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OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) ― Barry Bonds tied Babe Ruth for second place on the career home run list Saturday with his 714th homer, a solo shot into the right-field seats leading off the second inning.

The 41-year-old Bonds hadn't homered in nine games -- a stretch of 29 at-bats -- since hitting No. 713 with a 450-foot drive May 7 in Philadelphia. His teenage son, Nikolai, a Giants bat boy, was waiting for him at home plate and they embraced.

Bonds was quickly greeted by his teammates, who surrounded him at the top of the dugout. Bonds tipped his cap and blew a kiss toward his 7-year-old daughter, Aisha, then came out of the dugout and raised his hands.

Left-hander Brad Halsey became the 420th pitcher to give up a homer to Bonds, who was San Francisco's designated hitter in an interleague series against the Oakland Athletics.

Bonds set the single-season mark with 73 homers in 2001. Ruth's career total of 714 is also one of the most hallowed numbers in a sport ruled by them. The Sultan of Swat hit his last long ball in 1935 and held the major league record until Aaron broke it on April 8, 1974.

Bonds has said he's more interested in owning Ruth's mark than catching Aaron.

Commissioner Bud Selig has said baseball won't do anything special to celebrate Bonds passing Ruth because it would only put the Giants' star in second place.

Maybe it also has something to do with allegations of steroid use by Bonds and baseball's probe into whether he took performance-enhancing drugs.

The seven-time NL MVP has long denied ever knowingly taking steroids, though the new book "Game of Shadows" reveals his alleged extensive doping regimen the authors say began after the 1998 season when Bonds saw the attention Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa generated in their race for the single-season home run record.

Bonds' personal trainer, Greg Anderson, pleaded guilty to his role in a steroid distribution ring, and a federal grand jury is looking into whether Bonds perjured himself when he testified to the separate grand jury that indicted Anderson and three others in the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative scandal.

Menwhile, Babe Ruth's relatives are keeping their distance.

"In my heart, it's hard for me," Babe Ruth's granddaughter, Linda Tosetti, said from her home in Durham, Conn. "I like to do things in Babe's name. I just don't want his name mixed up in steroids."

Tosetti, 51, and her three sisters are Ruth's four surviving blood grandchildren. Their mother, Dorothy Ruth Pirone, who died in 1989 was Ruth's only biological child.

Tosetti said the family has politely declined invitations from the San Francisco Giants to be on hand when Bonds drew even with her granddad.

"They're a great organization and I really wanted to help them out. I said, `call me for anything else,'" Tosetti said. "I'm a pretty game gal. I've got a lot of my grandfather in me."

What she knows about the Babe she's had to learn from her older siblings, who delighted in the visits from the large, jovial man.

Ruth died in 1948, six years before Tosetti was born. Her grandmother, Juanita Jennings, never married Ruth and had their daughter when the slugger was married to his first wife, Helen.

Ruth and his wife adopted Dorothy, who didn't learn the identity of her biological mother until she was 59 years old. Dorothy Pirone authored the 1988 book "My Dad, the Babe." Ruth adopted another daughter, Julia, with his second wife, Claire.

The family has seen the Babe's record eclipsed before when the all-time home run king Hank Aaron passed him in 1974. They were fine with that.

"It didn't diminish the feat. My mother always said what a feat (Aaron) did. Records are made to be broken," Tosetti said.

It's the steroids allegations trailing Bonds that are disconcerting to Tosetti. She said drug use sends a disturbing message to youngsters. Her grandfather, she said, enjoyed being a role model for children, even though his hard-drinking, hard-living life is well documented.

"Look, he did his carousing. But liquor didn't touch his lips when he was with children. That's how his image is for the youth," Tosetti said. "I would hate myself a million times if I shook Mr. Bonds' hand if he did do it. These guys are making adult decisions about their body. it's the kids who think they're bulletproof coming up in high school who don't have that luxury."

Tosetti insists she has no malice toward Bonds, whom she's never met.

"I can't point a finger at Mr. Bonds. That's for people at a higher power to do," she said. "I'm sure he's a nice young man."

(© 2006 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)