SAN FRANCISCO -- One day after Barry Bonds dropped the bomb that he will not be returning as a Giant next season, he sat at his locker and explained how he's not sad, upset or even surprised at the Giants' decision to not re-sign him, just disappointed in the way it was handled and disappointed to be leaving the team that he was the face of for 15 years.

"I'm disappointed. I had the best 15 years of my life here. I'm not upset. I'm not angry. I'm not mad. It's a business decision," Bonds said Saturday.

Bonds is perhaps most disappointed the Giants prolonged officially telling him until the final homestand because he truly believes that the decision to not re-sign him was reached a long time ago. The fact that this would likely be Bonds' final season as a Giant was something that was discussed during negotiations last year.

"It was told to me during the negotiations that it wasn't going to happen that way, and it happened that way and that's a disappointment," Bonds said.

Bonds declined to go into detail on how his final weeks as a Giant would have been different had he had more time to say goodbye to fans.

"I can't answer that because I wasn't given that opportunity," Bonds said. "It could have been done earlier and we could have had a party all year long."

It was the not knowing for sure, not the decision itself, that has been the most disappointing of it all.

"Like I've told Peter [Magowan, the team president], this is your business and I respect your decision and you don't have to let me in your car, it's your car. That's business and that's life. I'm not disappointed in that at all. I'm not mad at that, I'm not angry," Bonds said. "Like I've always said, baseball is a business. My thing was I truly believe you knew earlier and I think they could have handled it a little bit differently, and he agreed during that meeting."

Disappointments aside, though, Bonds is leaving San Francisco with nothing but love for the Giants. Bonds said he realizes that change is just part of the game. It probably would have been nice to retire on the team he grew up watching, the team his father and godfather played for and in the uniform he reached so many milestones wearing, but this final chapter doesn't tarnish any of those things for him.

"I'm not taking this personally," Bonds said. "I feel that I did what I could for the 15 years I was here and I'm proud of that and I'm not disappointed in that. I can walk out of here with my head high and I'm very proud. I know when there was a left fielder in San Francisco, there was no one better, and I'm proud of that.

"I'm proud of the fans and I'm proud of the family here, which I consider the fans part of my family in the city I grew up in. I have nothing to be ashamed of and they have nothing to be ashamed of. We had fun. For 15 years, we had a great time, 15 years."

Some people expected it to be longer. From a business standpoint, Bonds was probably hard to let go of.

"I don't work up there [in the front office], so my understanding, as far as business appropriations go, if you bring value to a company, you normally have a job. I believe I've brought value to this company," Bonds said.

No one is disputing that he did, and the fact that he can draw a crowd will certainly add appeal for interested teams. There probably isn't an active player who can draw a crowd like Bonds, as demonstrated by the sold-out games at most cities he traveled to this season.

As far as the future, though, Bonds declined to comment on where he might be next year or the speculation that he'll likely go to the American League as a designated hitter.

"I don't have to worry about that at this moment in time. I'll leave all that speculation to the reporters and media people," Bonds said.

Bonds will get to next season later. Right now, he's busy memorizing his final days in a Giants uniform.

"I had the best times of my life here," he said. "I had fun. I had good times. I can honestly sit there and say, a fortunate 15 years because I missed one year and I never had a bad season in my hometown."