Fan says his target was steroids, not Bonds, By: Gwen Knapp

April 23, 2006, San Francisco Chronicle

Mark Greggersen wants to set the record straight. He did not throw a tube of sports balm into left field in Arizona last week to protest a childhood snubbing from Barry Bonds.

Yes, he said by cell phone Saturday, Bonds did reject his request for an autograph years ago, in his early days as a Giant, as several media outlets have reported, and the 23-year-old Greggersen said he had disliked Bonds ever since.

"But I don't want this to become a personal attack on Barry,'' he said. "He's become the face of steroids in baseball, and that's what it was geared to.''

Greggersen was arrested after he tossed a tube of Icy-Hot, which was decorated with a sticker that said: "To Barry Bonds. The Cream. From Victor Conte.'' He said he didn't want to hurt Bonds physically.

He was charged with a misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct, and he said he wasn't sure what his punishment might be. But he knew going into the park that he might be arrested. He traveled to the game with his sister and gave her the car keys when they got there, so she could drive herself home if he ended up in police custody.

A fan in San Diego, where the Giants played their first road game of the season, threw a syringe near Bonds as he walked along the third-base line, but the perpetrator was never caught. Bonds picked up the syringe and tossed it into a photographers' area.

Greggersen said that his concerns about steroids outweighed any enmity toward Bonds, and that the issue has also made him disillusioned with the ballplayer he admired most in his youth, Mark McGwire. When McGwire refused to answer questions during the congressional hearings on doping in baseball last spring, Greggersen said, "I don't want to say it broke my heart, but it crushed all these dreams I had of this bigger-than-life player.''