Baseball fans are opening their newspapars this morning to this article reporting that star San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds, the best baseball player of his generation, might not play this upcoming season because of a minor knee injury and the effect that media scrutiny of Bonds’ steroid use has had on his family. However, as Paul Harvey would say, “here’s the rest of the story.”
Turns out that Bonds’ former mistress — Kimberly Bell — is apparently singing like a canary to the same federal grand jury in San Francisco that has been investigating the alleged illegal distribution of steroids that resulted in the indictment of certain individuals affiliated with BALCO (previous posts here and here). This San Francisco Chronicle article reports that Ms. Bell has not only testified that Bonds admitted to her that he used steroids, but that he gave her $80,000 from autographing baseballs in increments of just under $10,000 to avoid currency transaction reporting requirements. Federal prosecutors do not look kindly upon such activities.
As noted in this earlier post, Bonds allegedly claimed in his grand jury testimony several months ago that that he did not understand that some of the supplements that his BALCO trainer was giving him were steroids. Inasmuch as Ms. Bell’s alleged testimony reflects that prosecutors may be preparing to charge Bonds with perjury, currency reporting violations, and possible tax evasion, Bonds’ lack of desire to play this season may have more to do with preparing a criminal defense than anything else.