I still don't think you can take any action against any of the guys with nothing more than leaked grand jury testimony printed in a newspaper. That will not hold up in court. It is hearsay gotten via illegal conduct (it is illegal to divulge grand jury testimony.

More importantly, I don't think you can take action until we know definitively the actual effects that steroids has on baseball ability. An understated tragedy in this whole mess is that this will forever obscure Bonds' truly great accomplishments, juiced or not. The guy walked 200 something times last season. I may be naive, but I refuse to believe, until proven otherwise, that everything Bonds has done the past four seasons are due to steroid use. The guy was too good before, and his game is too dynamic, for it to be boiled down to steroid use.

Leaked grand jury testimony is not hearsay if what is leaked is an accurate refection of that testimony. Grand jury testimony is leaked by the government all the time to gain public support for the prosecutor’s actions. The Bill Clinton / Monica Lewinsky scandal was a classic example of leaking for political gain.

I do not believe for one second that Bonds did not know what he was taking. The effects of steroids on athletes in general are obvious, that’s why they are banned across the board. Only in baseball to we have these ridiculous rationalizations about how using them doesn’t boost performance. The numbers speak for themselves. Bonds went from a guy who hit 40-50 homeruns his entire career to almost doubling that output in his late thirties. That is just unnatural. While ‘roids won’t transform you or me into a world class athlete, they will turn average into good, good into great, and in Bond’s case, great into legendary.

The league must take action. What separates Bonds from the rest of the many who have used steroids is that he broke the most coveted record – and gladly took credit for doing so. Much like Pete Rose, he is trying to carve out some space between the truth and his fan’s expectations. He is, so far, failing. Baseball needs to give him a two year timeout from playing. As mentioned, that would kill any hope of him breaking the all time HR record but he still would be eligible for the Hall of Fame - as there were presumably many years when he didn’t juice but still put up great numbers. That would be his just punishment for trying to cheat the game of baseball. The league cannot give him a free pass this time.

Les, how do you get that leaked testimony into court?

Sorry Les, but the only real evidence you have is he was on something in 03. You have no evidence he was on anything in any other year. Your asking to ruin a mans life on conjecture. I dont think you would want people doing that to you, destroying your life on a guessing game. This is Baseballs fault by the way.

Giambi admitted to using roids over several years so that case needs to be addressed seperately, though again it was not against baseball policy so I would find it disturbing if they took action.

If baseball had had policies about this, we would not have this problem, players would have been tested, there would be black and white evidence and that would be that. I would strongly support sever punishment for those that did. But we dont, and no many people want to go back and try to rework history. So you ban Bonds, and what about all the other players that are but did not testify? Do we go through and guess who was and who was not? So why Bonds then specifically, cause he might get a record? But then this is about the record book and not about Bonds. But then we need to look more closely at the Ruths record considering he did not play against the negro players of his time.

This whole thing is a mess, but unfortunately its a little to late to fix the past. What needs to happen and needs to happen today is baseball needs to institute a real policy now, with real punishment, so that this does not continue to plague this sport for more years to come.

And I find it interesting that Bonds testimony sounded exactly like Sheffields statements to ESPN. Yet everyone has basically forgotton that. I took them but I did not know what they were. This whole thing is about Bonds, its a vendetta against a man with a bad personality. Pathetic.

It's not just that Anderson profited from Bonds being successful. Anderson profited from the perception that Bonds was doing something fishy to be so successful, such that other players wanted his secret.

>> The numbers speak for themselves. Bonds went from a guy who hit 40-50 homeruns his entire career to almost doubling that output in his late thirties.

Well this is factually incorrect. If you look at his HR totals, he's been consistently between 33 and 49 HR's every year since 1992, except for his outlier year of 2001. He was 40 or higher four times before, and three times after.

'"One, I'm black, and I'm keeping my money. And there's not too many rich black people in this world. There's more wealthy Asian people and Caucasian and white. And I ain't giving my money up."'

What a classy individual.

Boot these guys and strip the records. Juicing the ball all but ruined baseball, juicing the players is unacceptable

The fact that Barry Bonds hit 33 to 49 homerus every year after 1992 doesnt take any speculation away from Bonds being on steroids. Barry bonds hit 40 hrs 4 times prior to 2001. 3 of 4 times he had over 517 at bats, and the one time he didnt he had 480 (2000).
Bonds recorded 476 AB in 2001, he also dropped 73 bombs (not to mention he was 18 pounds heavier than the previous year). Bonds has hit 45 hrs everyyear since bulking up and his at bats from 2002-2004 havent exceeded 403 and in 2004 he recorded 373.
From 1986-2000 Bonds career high in slugging % was .688, since then; 2001-.863, 2002-.799, 2003-.749, 2004-.812.
With 100+ at bats in 2002-2004 Bonds would have been around 60 hrs each year.

Mr. Arrogance never hit 50 homeruns in his career then suddenly in his mid to late 30's gains 20 lbs of muscle and hits 73. The clear and the cream is so much horse manure. Hey guys lets have ten cocktails, get on the road and be pulled over and tell the judge: hey, I didn't know want I was drinking. The baseball press, the fans, the whole world has been so overly indulgent on this out and out, puffed up steroid monger that is sickens any conception of the level playing field. Clean up the sport now; even in the Olympics the druggies were stripped of their medals. Bonds should be banned from baseball; Pete comes up smelling like a Rose compared to this out and out Bonds sell off of the game.

all i hear is barry knew he was taking steroids. come on. they say he took them in 2003, that was his worst year out of the last 5. and barry was always winning mvp's. he should have 9(he should of beat jeff kent. look up the stats) steroids does not make the hitter, ask alex sanchez. Barry said he used them for a little while. but stopped. no one believes him though. but sheffield is okay. the government is out to get barry. grand jury testimonys are not supposse to get out. 99.9 percent of the time they are not leaked. but in barry's case they were....come on

all i hear is barry knew what he was doing. sheffield is okay, but barry is a cheater. barry was winning home runs in the early 90's. he should have 9(he should of beat kent. look up the stats)you say he only hit 49 and then all of a sudden, he hits 73. i do believe barry had kent in the lineup that year. he never had support like that. and also, steriods don't make the player. ask alex sanchez. they say he took them in 2003, 2003 was his worst year out of the last 5. that is a little weird. and barry tells the truth, and nobody believes him. and grand jury testimonys are not supposed to be leaked. 99.9 percent of the time they are not, but in this case they were. can you say conspiracy..the playboy interview proves it was more hate than anything.. come on people he is the greatest, and always will be.. you should be watching him so you can tell your grandkids about him. instead you are just like everyone else. ron kittle fits in with all of you

sorry for the 2 comments being posted i thought it messed up the first one

and i meant barry was winning mvp's, i said home runs, i meant barry should have 9 mvp's