Originally posted by GwynnInTheHall
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Here is what I believe - Bonds was using "The Cream" and the "Clear" in the early part of the decade. Since these were not steroids, but a new type of PED, he may not have not believed he was taking steroids or something illegal. I said "may", because all of the testimony showed that there was no evidence to show that he knew he was taking steroids or HGH - that was the whole point of the Federal prosecution. These drugs developed by Balco were too new to even be classified.
I also believe that he probably stopped taking these PEDs once Balco was shut down and the investigations and drug testing started closing on on him. If he didn't stop, he has an awful lot of guts. Yet he still slugged .812 in 2004, and had an OPS of around 1.000 every year until 2007. So saying that his performance was significantly due to the PEDs isn't quite right - he was probably the best player in the Majors from 1992-1998 and even after 2004, he was still one of the top hitters, even after the age of 40.
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