Home run king Barry Bonds was indicted this week on felony charges that could send him to prison for at least a decade. Bonds is charged with lying under oath to a federal grand jury back in 2003. Bonds has always claimed that he never knowingly used performance-enhancing steroids, but government investigators now say they can prove that Mr. Bonds used steroids, based on a positive blood test seized during an investigation of a California laboratory that sells them. Bond’s lawyer calls the charges “ridiculous”. The case may drag on in the courts for years. In the meantime, many baseball fans will consider Bonds’ home run record to have an asterisk after it.
The dangers of steroid abuse by athletes are discussed in Human Biology 5th ed., pp. 134-135.
