558) and intentional walks (688) to go along with a career 1.051 OPS.

In this year’s Hall of Fame voting by the Baseball Writers Association of America, Bonds got 44.3 percent of the votes cast, leaving him nearly 31 percent short for admission but his highest vote total in his fourth year on the ballot.

Bonds’ return to the dugout has been viewed by many observers as a marriage of convenience. He can begin to reform an image tarnished by alleged PED use in light of Hall of Fame voting, and the Marlins get a little boost in exposure.

“God knows I’m a Hall of Famer,” Bonds said Saturday. “I know that I’m a Hall of Fame player. I don’t really need to get into that. I’ll leave that to you guys to make that determination. That's not my fraternity."