Started “juicing” after lousy throw in 1992 NLCS: "That [throw] was a wake-up call; I owe all my success to that tortoise Sid Bream."SAN FRANCISCO – In a rare and candid interview today, San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds admitted for the first time that he has used steroids for years, in fact much earlier than previously thought.
“Those two reporters [Lance Williams and Marc Fainaru-Wada] wrote that I started using because I was jealous of Mark McGuire getting all the attention in 1998 for his home run record," Bonds said. "Man, that wasn’t it. I started using steroids after the National League Championship series against the Braves in 1992.” Pirates’ fans remember that series all too well. In Game 7, the Pirates held a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the ninth. With the bases loaded, Atlanta’s Francisco Cabrera hit a single to left, and Bonds’ high, arching throw failed to reach home plate before Sid Bream, who had been on second. At the time, Sid Bream was widely regarded as the slowest man in professional baseball -- perhaps any sport, professional or amateur --and his winning run drove a stake through the heart of Pittsburghers everywhere. For Bonds, it was a wake-up call. “I figured out that if I can’t throw out a gimpy white guy, I wouldn’t last much longer in the big leagues. That’s when I started using ‘supplements.’”
Post-Gazette columnist, statistical guru and longtime Pirates’ fan Brian O’Neill fumed that he is outraged. “I’m outraged,” he fumed. “If [Bonds] was going to destroy the integrity of the game anyway, why couldn’t he have done it at the start of the 1992 season instead of the end?"
Bonds is unfazed by the criticism. “I’m not here to talk about the past. I’m looking to the future. If – make that 'when' – I break Hank Aaron’s home run record this season, Sid Bream will be in my VIP box right next to my wife, trainer, and ex-mistress. I owe that guy a lot.”
