WASHINGTON — Barry Bonds to the Washington Wild Things? Can this be serious?

Christine Blaine, the baseball team's director of marketing and communications, and a Butler resident, knew better when she was typing up the press release detailing the contract offer to baseball's home run king.

"It was our general manager's (Ross Vecchio) idea and, of course, it's meant to be fun,"Blaine said. "Ross is a creative guy and he's come up with off-the-wall ideas to generate publicity before."

Only last year, Vecchio sent a contract offer to Charles Sheen, an 80-year-old man living in Columbiana, Ohio. He once sent a similar offer to Rick Vaughn, the public relations director of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

Charlie Sheen played the character Rick Vaughn, a relief pitcher nicknamed "Wild Thing" in the movie Major League.

Only this Bonds deal is a little different. The Wild Things are prepared to petition the Frontier League to waive the independent circuit's age limit of 28 to allow the club to sign Bonds — if he's interested.

"The league would almost have to let him in,"Blaine said. "We'd be sold out for the entire season and we would sell out every ballpark Bonds played in."

Bonds could only make the league maximum of $1,200 a month. He earned the equivalent of $98,000 a game with the San Francisco Giants last season.

Vecchio doesn't expect Bonds to become a Wild Thing, of course. But he's having fun entertaining the thought.

"We faxed the contract offer to his agent's office the day we issued the press release,"Vecchio said. "I have not heard from Barry or his agent and I don't expect to.

"Barry Bonds is the fourth-rated free agent available this off-season. By March, he's going to have a contract with some major league team. But the idea of him playing for us isn't that far-fetched. He's be a tremendous drawing card for our league and quite a bat in the middle of our lineup.

"Darryl Strawberry played in the Northern League. Rickery Henderson, Jose Canseco and Jose Lima played in the Atlantic League, independent leagues, a year after they played in the majors for years. I mean, stuff like this has happened," Vecchio added.

What's happened for the Wild Things is the publicity they've been seeking. This story reached ESPN's SportsCenter, Vecchio has done live interviews on two San Francisco radio stations and Canadian stations, along with Pittsburgh television and radio.

"I couldn't believe it when we made SportsCenter,"Blaine said. "I just started calling people.

"Some other minor league team was going to do this eventually. Ross wanted to beat them to the punch."

The news release included a photo-shopped picture of Bonds wearing a Wild Things uniform, with Washington's ballpark in the background.

The contract offer included bonuses for any single-season Frontier League record Bonds might break, including the home run mark of 35 set by Morgan Burkhardt in 1998.

It also offered him a single king-sized room for road games, 50 percent of all net proceeds of individual Barry Bonds/Wild Things merchandise, and a host family to stay with, if needed.

"Ross is a baseball afficianado, the biggest one I know,"Blaine said. "He came up with all this stuff."

Vecchio also met up with some displeased Wild Things fans while walking in a nearby mall.

"Some of the fans took this release very seriously,"Blaine said.

"A few said they wouldn't buy tickets to any games or they were going to cancel their season tickets,"Vecchio said. "My response to them was, 'Would we have gotten on SportsCenter if we hadn't made this offer?"

The Wild Things have sold out 200 of its 290 games played since 2002.