Opinions vary on steroids allegations, By: Elias Arnold and Doug Haller

 
Mar. 24, 2006, The Arizona Republic

Valley baseball fans disagree about whether a book released Thursday can get to the truth behind the BALCO scandal and San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds' alleged performance-enhancing drug use.

Some die-hard Giants fans say the book is an effort to discredit Bonds, while other baseball enthusiasts say steroids are a significant problem that needs to be fixed.

Game of Shadows details allegations that Bonds and other professional baseball players used drugs - human growth hormone and steroids - to boost their performance.

Bonds has declined to comment on the allegations.

The book's release likely will focus greater attention on the last week of Cactus League games as Bonds and Major League Baseball gear up for the season.

Mike Indra, 29, said the book, which charges Bonds' attorney met with Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative representatives several times in an effort to keep his name out of the scandal, will have little effect on his opinion of Bonds or baseball.

"I just feel that (everybody) is mainly singling him out, probably just because he's trying to break the home run record," Indra, of San Jose, said Thursday at a Giants game against the Milwaukee Brewers at Maryvale Baseball Park. "I don't think I'm interested in supporting something like (the book)."

Stew Jetson, an Oakland A's intern reading the book, was more receptive at Barnes & Noble in Scottsdale.

"They say it's supposed to get Barry Bonds kicked out of the league and I want to see if it's true," said Jetson, an Arizona State University student living in Tempe.

Martin Morales, a Peoria resident attending the Maryvale game, said Major League Baseball was to blame for the steroids problem.

"If you're driving down a freeway, and there are no speed-limit signs, you're going to drive as fast as you want," Morales, 40, said. "It's the same thing. When did baseball start testing? Just a few years ago? I think that's a little too late."

Kevin Simonson, of Napa, Calif., was nonchalant at the game about Bonds approaching the home run record amid the allegations.

"That's not the type of book I usually read," Simonson, 37, said. "Most people don't care. Personally, I think Bonds is overrated anyway."

Bonds has 708 career home runs, just six fewer than Babe Ruth. Hank Aaron tops the career list with 755.

According to the Associated Press:


• The book, written by two San Francisco Chronicle reporters, connects Bonds' trainer with performance-enhancing drug use in other players as well.


• The book alleges Jason Giambi sought out Bonds' trainer to find out how he kept Bonds playing at a high level, and that the trainer supplied Gary Sheffield with performance-enhancing drugs like human growth hormone and injectable testosterone.


• Bonds reportedly told a grand jury investigating BALCO in 2003 that he never knowingly used steroids, claiming his trainer had given him what he thought was flaxseed oil and arthritis balm.