Free Republic

Poll: Bonds' HR quest gets scant support Mon May 7, 2:17 PM ET WASHINGTON - Only about four in 10 baseball fans are rooting for Barry Bonds to break the career home run record and most think he knowingly took steroids, according to a poll showing stark racial divisions in how the San Francisco Giants' slugger is viewed. Still, most fans think Bonds should end up in the Hall of Fame. He has 10 homers this season and 744 lifetime — 11 shy of Hank Aaron's record, one of the most revered in sports. In the poll by ABC News...

SAN FRANCISCO - The federal investigation of Barry Bonds approaches a key juncture Thursday, with the grand jury probing the baseball star for perjury and tax evasion set to expire and a possible indictment of Bonds looming.

(AP) PHILADELPHIA -- Barry Bonds is heading home, one behind the Babe. Bonds hit his 713th homer Sunday night, moving within one of tying Babe Ruth for second place on baseball's career list. The San Francisco Giants' slugger hit a mammoth shot in the sixth inning off Philadelphia right-hander Jon Lieber, sending a 2-1 pitch off the facade of the right-field upper deck during a 9-5 loss to the Phillies. "They tell me that's the way the Babe used to hit them," Giants manager Felipe Alou said. Bonds' fifth homer of the season was estimated at 450 feet, one of...

Dear Barry, You've just resumed your chase on history, going after a record some thought would never be touched, and I'm with you every step of the way. I know you have taken a lot of heat over the years, and with all the recent news about a new book whose goal is to bring you down, it seems like that disdain isn't about to go away. And I don't know why. While many people seem to take joy in expressing the amount of distaste they feel for you, I come as a friend, a light in the dark who...

Seven home runs shy of passing Babe Ruth, this should be a time of unbridled joy and excitement for Barry Bonds. Not so, he says. ''My life is in shambles. It is crazy,'' Bonds said Monday in an interview with The Associated Press. ''It couldn't get any crazier. I'm just trying to stay sane.'' Then, clearly joking, he went for shock value: ''Go to the Empire State Building and jump off, commit suicide and people can say, 'Barry Bonds is finally dead.' Except for in San Francisco,'' he said. ''I'll leave something for them.'' Despite those pronouncements, the 41-year-old Bonds...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Attorneys for Barry Bonds asked a federal judge Friday to hold in contempt of court the authors and publisher of a book that claims the San Francisco Giants slugger used steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs. Bonds' attorneys sent a letter Friday to U.S. District Judge Susan Illston demanding that the writers, publisher Gotham Books, the San Francisco Chronicle and Sports Illustrated, which published excerpts of the book "Game of Shadows," be held liable for possessing and publishing "illegally obtained grand jury transcripts." "The true victim is not Barry Bonds, but the sanctity and integrity of the...

SAN FRANCISCO -- Barry Bonds' lawyer says he'll ask a judge to order that the authors of a new book detailing the Giants' slugger's alleged use of steroids turn over any profits they make. Notice of the lawsuit came today in a letter from attorney Michael Rains' office to the agent for authors Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams. They are reporters for The Chronicle and authors of the book "Game of Shadows." The book, published today, concerns the Bay Area laboratory known as BALCO and the athletes, including Bonds, who allegedly were illicitly supplied with performance-enhancing drugs. According to the...

The joylessness of Barry Bonds is immutable now. His return in pursuit of Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron is made of radioactive stuff. His undertaking is hard to embrace. It smacks of wrong. The fun is absent amid the clearing of throats. Bonds now lives in his imaginary bunker to ward off the slings and arrows of the BALCO scandal. He is the victim, of course. He is both the victim of BALCO and an unsympathetic national press that sees his exploits through the lens of race. His is an understandable gambit. What else does he have to play? More...