Wake up, Bud! Selig "Responds" to Bonds' Indictment

Bud Selig released an initial statement saying he hadn't bothered to actually read Barry's 10-page indictment, although he does "take the indictment very seriously and will follow its progress closely." The indictment isn't progressing, Bud. You don't have to chase it or catch it. It's posted all over the Internet. Selig went on to pontificate about MLB's strict policy on performance-enhancing drugs, touching on reforms like testing for amphetamines and adding HGH to the banned list while pursuing the development of an efficacious test for HGH.

Selig's response reminds dp of something. Let's see.... Baseball pretends to be ignorant of a patently obvious situation.... Hmmmm... What is this deja vu?

It sounds just like baseball's "reaction" to allegations of steroid use in the 1980's and 90's: Feigned ignorance. Drug problem? What drug problem? Oh, you mean cocaine? We cracked down on that one with a tough testing policy that required Steve Howe to actually apply for reinstatement each of the seven times he returned to the field after testing positive. It's not our fault that Doc Gooden and Darryl Strawberry were granted multiple chances to resurrect their playing careers but never got the help they needed to kick coke addiction.

Meanwhile, Selig's ploy of pretending to be too busy to read 10-pages while supposedly monitoring Bond's legal situation "closely" reeks of two things:
1) personal contempt for Bonds, similar to Selig "acknowledgement" of Bonds' record-setting home run, when he stood up only to keep his hands in his pockets.
2) official doublespeak that seeks to distance baseball from troubled players and ultimately protect the league against any liability.

Barry Bonds Indicted; Greg Anderson Released

Major Legal Issues in Major League Baseball

Barry Bonds was indicted Thursday on four counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice. The indictment alleges that Bonds lied during his 2003 testimony before a federal grand jury which had convened to investigate the BALCO steroid distribution ring. If convicted on all counts, he faces up to 30 years in prison. Later Thursday afternoon, a federal judge in San Francisco ordered the release of Greg Anderson, Bonds' childhood friend and personal trainer who has sat in prison for contempt of court for nearly a year because of his refusal to testify about Bonds. The question yet to be answered: was Anderson's release contingent upon cooperation with a grand jury that otherwise lacked sufficient proof to indict Bonds?

Or was Anderson released because the grand jury has enough evidence without his testimony? Article 9 of the background section of the indictment states, "During the criminal investigation, evidence was obtained including positive tests for the presence of anabolic steroids and other performance-enhancing substances for Bonds and other professional athletes." Maybe the presence of this "evidence" means that Anderson is not needed to prove that Bonds perjured himself.

Upon closer examination of the ten-page indictment, three of the four counts of perjury against Bonds pertain to his answers to questions concerning Greg Anderson. Before analyzing what this could mean, let's pause to summarize each count:

* Count One: Bonds denies that Anderson ever gave him anything that he knew to be a steroid, and Bonds continues to profess innocence even when the grand jury proceeded to show him documents with his name and/or initials pertaining to positive test results for two anabolic steroids.
* Count Two: Bonds denies that Anderson (or any of his associates) ever injected him with anything, or gave him anything that required Barry to use a syringe to inject himself.
* Count Three: Bonds denies that Anderson ever gave or helped Barry obtain human growth hormone (HGH) or testosterone, in January 2002 or at any time.
* Count Four: Barry admits to using "the cream" and "the clear," but claims that it didn't happen until 2003, while the grand jury maintains that it happened at least as early as December 2001, according to the date of a calendar with his "BB" initials on it.
* Count Five (Obstruction of Justice): The one count of obstruction of justice is the product of Bonds' "evasive, false, and misleading" testimony as noted in the aforementioned four counts of perjury.

At first glance, it seems difficult for the government to prove that Bonds lied about his dealings with Anderson if Anderson himself doesn't refute Bonds' testimony. Then again, Anderson has already chosen to sit in prison indefinitely, so why would he suddenly squeal now? It seems that the calendars and documents that allegedly outline Bonds' drug use are not weighty enough on their own to merit the indictment; if they were, Bonds could have been indicted years ago. If that's the case, then the government would need another witness to verify Bonds' use of performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs). Kimberly Bell, Bonds' former mistress, has claimed that Bonds both told her about his steroid use and acknowledged Anderson's role in administering the drugs, so it is possible that she could back up the first three counts of perjury. The fourth count of perjury is a matter of timing: not whether Bonds used the cream and the clear, but rather when he used them. Even Barry admitted he "could be wrong" about this time frame, and it's possible that Gary Sheffield, who trained with Bonds before the start of the 2002 season and admitted he had also used the cream, could verify the time period in question.

The Steroid Era
All things considered, it seems unlikely that Anderson came clean about Bonds. In any case, the grand jury believes it can prove Bonds was definitively and irrefutably a drug cheat. Yet it's worth remembering that Bonds isn't actually being indicted for illegal use of performance-enhancing drugs; he's being indicted for lying about it. Certainly, lying before a grand jury is no small matter, but in return for his agreement to testify in 2003, he received immunity from criminal prosecution for anything other than perjury. If Bonds can't be punished for using substances that weren't banned by major league baseball at the time (steroids were added to baseball's list of banned substances in 2003; drug testing actually began in 2005, when HGH was added to the list, though no reliable HGH test exists yet), doesn't it seem that he's being unfairly singled out? Other baseball MVPs Jose Canseco, Ken Caminiti, and Jason Giambi have admitted to past steroid use, and since 2005, many minor and major leaguers, including Jason Grimsley, Alex Sanchez, Guillermo Mota, Rafael Betancourt, and Rafael Palmeiro, have all served suspensions after testing positive. Moreover, these players only represent a fraction of those who have been implicated or suspected of PED use. How can Bonds alone be targeted when the evidence indicates that so many other baseball players also benefited from PEDs? Is Bonds really any different than Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Juan Gonzalez, Troy Glaus, or Rick Ankiel? Maybe the only real difference is that Bonds possessed more natural talent than any of these stars. If other guys had to cheat to catch up, why do we focus our scorn on someone who was already the best player in the game? Is it because Bonds didn't need to cheat? Is it because the best player deserves the bulk of the blame? Or is it because Bonds in the biggest jerk in the history of sports interviews, and people are pissed that a lying megalomaniac now possesses not just the single-season home run record (73 in 2001, beating McGwire's 70 in 1998) but also the career home run record previously held by Hank Aaron, a principled man of dignity and honor?

After Bonds hit his 756th homer, fashion designer Marc Ecko, the owner by auction of the historic baseball, put the fate of the ball up for an internet vote. Fans were given three options: one, send it to Cooperstown, home of the Baseball Hame of Fame; two, permanently brand it with an asterisk and then send it to Cooperstown; or three, blast it into outer space. Sadly, the asterisk option won with 47% of the 10 million votes cast. Worse, the Hall has tentatively agreed to accept the ball with an asterisk affixed. The asterisk is an insult not just to Bonds' personal legacy. More importantly, it's an insult to the integrity of the American pastime. Bonds doesn't "theoretically" hold the home run record; he has physically launched more bombs in major league games than anyone else in history. That's a fact. It's also a fact that he's never been suspended for violating baseball's PED testing program. It's also an indisputable fact that Bonds competed against other players who did test positive, and still more who undoubtedly used PEDs before they were officially banned in 2005. For better or worse, baseball's lack of drug testing spawned the now-infamous Steroid Era. While we can lament the fact that PEDs plagued baseball for about twenty years from sometime in the 1980's until 2005, we can't pick and choose who gets punished and who gets pardoned for their involvement. It's inconsistent to condemn McGwire and Bonds, and then forgive Cardinals pitcher-turned-slugger Rick Ankiel and Indians hurler Paul Byrd for their use of HGH.

The Dope on HGH

Jintropin is a popular strand of HGH synthesized by Chinese chemist Jin Lei, who learned his craft while getting a Ph.D. from UC-San Francisco in the '90s. Jin returned to China and opened a government-sponsored company, GenSci, which manufactures and sells Jintropin. Check out Shawn Assael's full story here. dp says don't be like Sylvester Stallone, who was detained for two days after trying to enter Australia without a prescription for his 48 vials of Jintropin.

Yes, both Ankiel and Byrd were initially prescribed HGH by doctors for medical reasons. Yes, Ankiel was recovering from elbow ligament replacement surgery, as was Byrd, who also claimed that he suffered from a pituitary gland disorder that accounted for why he continued to buy nearly $25,000 of HGH over a three-year period. HGH is typically given to children with dwarfism and adults who suffer from AIDs-related "wasting," a degenerative condition. HGH is also FDA-approved for adults with adult growth hormone deficiency. It's possible that Byrd could fall under this last category, but it still wouldn't explain how he twice filled prescriptions for HGH from a dentist who was subsequently suspended for "fraud and incompetence" in 2003. That same dentist prescribed HGH to other baseball players, including Matt Williams, Ismael Valdez and Jose Guillen. All four players obtained the drugs from the Palm Beach Rejuvenation Center (PBRC), an anti-aging clinic. On Feb. 27, a slew of law-enforcement agencies led by the Albany County (NY) District Attorney's Office and the Drug Enforcement Agency raided the PBRC as part of "Operation Which Doctor," a major investigation into an Internet-based steroid distribution ring. Meanwhile, agents in Orlando simultaneously raided the investigation's main target, Signature Pharmacy, which manufactured and distributed millions of dollars of drugs to PBRC, other anti-aging clinics, and other pro athletes including Ankiel, Glaus, and Jay Gibbons. All told, more than two dozen doctors, pharmacists, and business owners (including those of PBRC and of Signature Pharmacy) face a multitude of felony charges, including the illegal distribution of steroids and HGH. Some-- including PBRC co-owner Joseph Raich and his brother-in-law, heart surgeon Robert G. Carlson-- have already plead guilty.



Some of these anti-aging clinics have liberally expanded the use of HGH to combat the "disease" of getting older, and trumpet anecdotal evidence that suggests HGH's performance-enhancing effects include more red blood cells, healthier heart function, improved eyesight, higher energy levels and increased sex drive. Yet the larger medical community doesn't consider these claims legitimate, and no reputable doctor would prescribe HGH to a healthy adult. While HGH very well may help athletes recover faster from serious sports injuries by regenerating stronger connective tissue like tendons and ligaments, this use is not approved by the FDA, much less considered standard practice. Accordingly, MLB has never granted Byrd or any player a "Therapeutic Use Exemption" for HGH.

Baseball's Tarnished Legacy*
What does this all mean for baseball? The BALCO investigation, "Operation Which Doctor," and “Operation Raw Deal” (a series of raids conducted by more than 100 D.E.A. agents in 27 states from Sept. 20-24 that resulted in 124 arrests and the closing of 56 labs) focused on manufacturers and distributors at the top of the PED food chain, meaning that users would not be targeted for prosecution. But this certainly does not mean that professional athletes are off the hook. Patriots safety Rodney Harrison was suspended for four games by the NFL after he admitted to the Albany County D.A.'s Office that he used HGH prescribed by Carlson and obtained online from PBRC. Barry Bonds is not the only major league baseball player that has to worry. The Mitchell Report on Steroids, an investigation of PED use in baseball conducted by former Senator George Mitchell, is expected to be released sometime in the next month. The player's union has apparently learned that Mitchell's Report will name 11 current free agents. Bonds makes one, as the Giants dropped Bonds like a dirty habit. Paul "Crazy" Byrd no longer makes two, for the Indians exercised their $7.5 million team option. (We await the publication of "The Free Byrd Project," Paul's upcoming autobiography, for his full story.) It's unclear how many additional players already under contract will be named, but Commissioner Bud Selig has said that teams "ought to be prepared for (the) eventuality" of naming names. In a conference call with representatives from all 30 teams, Thomas Carlucci, a lawyer for the firm that represents MLB, said that Mitchell's report would be "salacious" (translation: "obscene").
Clearly, the Steroid Era has tarnished baseball's legacy, but it would be truly obscene to make Bonds the scapegoat for baseball's systemic sins. Bonds may be a lot of things, including a drug user, a jerk, an adulterer, and a liar, but he didn't create the Steroid Era; he just participated in it like so many of his competitors. While the history books should rightfully note the impact of PEDs on professional sport, there need be no asterisk on his record-setting ball. After all, we've got the image of Barry's enlarged head burned in our minds. We don't need punctuation.

The Wednesday Hump: Happy Birthday, Brett Favre; Sad Goodbye, Marion Jones

Did you hear that? What? No? Me neither. That's the sound of baseball not being played today. With the NBA in exhibition mode and the pro football season a quarter of the way through but stuck on the slowest day of the week, the professional team sports world has hit the ultimate Wednesday hump: zero meaningful games played. (Sorry, NBA, a handful of exhibitions don't count, especially considering that the Memphis Grizzlies, in Spain to capitalize on Pau Gasol's popularity, actually lost to Unicaja yesterday.)

Navy did knock off Pitt 48-45 in OT in tonight's wildly entertaining and incredibly defenseless NCAA game, but dp hardly knew what to do on a day without baseball. As we await tomorrow's resumption of the playoffs with the National League Championship Series, it's worth noting that NeutralMilk, whose predictions based on closer songs correlated with dp's perfect round of Divisional Playoff picks, has departed from dp's ALCS and World Series pick, the Boston Red Sox. It seems he has misread Jonathan Papelbon's occasional use of "Wild Thing" (seen here in the video at the bottom of the post). He equates Papelbon entering to "Wild Thing" with the Patriots' stealing of opponents' signals. Further, because this song is inherently Indian territory (it did originate as Rick Vaughn's song in Major League) and is current Cleveland closer Joe Borowski's full-time anthem, he chooses Cleveland to win both the ALCS and the World Series. However, dp knows this test to be a false positive. In reality, Papelbon has actually negated Cleveland's edge (by employing laser tag tactics of holding up a mirror to reflect back enemy fire,) and the BoSox will go all the way. Better check your B-sample, NeutralMilk.

Speaking of drug tests, the sad saga of Marion Jones' disgrace continues to unfold.

When the confirmation of Jones' long-suspected drug use broke last Friday, Scoop Jackson spoke for many when he lamented how his girl Marion crushed his heart. Jones admitted in District Court that she not only lied to federal agents in her 2003 grand jury testimony in the BALCO case, but she also lied about her involvement in a fraudulent check-cashing scheme involving her agent, another former coach, and former boyfriend Tim Montgomery.

Victor Conte, BALCO's founder, has been saying for years that Jones used performance-enhancing drugs before and after her amazing performance in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, where she won five medals, including three gold. Yet even the gold standard has proved counterfeit, and now Jones has returned those medals to the International Olympic Committtee. It turns out that Conte was right all along.

Jones went so far as to file a $25 million libel lawsuit against Conte in 2004. (It was later settled out of court.) For a woman who has never failed a drug test (though she narrowly escaped with a false-positive for EPO in June 2006 when her B-sample came back negative) and has always categorically denied drug use, dp can't help but wonder why Jones finally decided to come clean about playing dirty. Many, including ESPN.com's Patrick Hruby, think that she's a pathological liar who "leaked" her admission in a letter to family and friends only to try to put a positive spin on an inevitable booking by the Feds. In this letter, Jones claims she thought that her coach, Trevor Graham, was giving her flaxseed oil, not realizing until years later that she'd actually been taking "the clear," a designer steroid at the center of the BALCO case.

Was the evidence so overwhelming against her that she had no choice except to craft one last convenient lie in a desperate attempt to save a bit of face? Or is it possible that a singularly focused world-class sprinter just did what her coach told her to do and didn't ask too many questions about the little drop of liquid on her tongue to help her "recover" faster after workouts? Jones, just one of about two dozen professional athletes to testify in the BALCO case, is certainly not a chemist, and probably couldn't tell the difference between a placebo and a painkiller, much less between a permissible "supplement" and an undetectable but illegal steroid. Barry Bonds also claimed under oath that he believed "the clear" to be flaxseed oil. Could this be a corroboration of truth, or is it again simply that smug wink of plausible deniability?

Or is it possible that there really is no real "truth" in a cutthroat competitive landscape in which individual success is only possible through a supreme self-confidence that borders on self-delusion? I mean, how realistic is it to think you are the fastest person on earth? It's preposterous, except perhaps for a very select few. Is it so surprising then to think that one of these megalomaniacs may actually reject, distort, qualify, or ignore anything which threatens her righteous faith in her talent and ability? By sheer force of will, can athletes like Jones and Bonds simply rationalize shady decisions?

The only certainty we have is that Jones, for one, couldn't live with her own guilt. In mourning her fall, we can only wonder whether countless other superstars like Lance Armstrong and Roger Clemens have benefited from a little extra boost as well. As more and more incriminating evidence mounts, it's getting more and more difficult to give our heroes the benefit of the doubt. As for Bonds, a lawyer familiar with his case ominously speculates that prosecutors will now shift their focus to investigating whether he committed perjury and tax evasion.

Although ESPN.com's Bomani Jones has a few ideas to consider on this dark sports Wednesday, dp can do no more than to wish original FLICKster Brett Favre a happy 38th birthday.

Barry Bonds #756

Barry Bonds Bids San Francisco Good Bye

Last night Barry Bonds played his final home game for San Francisco. Just like when he hit his 756th career home run, another truly special moment captured in the video highlight above, Giants fans showed him the love.


With the "Thank You Barry- A Giant Forever" banner hanging behind him on the wall in left field, the constant chants of "Barry, Barry," and multiple standing ovations throughout the game, San Francisco fans let Bonds know they will always love him.

With the "Bonds 25" inscription painted on the left field grass, Giant owner Peter Magowan's tearful postgame interview, and executive vice president Larry Baer's hope that Barry could retire as a Giant even if he continues his career elsewhere, the organization let Bonds know that despite the decision to not bring him back next year, the Giants still love him, too.

Even the opposing Padres paid their respects to the man who has hit more home runs (87) against them than any player has ever hit against one team. In the 6th inning, after a final at bat in which he wowed the crowd by flying out to the warning track in deep right-center, Bonds walked to the mound and hugged Cy Young favorite Jake Peavy, who returned Bonds' words, "I love you." After the game ended, Greg Maddux lingered in the visitors' dugout to watch a six-minute video tribute to Bonds on the scoreboard.

With all the negative publicity that has swirled around Bonds for the last few years, it's easy to forget that he is one of all-time greatest players from any era. dp wishes that more true baseball fans were out there to join the Bay Area faithful in appreciating Bonds for his once-in-a-lifetime talent and monster performances throughout a remarkable career.

Instead, it seems the average fan has labeled Bonds the poster child for the Steroid Era. In fact, in a related story that seemingly validates this depiction, the fate of Bonds' 756th HR ball has been decided in an Internet vote brought about by the ball's owner, a fashion designer/publicity whore whom dp will not gratify by naming here (a stunt both petty and futile, to be sure, but certainly not as disrespectful as the perpetual indignity suffered by Bonds). At least the ball will not be blasted into space; rather, it will be displayed in the Hall of Fame- but with an asterisk affixed to its cover.

dp authored an article for the Taft Independent back on August 7 when Bonds broke the record. It's reprinted here below.

“Shooting Stars:
Taking Aim at Bonds’ Stock in History”

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Taft, CA—Over the last few weeks, Barry Bonds’ pursuit of the home run record has carried him up and down California, from the friendly home crowds at AT&T Park in San Francisco, to Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, and on to Petco Park in San Diego. Finally, back in San Francisco, five years to the day after Major League baseball instituted mandatory steroid testing, Bonds hit career home run 756 to best Hank Aaron and stand alone as baseball’s all-time home run king.

While Aaron braved a racist backlash of boos, hate mail, and death threats as he chased Babe Ruth’s mark of 714 homers, Bonds has also faced controversy. Yet while the bigotry that plagued Aaron has faded, the issues that swirl around Bonds are stickier. Even though Bonds’ name has replaced Aaron’s atop the homerun leader board in the history books, myriad questions concerning the record’s legitimacy—and ultimately Bonds’ legacy—linger.

Indeed, bouncing back from a horrid July, in which Bonds batted a paltry .186, is the least of his concerns, as the possibility of a federal indictment for tax evasion and perjury charges related to his testimony before the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO) grand jury still remains. Yet perhaps even more damaging to Bonds’ ego—and major league baseball’s image—is the court of public opinion.

More polarizing than shock jocks like Don Imus, Howard Stern, and Rush Limbaugh, Bonds inspires passionate debate about the presence of performance-enhancing drugs in professional sports. The vast majority of local fans in San Francisco support him and his quest to break the home run record, while much of the rest of the country is against him. Yet listening to the chorus of critics among the national media, it seems like everyone is unanimously against Bonds. Recent Hall-of-Fame inductee Cal Ripken Jr. has said of Bonds’ performance, “I’d prefer to believe this is all on the up and up,” but 85% of respondents to an ESPN Sports Nation poll believe Bonds has used performance-enhancing drugs.

Meanwhile, very few current players will publicly rip Bonds. These guys understand the pressure to perform. They may not particularly like him, but they admire his talent and respect the contributions he makes toward his team’s success. Moreover, these guys have dealt with, or perhaps are still dealing with, the temptation to use performance-enhancing drugs. Judging from the wall of silence offered to George Mitchell’s investigation into steroid use in baseball, the players’ perspective is simple: look the other way. See no evil; hear no evil; most of all, speak no evil—not about yourself, but especially not about your teammates.

If nothing else, ballplayers are realists, recognizing the sports industry for what it is—a multibillion-dollar transnational empire. With that reality in mind, is it reasonable to discount Bonds’ accomplishments? By all accounts, Bonds was already the best player in baseball before he allegedly used steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs. What about the countless other ballplayers who were secretly juicing and competing at the same time? Even the “magical” 1998 season, when fans embraced Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa as they pursued the single-season home run record, now seems more chemical than magical, as both players are strongly suspected of steroid use. In “Love Me, Hate Me: Barry Bonds and the Making of an Antihero,” Jeff Pearlman reports that in an alleged 1998 private conversation with Ken Griffey Jr., a conversation Bonds denies and Griffey reportedly does not remember, Bonds expressed frustration and jealousy over the fan appreciation enjoyed by McGwire and Sosa, and Bonds decided to take steroids the following off-season, figuring that he may as well enjoy the same benefits himself.

So, how do average fans who grew up innocently loving baseball process these sobering revelations? Like most baseball-loving boys growing up in the ’80s and ’90s, my brother and I collected baseball cards. My brother’s most prized treasures were two mint-condition rookie cards: Ken Griffey Jr. and Barry Bonds. Of course, these two shared more than center stage on my brother’s trophy shelf: both possessed a baseball pedigree, having grown up as the sons of former major leaguers; both were five-tool superstars who could hit for average and power, steal bases, and win Gold Gloves in the outfield; both players have averaged 41 home runs per 162 games played over the course of their careers. In short, both were the best players in their respective leagues throughout the 1990s.

Yet after their alleged conversation in 1998, Bonds’ and Griffey’s paths diverged in the next decade. From 2001-2004, the years in which Bonds is accused of juicing, Bonds won four consecutive MVP awards, stringing together an incredible stretch of mind-popping statistics including the single-season record 73 home runs in 2001 and batting titles in 2002 and 2004. Meanwhile, the injury-prone Griffey strung together long periods on the disabled list. But now the tables have turned again, as Griffey enjoys a strong bounce-back season while Bonds is greeted with boos wherever he goes.

Certainly, Bonds’ aloofness and hostility toward the media has not endeared him to some, but is he really the villain that he is made out to be? What has Barry Bonds done that is so bad?

By most accounts, it seems that Bonds’ biggest crime is his physical transformation from the wiry lead-off hitter as a rookie in 1986 for the Pittsburgh Pirates to the bulky, hulked-up slugger of today. It’s true that Bonds broke into the big leagues as a 21-year old, 190-pound lead-off batter who hit line drives and stole bases. He still hit his share of home runs but did not become a middle-of-the-lineup threat until 1990, when he won his first of three MVP awards in the 1990s by recording his first 30-homer, 100-RBI season. Meanwhile, he averaged 34 stolen bases per year in his first 13 seasons. While steroids may have made him bigger, it seems they did not make him faster, as he has not accumulated even 20 steals in a single season since 1998. So steroids must have turned him into a home run hitter, right? Yet even before he allegedly began juicing in 1999, Bonds had already won a home run title with 46 in 1993 and finished among the top four in six other seasons.

I tend to agree with Chris Rock, who said, “At worst [Bonds] pulled a fast one on us.” As Rock pointed out to Bob Costas recently on HBO, “You have to have a rule in place to break a rule.” While most outside San Francisco believe Bonds to be guilty of taking performance-enhancing drugs, baseball did not have steroid testing in place until 2002, and Bonds has never tested positive for steroids (though he did allegedly test positive for amphetamines in 2006.) Even if he did take steroids, Bonds still had to work tremendously hard to get bigger, stronger, and better. He still had to hit home runs against major league pitching.

As bleak as his legacy may seem now, only time will tell how Bonds is ultimately viewed in the annals of history. While Bonds is criticized for not being more like the universally respected Aaron, Aaron himself was knocked for not being like the larger-than-life Babe Ruth. Unlike the folk hero Ruth, who ate and drank prodigiously, chased women, and clashed with teammates and authority figures, the quiet and private Aaron kept to himself and steered clear of the spotlight. Unlike the spectacular Ruth, who blasted moon shots high into the sky and deep into the bleachers, Aaron yanked line-drive lasers barely over the fence. Unlike Ruth, who amassed some of the most incredible single-season performances ever, including the fabled 60-homer mark in 1927, Aaron never hit so many as 50 home runs in one year. Yet years later, Aaron is admired for his enduring humility and consistent excellence.

Perhaps one day Bonds will also be remembered in a positive light. The good news for Bonds right now? There is even worse news breaking in other major sports, like the Tim Donaghy gambling scandal in the NBA and the Michael Vick dog-fighting indictment in the NFL. And baseball does not have a monopoly on performance-enhancing drug scandals: just recently, cycling’s doping epidemic surfaced again at the Tour de France, and professional wrestler Chris Benoit killed his family in a violent rage. In the end, the controversy over steroids may fade, but the home run record will remain… at least until A-Rod breaks it in five or six more years.