Add Bonds' latest drug-related troubles to growing list

This story just in: Mark Sweeney not only gave Barry Bonds amphetamines, but supplied him with flaxseed oil, shampoo that had passed its expiration date and a rust-colored top that Bonds initially thought was stylish until he wore it once and everybody made fun of him.

Sweeney is a journeyman pinch-hitter who was in his first season with the San Francisco Giants last year.

As tired as Barry Bonds keeps saying he is, it's no surprise he may have looked for a little help from his friends. (AP)

Bonds is -- or was -- a world-class athlete who has spent the better part of the past decade sculpting his body in the gym (he says) and taking such great care to eat a proper diet that he stole a personal chef away from Gary Sheffield (Sheff -- not chef -- says).

And now he's grabbing pills from the lockers of teammates and he's not even sure what he's taking? Riiiight.

Big story? Well, it ain't steroids and it ain't the Feds indicting Bonds for perjury. That still could come to a big screen near you later this summer.

What it is, quite simply, is another addition to the long list of Bonds' crimes against humanity. As baseball ushered in steroid testing, it also, for the first time, began testing players for amphetamines last summer. Only the agreement on the latter is this: If a player is busted for amphetamines, he essentially gets a free pass the first time, and the penalties begin on the second positive test (a 25-game suspension, then a 50-game suspension for a third failed test).

At this point, where BALCO Barry is concerned, it would be no surprise if tire rubber, raw bear and pieces of a TiVo remote are detected in his urine. Amphetamines? Hey, with no significant penalty for a first offense, why wouldn't Bonds go down that road?

Especially when he's 43 and is borderline narcoleptic. He's the most tired ballplayer I've ever seen.

And I don't mean "tired" as in "he and his story have gotten so old I'm sick and tired of it."

I mean, all the guy ever does when he's not in the game is talk about how tired he is.

"I'm just exhausted all the time," Bonds said in Houston last May as he was primed to pass Babe Ruth on the all-time home run list. "I'm tired. I'm always tired. It's never been like this before. I sleep all the time, all day."

Sounded like a man in dire need of caffeine ... or Red Bull ... or, hmmm.

So do I believe Bonds would be stupid enough to ingest amphetamines when the pack of steroid wolves is howling at his ankles?