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Slugger Barry Bonds and the San Francisco Giants agreed on a one-year contract yesterday, after a nearly two-month delay that suggested team ambivalence towards the controversial player.
Bonds, 42, the holder of a record seven Major League Baseball MVP awards, is just 22 home runs shy of Hank Aaron's career record of 755.
The Balco doping scandal has badly tarnished his reputation after his personal trainer, Greg Anderson, was jailed on steroid distribution charges. Bonds faces a continuing federal probe into whether he lied to a grand jury about his links to steroids.
News reports in December said the team had agreed to a US$15.8 million ($23 million) deal, but then an expected announcement was long delayed.
News that Bonds had failed a test for amphetamines last season has cast further doubt on the future of a player who has long denied using performance-enhancing drugs.
- REUTERS
