Baseball: Steroid claims blight classic

Major League Baseball will conduct a thorough review of the latest steroid allegations swirling around Barry Bonds, said commissioner Bud Selig.

An explosive book about Bonds that details extensive steroid use by the San Francisco Giants slugger has sent new tremors through a sport that is already under intense scrutiny over its drug testing policies.

The timing of the latest controversy could not have been worse for MLB, taking the spotlight away from the inaugural World Baseball Classic and focusing it on the sport's seedy underbelly.

A grim-faced Selig made no attempt to hide the disappointment and pain the latest allegations have caused, saying he would personally review all material.

Selig said he had no immediate plans to meet Bonds but did not rule out the possibility of face-to-face talks with the seven-times National League Most Valuable Player.

In the book Game of Shadows, written by two reporters for the San Francisco Chronicle and due to be published later this month, Bonds is portrayed as a chronic and sophisticated user of performance-enhancing drugs by taking steroids via injections, pills, creams and liquid starting in 1998.

His most productive seasons followed while he was in his mid-to-late 30s, most notably in 2001 when he hit a single-season record 73 home runs.

"Today, if I had a choice, I would go and have a root canal job," said Selig. "I will review all the material that is relative in every way. Obviously we've only seen part of things but we will review everything there is to look at."

Bonds' lawyer has said in the past that the slugger never knowingly used steroids, although Bonds could have unwittingly taken such substances contained in creams.

With Bonds closing in on one of baseball's most treasured records, the all-time home run mark, Selig and MLB are facing a public relations nightmare.

As the evidence against Bonds mounts, Selig is coming under increasing pressure to validate the slugger's performance or remove him from record books.

After missing most of last season with knee injuries, Bonds sits third on the all-time list with 708 home runs behind Babe Ruth (714) and Hank Aaron (755).

"I'm sensitive about all that because after all you're playing with people's lives and their reputations and you ought to be careful," said Selig.

"All of us ought to be careful and the commissioner is certainly going to be careful."

- REUTERS