Book: Bonds used steroids for at least five seasons

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Barry Bonds' pursuit of the home run record might have been juiced after all.

According to an upcoming book written by two San Francisco Chronicle reporters, Bonds used a vast array of performance-enhancing drugs -- steroids, human growth hormone, insulin -- for at least five seasons beginning in 1998.

An excerpt from Game of Shadows, which lays out extensive details of the slugger's alleged doping program, appears in the March 13 issue of Sports Illustrated.

"I won't even look at it. For what? There's no need to," Bonds said Tuesday at Scottsdale Stadium.

Bonds returned to California on Wednesday for a custody hearing that had been scheduled for a month, but was expected back in camp later in the day. The Giants said he would not comment further.

SI will roll out this Bonds cover dated March 13, 2006. (AP)

The 41-year-old Bonds, who testified before a California federal grand jury investigating steroid use by top athletes, has repeatedly denied using performance-enhancing drugs.

"I've read what was reported," Bonds' agent, Jeff Borris, told the Associated Press. "Barry is looking forward to playing this year and the improved health of his knee, and being as productive as he's ever been."

Authors Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, who led the newspaper's coverage of the BALCO scandal, recount in remarkable detail the specifics of Bonds' drug regimen, which they write started in 1998 with injections of Winstrol, a powerful steroid also linked to Rafael Palmeiro.

The book describes how Bonds started using steroids because he was jealous of the attention paid to Mark McGwire's home run race with Sammy Sosa in 1998, and felt he needed to bulk up significantly to compete with the St. Louis Cardinals' slugger.

According to the book, Bonds was using two undetectable designer steroids, informally known as the cream and the clear, plus insulin, human growth hormone and other performance enhancers by 2001, when he hit 73 home runs for the Giants to break McGwire's single-season record of 70 set in 1998.

"It wasn't illegal," Orioles manager Sam Perlozzo said in Florida. "The thing we all worry about is the fact that people discount the fact that you put some numbers up. When you put things like that in jeopardy and in doubt, it's not good for the game. ... You wonder about the stats. But we don't know how many did it. Maybe everyone did."

Baseball did not ban performance-enhancing drugs until after the 2002 season, though there has long been suspicion that players took steroids to gain an edge.