Barry Bonds, home-run king, is indicted

Barry Bonds, baseball's No. 1 home run hitter as well as its No. 1 dilemma, was indicted today on charges that he lied to a federal grand jury investigating athletes' use of performance-enhancing drugs supplied by the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO).

The long-anticipated indictment, unsealed in San Francisco, likely will trigger an earthquake in major-league baseball, where speculation about steroid use among its elite stars has hovered like a dark cloud.

"While everyone in America is considered innocent until proven guilty," commissioner Bud Selig, who has empowered former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell to head a steroid probe, said in a statement, "I take this indictment very seriously and will follow its progress closely. It's important that the facts regarding steroid use in baseball be known."

Even the White House felt compelled to comment on the news that the 43-year-old superstar had been indicted on one count of obstruction of justice and four counts of perjury.

"The president is very disappointed to hear this," Bush administration spokesman Tony Fratto said. "As this case is now in the criminal justice system, we will refrain from any further specific comments about it. But clearly this is a sad day for baseball."

The indictment came after a four-year probe into alleged steroid distribution and money-laundering by Balco, the Burlingame, Calif., firm founded by Victor Conte.

Among other revelations, the indictment noted that Bonds had testified positive for steroids. He has never been identified by Major League Baseball as having done so.

"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," the indictment read.

Bonds is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in San Francisco on Dec. 7. Bonds faces as much as five years in prison and a $250,000 fine on the perjury charges, and 10 years and a $250,000 fine on the obstruction charge, according to the indictment.

Shortly after the indictment was released, Bonds' personal trainer, Greg Anderson, was ordered released after spending most of the last year in prison for refusing to testify against his longtime friend.

For baseball, the development involving one of its all-time greats raises questions as momentous as the statistics compiled by Bonds, who won an unprecedented seven National League MVP awards and who on Aug. 7, in a surreal atmosphere redolent with controversy and conflict, passed Hank Aaron's record total of 755 home runs.

If, as the indictment alleges, Bonds did use the substances:

Will the sport have to parse the astounding career numbers he accumulated with the Pittsburgh Pirates and Giants?

Should an asterisk be placed alongside his records?

Should he be banned from baseball and the Hall of Fame like Pete Rose, the hitting machine exiled after a sordid gambling scandal?

And if his records are somehow diminished, how can anyone ever know how many of the pitchers Bonds faced were also using the illegal drugs?

Onetime commissioner Fay Vincent had termed the prospect of Bonds' indictment "a terrific blow to the game," one he predicted would be more damaging than the Rose scandal.

Rose was "one guy betting on baseball," Vincent told the San Francisco Chronicle last year. But the Bonds scandal goes "right at the heart and the gut of baseball."

Don Fehr, executive director of the players' union, said he was saddened by news of the indictment. Any suspension of Bonds likely would be challenged by the union.

The crux of the charges against Bonds was the testimony Bonds gave the grand jury on Dec. 4, 2003. He said then that he had not knowingly used any performance-enhancing substances, even though prosecutors produced evidence that appeared to indicate otherwise.

He also said he had not used any drugs during or before the 2001 season, when he established a single-season home run record of 73.

Prosecutors contend Anderson supplied him with drugs from Balco, including two steroid-related creams.

Other athletes, including Olympic star Marion Jones, have pleaded guilty in connection with the case. Jones recently returned the five medals she had won in the 2000 Games.

Bonds, according to testimony revealed in the indictment, said he thought the cream was flaxseed oil and denied that Anderson ever had injected him with steroids.

"Greg wouldn't do that," Bonds testified. "He knows I'm against that stuff."

The ballplayer was not available for comment, but one of his attorneys expressed surprise at the news.

"There's been an effort to get Barry for a long time," said John Burris. "I'm curious what evidence they have now they didn't have before."

His chief attorney, Mike Rains, vowed to fight what he termed "unsupported charges."

Bonds, who finished the 2007 season with 762 career home runs, earned $17 million from the Giants last season. The Giants already have said they will not re-sign him for 2008. He said he hoped to play again this season, but there has been little interest. There almost certainly will be less now.

"This is a very a sad day," the Giants said in a statement. "For many years Barry Bonds was an important member of our team and is one of the most talented baseball players of his era. These are serious charges. Now that the judicial process has begun, we look forward to this matter being resolved in a court of law."

At his grand-jury appearance, federal prosecutors confronted Bonds, whose physical dimensions ballooned in the last decade, with a doping calendar and other documents indicating he had used the undetectable steroids known as "the cream" and "the clear," along with human growth hormone and other drugs.

Anderson's attorney, Mark Geragos, said the trainer didn't cooperate with the grand jury that indicted Bonds.

"This indictment came out of left field," he said. "Frankly, I'm aghast. It looks like the government misled me and Greg as well, saying this case couldn't go forward without him."

Bonds was the highest-profile figure caught up in the government investigation, launched in 2002, with a raid on Balco.

Bonds has long been shadowed by allegations that he used performance-enhancing drugs. The son of former big-league star Bobby Bonds, when his career began with the Pirates in 1986, he was a lithe, base-stealing outfielder.

By the late 1990s, he'd bulked up to more than 240 pounds - his head, in particular, becoming noticeably bigger. That physical growth was accompanied by a remarkable power surge.

Conte, Balco's founder, told the New York Times that he was "very surprised" at the indictment. Conte has admitted providing Anderson with steroids.

"Based on my understanding of what they have, it doesn't make a lot of sense to me," he said.

In citing the false testimony, the indictment referred to several exchanges between Bonds and a federal prosecutor, including these two:

"Question: I know the answer. Let me ask you this again. I know we kind of got the into this. Let me be real clear about this. Did [Anderson] ever give a steroid?

"Bonds: I don't think Greg would do anything like that to me and jeopardize our friendship. I just don't think he would do that.

"Question: Well, when you say you don't think he would do that, to your knowledge, I mean, did you ever take any steroids he gave you?

"Bonds: Not that I know of."

"Question: In January 2001 were you taking either the flaxseed oil or the cream?

"Bonds: No.

"Question: And were you taking any other steroids?

"Bonds: No."