Say it Ain’t So: Baseball Star Bonds Indicted in Steroid Scandal

By Anastacia Mott Austin

Aw, say it ain’t so, Barry.

The day some have feared (and some have waited for) for over four years has finally arrived, with the indictment of former San Francisco Giants superstar Barry Bonds in the BALCO steroid scandal.

Earlier this year Giants fans watched, mesmerized, as Bonds broke Hank Aaron’s record for the most career home runs, at the ripe old age of 43, no less.

During testimony given in 2003 in the case against the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative, commonly known as BALCO, Bonds denied ever knowingly ingesting or injecting illegal anabolic steroids. He also claimed that his personal trainer, Greg Anderson, never gave him illegal steroids either.

He said at the time that he had taken two substances known as "the cream" and "the clear," and that he was unaware of whether or not they were steroids. According to the feds, the substances qualify as performance-enhancing steroids.

Now he’s being charged with lying. The indictment reads, in part, "During the criminal investigation, evidence was obtained including positive tests for the presence of anabolic steroids and other performance enhancing substances for Bonds and other athletes."

Anderson, for his part, has spent much of the past year in jail or on house arrest for refusing to testify at the grand jury hearing concerning Bonds’ involvement with steroids.

Owner and founder of BALCO, Victor Conte, served three months in prison after pleading guilty to distributing steroids. In addition, BALCO vice president James Valente and Patrick Arnold, the chemist who created THG, both pleaded guilty to various charges related to the case. Valente received probation, and Arnold served four months in jail.

The trail of corruption didn’t end there. The defense attorney for two BALCO defendants, Troy Ellerman pleaded guilty to leaking confidential transcripts from the grand jury hearing to the San Francisco Chronicle, and then denying it.

Apparently the indictment came as news to Bonds’ attorney, John Burris. "I’m surprised, said Burris, to Associated Press reporters. "But there's been an effort to get Barry for a long time. I'm curious what evidence they have now they didn't have before."

Burris told the reporters that he would be telling Bonds of the news immediately.

Bonds won the National League’s Most Valuable Player seven times, and led the Giants to the World Series in 2002.

Former baseball commissioner Fay Vincent told reporters that the news of the indictment was "a terrific blow to the game."

Fan reaction has been mixed. Some die-hard fans still insist that Bonds is innocent, though the majority of bloggers responding to the news have no sympathy for him: "These high-profile athletes need to understand that they are not above the law. Lie and cheat and you will go down," posted one blogger.

Time will tell. Even Shoeless Joe Jackson insisted to the very end that he wasn’t involved in the Black Sox scandal of 1920, telling reporters that the story of the dismayed kid who asked him, "Say it ain’t so, Joe," was entirely made up.

Maybe, like Jackson, Bonds will continue to insist that he is innocent to the very end, despite a mountain of evidence to the contrary.