If you are hitting the ball on the average just a little harder, what would have been ground balls to the shortstop turn into line drives to left field. I don't know how much harder steroids lets you hit the ball, but the sudden jump in homer totals in the nineties always did look very suspicious to me. Many people thought the ball was being juiced. It turns out that it was the players who were juiced.
Blake Rhodes, the Giants' director of media relations, stuck with Bonds like bees on honey to shield him from any questions. Reporters approached Bonds' locker as he arrived for work, but there would be no interview. Rhodes cut off reporters at the pass when the first question was asked, saying, "Dude, don't even try. I told you earlier: Talk to his lawyer."
Not that Bonds was predisposed to telling his story. During a rare moment when Rhodes was not present, an ESPN reporter went up to Bonds, who responded by shouting, "Blake, they're violating me! I'm being violated! That's harassment!"
Bonds did make a statement of sorts. As he walked toward the showers after Tuesday's workout, past a table at which Willie Mays was sitting, Bonds said presumably about himself, "The most wanted man in America." He then raised his fist, a la Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the 1968 Olympics, and said, "Black power."