Will Bonds Bow Out?

This spring, baseball is showcasing one the world’s biggest sporting spectacles, a drama that will impact the game for years to come. Think we’re talking about Bud Selig’s baby, the World Baseball Classic? Hah. Let Pujols, Pudge and A-Rod play for national pride. Now, that doesn’t really matter because Barry is back.

We’re talking, of course, about Barry Bonds. And if you cringed when you saw him donning a blonde wig for an insipid American Idol spoof, wait until you read about him gulping 20 pills at one time. That’s just one of the explosive new revelations contained in “Game of Shadows,” the book by San Francisco Chronicle reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams excerpted in this week’s issue of Sports Illustrated, which provides the most detailed, damning account to date of Bonds’ steroid use. We already knew he took designer steroids “the Cream” and “the Clear”—America, say hello to Clomid, a women’s infertility drug that Bonds allegedly ingested, which helps steroid users recover testosterone production. According to the book, Bonds was so reliant on performance-enhancing drugs that when personal trainer Greg Anderson told him that he did not need another cycle of steroids, Bonds responded, “F--- off, I’ll do it myself.”

When the stakes got higher, Bonds ramped up his drug use, the authors say. Bonds started using steroids after the 1998 season, when Mark McGwire, another suspected user, hit 70 home runs, breaking Rogers Maris’ record and mesmerizing the nation. Bonds allegedly dismissed McGwire’s accomplishments— “They’re just letting him do it because he’s a white boy,” he allegedly told his mistress, Kimberly Bell. But he didn’t dismiss McGwire’s hulking physique, and soon connected with Anderson, known for his access to steroids. The authors say that the San Francisco Giants knew of Anderson’s background, but unwilling to disrupt their star player, allowed Anderson access to Bonds and their clubhouse. The authors also write that in 2002, the year Bonds led the Giants to the World Series and won his fifth MVP award, frequent three-week steroid binges, in which he injected growth hormone every other day, took the Cream and the Clear on the other days, and finished the cycle with Clomid, sparked his performance.

Didn’t we already know Bonds took steroids? Sure. More than a year ago he admitted taking the Cream and the Clear to a grand jury in the federal case against BALCO, the shady Bay Area drug supplier. But he denied knowing they were performance-enhancing drugs. That claim was hard enough to believe then—now, it’s laughable. Fainaru-Wada and Williams, who covered the BALCO case for two years and broke the news of Bonds’ original grand jury testimony, look like they’ve built a fairly airtight case, as they’ve based their account on interviews with more than 200 people, memos detailing witness interviews with federal agents, audio tapes, BALCO search warrant affidavits, and other documented evidence. The authors also show that Bonds is a boor, as he allegedly threatened to kill his mistress Bell. It’s disarming, but sadly, again not all that surprising.

After the news broke, talking heads drowned the airwaves with calls for Bonds to step aside. But minus a failed drug test, the final smoking gun that will never emerge, or shot knees, don’t count on it. “I won’t even look at [the book],” he told a group of reporters gathered around his spring training locker in Scottsdale, Arizona. “For what? I won’t even look at it.” Bonds then walked away, treating the press, and the public, with the same flippancy he’s displayed since the first steroid allegation emerged. But he won’t walk away from the game, Hank Aaron’s 755 career home runs in reach (Bonds has 708 entering this season). After all, if there’s anything we’ve learned over the last two years, it’s that Barry Bonds just smirks at what we’ll never truly know. So we’ll still have to watch Bonds’ chase, a tough spectacle for many fans to stomach.