“It’s too late for an asterisk,” said Gwen Knapp in the San Francisco Chronicle. “It’s never too late for the truth.” Barry Bonds this summer laid claim to the most prestigious record in all of sports, passing Hank Aaron’s career mark of 755 home runs. But with most fans convinced that Bonds’ feat was aided by steroids, a cloud hung over not only Bonds’ record but all of baseball. Soon, though, the rumors and suspicions will give way to actual evidence and testimony. Last week, a federal grand jury investigating a California steroid distribution center known as Balco indicted Bonds, 43, for perjury and obstruction of justice. Bonds, the indictment charges, lied when he testified that he did not realize his trainer was giving him steroids and designer human-growth hormones.
This case marks the beginning of the end of “Steroidgate,” said John Feinstein in The Washington Post. For too long, “baseball has been in denial” about the scourge of steroids, rewarding cheaters and encouraging, if tacitly, use of the dangerous substance among high school and college athletes who look to the pros as role models. “The cop-out always was ‘There’s no proof.’” Well, the Bonds case puts that proof on the table. Not that anyone should be shocked, said Gene Wojciechowski in ESPN.com. Bonds weighed 185 pounds in the early 1990s. By the time he slammed a record-breaking 73 home runs in the 2001 season—previously never
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