SCOTTSDALE, Arizona, 25 February 2005 — Barry Bonds offered no apologies as he reported for his first day of the San Francisco Giants’ training camp, saying he doesn’t understand the fans and press’ interest in steroids.
“What did I do?,” Bonds asked. “I am just sorry we’re going through all this stuff, all this fictional stuff ... some of it may be fact, who knows? “But to write it over and over again, what’s your reason? What are you going to say about it when you’re wrong.”
It wasn’t what the surly Bonds said as he arrived to begin training for a new American baseball season but rather what he didn’t say.
He dodged the steroid issue and leveled his guns at former Major League Baseball All-Star Jose Canseco who accused Bonds of using performance-enhancing drugs in a new book, which describes a rampant culture of steroid use in the sport.
The 40-year-old Bonds said Canseco broke the baseball fraternity code of respect.
“(There) is a code in baseball, that you should respect your peers,” Bonds said. “I don’t know Canseco besides hello and goodbye. I don’t put any weight into what he says.
“I was better than Jose then and I’ve been better than him in my whole career. For somebody who brags about what he did, I don’t see enough (Canseco’s) records.”
Asked point-blank whether he used performance-enhancing drugs, Bonds said, “I am not a child. You repeat those (questions) to children and eventually they tell you. I don’t.”
The seven-time National League MVP, Bonds refused to discuss the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO) case which is at the heart of a US sports steroid scandal.
