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 By Patrick Hurley Mar. 9, 2006 A new book soon to be released later this month accuses San Francisco Giants slugger, Barry Bonds of massive steroid use in his quest to become baseball's all-time home run king. It seems that in 1998, during the summer when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were dueling it out in their effort to break Roger Maris's record of 61 home runs in a single season, Bonds was not cheering them on. He was seething. With jealousy. The following year, at spring training, Bonds showed up with an additional thirty pounds of muscle. The best kind money can buy. He says it was his rigorous training regimen and lots of hard work. His drug suppliers now say it was something else. Between 1998 and 2001, it is now being alleged that Barry the Envious bulked up on Winstrol, Deca-Durbolin, insulin, human growth hormone, testosterone decanoate and trenbolonr. He made Elvis Presley look like a piker.Whatever his body ingested, it worked. Within three years, Bonds went on to shatter the home run record that McGwire set by belting 73 home runs in 2001. Or as Barry would say, "Hey Mark and Sammy, anything you can do, I can do BETTER!" He was right about that. But, it was terribly wrong for baseball and its reputation. Even more significantly, it was a terrible example for young ballplayers in high school and college. It sent a clear message to them: If you want to succeed in the major leagues....CHEAT! Thanks to these three clowns and more like them, we have to now hope for a major reversal of drug-induced young athletes who want to make a career in baseball so badly they have now put their own health at risk. Baseball is now more appropriately named, "The Unnatural Pastime." Believe it. Growing up I loved the Milwaukee Braves. Warren Spahn, Lew Burdette, Eddie Mathews, Del Crandall and Hank Aaron. It was Aaron, who set the all-time home run record that Bonds is chasing and he did it all with natural talent and ability. His 755 home runs is a tribute to his strong wrists that snapped a fast ball so quickly it only made a brief pit stop from the pitcher's hand to home plate before taking off deep into the left field stands. No one had wrists like Aaron. Put him in a bull ring and he could grab the horns off any animal and break its neck within seconds with those wrists. Babe Ruth, who is second on the all-time home run list with 714, was also a phenomenal athlete. He would see a ball coming from sixty feet six inches away and before you could say, "Sultan of Swat!" it was clearing a fence somewhere. He put stuff in his body, but it wasn't steroids. There is a story about him that a bartender made him a large pitcher of vodka and two dozen ice cubes and Ruth simply downed it in several gulps! He would eat a dozen hot dogs at a sitting and then go out and hit a few out of the ballpark. He was a legend, as was Aaron, and Ted Williams, Willie Mays, Ty Cobb and Mickey Mantle. And now, we have Barry Bonds. Baseball is not the innocent virgin here. After the owner-player strike of 1993 which wiped out the World Series and turned off millions of fans, the sport needed a shot in the arm. (please excuse the pun) So, they looked the other way as their big sluggers were given tacit permission to become BIGGER sluggers. Baseball slowly got back on its feet as the balls started flying out of the stadiums. Fans love lots of scoring, not 1-0 pitcher's duels. Baseball made sure they got what they wanted and the fans came back to the sport in record numbers. Players that never hit more than 20 home runs were now hitting 30, 40 and even 50 in a season! And, in 1998, when the current homer record was 61 set by Roger Maris in 1961, Sosa hit 66 and McGwire hit 70. It was as shameful as it was stunning. Baseball knew it had sold its soul to the devil and someday that payment would be due in full. But, for now, it was doing all it could to make enough money to pay the big name players and keep the owners happy. Bud Selig, the Pimp Commissioner, did nothing about it then and is probably going to do very little about it now as far as the Bonds situation is concerned. He says, "I am going to look into this book's allegations and make my decision after that." That is tantamount to Paula Abdul being put in charge of ethics on, "American Idol." What are the chances she will find any evidence to support the possibility that one of the judges slept with the contestants?" Barry Bonds is within 6 home runs of tying Babe Ruth and 56 home runs of passing Henry Aaron. I hope he does something noble for once in his ego-dominated life that has turned so many of us off to him.... For the sake of baseball and its need for statistical records that define the game's greatness, I hope he retires before he defames two great legends of the game. The odds of that happening are right up there with Bill Clinton keeping his pants zipped and Jesse Jackson keeping his mouth shut, but as a huge baseball fan I can still dream. To Barry Bonds I say, "Your greatest contribution to baseball and the fans you say you love would be for you to step down and let us all remember you as someone who cared more about the integrity of the game and not about your tainted records." Because I can assure him that even though he may win the home run battle this year or next, he will lose his legacy of respect for the rest of the ages. He has the chance to become a true champion off the field to preserve what he wants us to remember for what he did on it. For his sake, I hope he does not let himself or us, down. ------------ About the author: Pat Hurley has won three Emmy awards for writing, hosting and producing television shows. He resides in Southern California. 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