My feelings are kind of running full circle on this...as I said earlier, he didn't need any enhancement to be one of the greats, he was knocking the dogshit out the ball back when he was a skinny kid in the 80's...& Aaron went the same route physically himself, lanky kid to bulked up in his later years, plus he took advantage of Atlanta-Fulton Co. stadium's band-box dimensions & lighter air (1000 ft above sea level, the highest park in the major until Colorado came along) to pump up his numbers -
and, believe or not, children, there were rumors that Bad Henry (as Kolfax called him) may have been using some kind of artificial stimulants to bolster his performance - never proven, but it's always the stink of the shit people throw at you that hangs around.
My thinking is that Bonds' accomplishment is that he's hung on long enough to break the record, which was Aaron's secret to setting his own...and if Bonds had been using steroids long-term, I believe his career would have been shortened considerably (I base this assumption on the shortened careers of other athletes who were known to have or strongly suspected of hitting the 'roids).
Most of baseballs rules that deal with cheating are really more safety issues - spitters & scuffing were allowed in the early days, until they realized a dirty ball was hard to see, & guys were actually killed by beanings by a ball they never saw coming...similarly, corked bats do not hit the ball farther (see last night's episode of MythBusters if you don't believe me), but a corked bat is stucturally comprimised, & almost sure to shatter, sending wood shrapnel at everybody on the infield...similarly, I believe the ban on steroids is more about keeping players from hurting their careers (& likely shortening their lives) in the quest for hitting a few more homers...
Haven't changed my mind about Barry being an
, tho...