Barry Bonds is the DEVIL!!!

*thumbs up*

(An excerpt of Game of Shadows that details Bonds' steroid use appears exclusively in the March 13 issue of Sports Illustrated, which is available on newsstands beginning on Wednesday. The book's publication date is March 27.)

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/baseball/mlb/03/06/news.excerpt/index.html?cnn=yes

i believe a lot of the specifics come from the recently unsealed court documents. there was a link regarding the notation/documentation that i didn't bother to follow.

at least as interesting as the article, to me.

1990-1994 Age 25-29 175 HRs
1995-1999 Age 30-34 186 HRs
2000-2004 Age 36-40 258 HRs

Either Bonds is some freak of nature that somehow peaked later than 99.99% of every baseball player ever to play the game or something helped him out. Either way, the MLB or the Players Association did not care enough about the doping to make it against the rules.

Bonds was good when he was young, so there isn't anything to say he wouldn't be good in his late 30s, but to do what he did, forget about it.

Timeline wise, 1998 seems early to me, I would have thought Bonds got on the program after being beat up in 99 and missing a bunch of games. If it did help, it did not really kick in until 2000.

Yes, we should definitely pass steroid judgements based on subjective suspicions of performance increase instead of, er, evidence that someone used steroids. Nice.

This is why I generally ignore everything other than positive tests and confessions.

Of course I could. (For starters, if he was Pete Rose.) But the irony of the Bonds Pinata Party resuming the same day as the Saint Kirby eulogies was too obvious to ignore.

So far the response to this has actually been semi-sane. Not the usual over-the-top nonsense

We've been seeing different things! First five minutes of the CBS Evening News last night: 1) Dana Reeve's death from lung cancer; 2) Bonds and the book. Ed Murrow would be so FUCKING proud.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=dw-bondsbook030706&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) -- Boos coming his way from all directions, Barry Bonds slowly stepped into the batter's box for his first spring appearance in two years and struck out swinging on six pitches.

No home run form yet for the San Francisco star -- though he did single sharply to right in his third-inning at-bat. After that, he called it a day, leaving the ballpark in the top of the fourth inning.

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Bonds, playing in a Cactus League game against the AL West-winning Los Angeles Angels, drew some cheers Thursday, two days after the release of excerpts from an upcoming book detailing his alleged longtime steroids regimen.

"We love you, Barry!" one man screamed during Bonds' first at-bat against Angels right-hander Hector Carrasco, the slugger's first trip to the plate in an Arizona exhibition game since 2004. His single came off Carrasco.

After missing the entire spring schedule last year while recovering from knee surgery, Bonds decided to play Thursday. He rejoined the Giants in the morning after spending Wednesday at home in California for a child custody hearing.

The seven-time NL MVP originally said this spring he wouldn't play in any road games, but the quick trip to Tempe is one of the shortest on San Francisco's schedule -- and he had the chance to play designated hitter. Bonds often has complained of how tired his legs become standing in left field for an entire game while also spending significant time on the bases after being walked.

Manager Felipe Alou had hoped Bonds would play Thursday, but didn't list him on the original lineup. Alou quickly wrote a new one upon talking to his star cleanup hitter, who replaced Eliezer Alfonzo as DH.

Bonds waved to the clapping fans when he entered the Angels' stadium for the first time, accompanied by teenage son Nikolai. He also greeted autograph seekers as he made his way into Scottsdale Stadium for warm-up drills and batting practice.

He did a couple of twists to stretch by his locker and said little as he walked out of the clubhouse.

"I gotta go," he said. "I gotta keep on schedule."

The 41-year-old Bonds, who is third on the all-time list with 708 homers and only 48 shy of breaking Hank Aaron's career mark, had been out of the exhibition lineup after playing only 14 games last season following three operations on his troublesome right knee.

After taking several rounds of batting practice, Bonds quickly disappeared into the clubhouse.

"I've got a game to get to," he said.

On Tuesday, Sports Illustrated released excerpts from "Game of Shadows," written by two San Francisco Chronicle reporters.

Bonds, who testified before a California federal grand jury investigating steroid use by top athletes, has always denied using performance-enhancing drugs and said his accomplishments are purely a result of hard work and talent.

In their book, authors Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams describe how Bonds started using steroids because he was jealous of the attention paid to Mark McGwire's home run race with Sammy Sosa in 1998.

By Skip Bayless

Barry Bonds remains the biggest, baddest bully in sports history.

He reportedly lies to a grand jury and laughs about it. He taunts Congress. He treats commissioner Bud Selig with no more respect than he seemingly gives the clubhouse lackeys.

And he ignores a new book that spills over with relentlessly damning allegations about his steroid-junkie habit.

Even now, he's probably injecting himself in the stomach with his body-building drug of choice, human growth hormone. And why not? Baseball doesn't test for HGH.

San Francisco seems more interested in Bonds' pursuit to break Babe Ruth's home-run record.
Laugh, Barry, laugh.

Puke, world, puke.

This is the most maddening question I've faced in my career: How does Barry Bonds keep getting away with it?

How can the United States attorney's office in San Francisco not pursue a perjury indictment against Bonds for his testimony to the BALCO grand jury? Are there simply too many Bonds fans and Giants season-ticket holders in that office? Are they more concerned with being at SBC Park the nights he passes Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron on the all-time home-run list?

Does Bonds keep getting away with it because he's still the biggest individual draw in sports? You might hate him, but you can't take your eyes off him. He'll still pack parks from San Francisco to New York because people want to see just how much farther and harder this chemistry experiment of a robo-slugger can hit a baseball now. The steroid revelations make him an even bigger freak-show gate attraction.

Taunt, Barry, taunt.

And I was so sure in late 2003 that the feds were hell-bent to do something I couldn't -- nail Bonds.

I love watching Bonds hit as much as anyone. But it seemed obvious that he was cheating when he skyrocketed from 49 homers in 2000 to a record 73 in 2001. He also skyrocketed from about 200 pounds to what appeared to be a muscled-up 250.

So in May 2002, I wrote a Bay Area column quoting body-building experts who said it's virtually impossible after age 35 -- when the male's testosterone supply naturally drops -- to pack on that much muscle that quickly without using the artificial testosterone that steroids provide.

You would have thought I had spray-painted profanity on the Golden Gate Bridge.

I took an e-mail beating from many Bonds lovers -- and there are many outside the media. Did I have proof? No, I did not witness Bonds injecting himself with juice -- nor could I find a single source within the organization who knew for a fact that Bonds used steroids. Many insiders had suspicions, but no firsthand proof.

And you couldn't blame Giants ownership or management for looking the other way. The owners tote the entire note on their ballpark, and Bonds has been the reason the Giants have had baseball's biggest season-ticket base. So ownership was going to expose and suspend its lone draw?

Please.

Soon, I experienced firsthand some of Bonds' infamous intimidation. He walked up behind me in the Giants' clubhouse and vice-gripped my arm. When I turned, he gave me the kind of five-second stare he gives a pitcher who has dared to brush him back.

The message, I assumed, was, "Don't you ever write about me and steroids again."

I just stared back, and without a word, Bonds walked away.

Let's take a look at a before and after photo.
After federal agents raided the BALCO office in September 2003, I began hearing about Jeff Novitzky, an agent for the IRS Criminal Investigation unit. At a gym near BALCO, Novitzky had observed Bonds lifting weights under the guidance of trainer Greg Anderson. And Novitzky -- according to several media sources -- was on a mission to expose Bonds.

In fact, word was that the Bush administration wanted to put a face on its stamp-out-steroids campaign -- Bonds' oversized head.

Eventually, Anderson and BALCO founder Victor Conte were convicted. But despite a wall of evidence even Bonds couldn't hit a ball over, he somehow got away clean after three hours with the grand jury.

The media's proof now comes in a book, "Game of Shadows," written by San Francisco Chronicle reporters Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada. These aren't a couple of Johnny-come-latelies trying to make a quick buck. These are two highly respected investigative reporters who have demonstrated in print for three years that their information on this story is accurate and credible.

I believe every last word of the lengthy excerpt in this week's Sports Illustrated. I admire and envy the job they've done. As the BALCO smoke cleared, they had the time and the skill to return to all the sources they quoted periodically in the Chronicle and build a devilishly detailed case against Bonds.

When Bonds' grand-jury testimony originally was leaked to the Chronicle, his excuse at least seemed plausible. He testified that Anderson, his buddy from high school, had told him to rub some cream onto his arm that he thought was flaxseed oil. It turned out to be a newly invented steroid.

Even I had second thoughts. Maybe Bonds was duped into using these mysterious steroids that don't require injections.

But the Williams and Fainaru-Wada reports could blow that defense all to hell. They write that Bonds left his grand-jury session "confident that he had asserted control over the government's inquiry, just as he had controlled his baseball team and, for that matter, most of the people in his life. His reputation had been preserved and his well-guarded secret had not been revealed."

Until now.

The authors go into astonishing detail about how Bonds turned himself into a human pin cushion, injecting just about every steroid known to man and beast. Yes, they even report that he tried a steroid used to beef up cattle. They also report that while Bonds found injecting human growth hormone was the most painful -- into a pinch of stomach skin -- HGH was so potent that it allowed him to keep his physique and strength through the season with minimal weight-lifting.

Bonds makes Jose Canseco look like he was on no more than fruit juice.

So why in the name of Henry Aaron wasn't Bonds called before the congressional hearing on steroids that obviously was prompted by Canseco's bombshell book? Reportedly, because Bonds was still involved in the BALCO investigation -- though his day in court had been about 16 months before last March's hearing.

Of course, Mark McGwire and Rafael Palmeiro and Sammy Sosa were forced to lie or deny that day on national television. All three wound up tainting their legacies. Bonds was the elephant that was not in the room.

Yes, "Game of Shadows" reports that Bonds resorted to steroids because he was convinced McGwire was juicing when he (and Sosa) broke Roger Maris' single-season record in 1998. But should that make Bonds any less guilty or more brazen?

Incredibly, when the Giants played in Washington last season, Bonds ridiculed Congress. He said Congress has more important problems to address than steroids -- even though the point of the hearing was that steroid abuse has become an epidemic among teenagers.

How do congressional leaders let Bonds get away with this? Were they content to have box seats when Bonds was in town?

And why hasn't the IRS investigated Bonds for tax evasion? His lawyer continues to paint ex-mistress Kimberly Bell as nothing but a scorned lover. Yet she comes across as an extremely credible witness, and she has hours of secretly taped phone calls from Bonds. She alleges he gave her about $80,000 in unreported cash for the down payment on a house -- all made from signing baseballs.

Selig's lieutenants have been dropping hints to national baseball writers that the commissioner is livid over the book. Selig met with Bonds two years ago to ask if he had anything to hide, and when Bonds shrugged him off, Selig reportedly warned that Bonds had better be telling the truth.

But what's Selig going to do now, suspend Bonds? He hasn't failed a single test. The players' union would have Selig for lunch.

No, Selig will do nothing but huff and puff and hope the book fades away.

It appears that government agents and officials finally gave up and decided they could get Bonds only in the court of public opinion. So they emptied their notebooks for the Chronicle reporters, who paint a chilling picture of a steroid junkie and an O.J.-like bully who threatened Bell's life.

But so what? Most people already considered Bonds a bad guy.

So he'll continue to laugh at us and pack parks and hit home runs. And in the end, maybe, he'll get his last laugh from only one source -- the body he has abused.