- Previously unseen evidence in the Netflix documentary suggests a link between Victor Conte and Barry Bonds, supporting claims of steroid use during his historic 2001 MLB season.
- Bonds' conviction for obstruction of justice in the BALCO scandal was overturned in 2015, despite wide speculation of perjury.
- Despite being associated with the BALCO steroid scandal, Bonds remains an advisor to the CEO of the San Francisco Giants and is still recognized for his numerous MLB records.
The Netflix documentary Untold: Hall of Shame reveals many details surrounding Victor Conte and his BALCO scandal regarding former MLB slugger Barry Bonds. New evidence presented in the 78-minute documentary film suggests a potential link between Conte and Bonds in which Conte administered his anabolic steroid cream to Bonds during his historic MLB season in 2001. Bonds made a new single-season home run record by hitting 73 home runs as a member of the San Francisco Giants. He also became the all-time home run leader in 2007 after hitting his 756th home run, breaking Hank Aaron's longstanding record.
While Bonds has never officially admitted to using anabolic steroids or human growth hormone, his alleged ties to Victor Conte and BALCO have left many investigators and proponents of the MLB believing he is guilty of steroid use. Conte, the self-described mastermind behind BALCO or Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative that administered undetectable steroids to Olympic sprinters Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery, denies any personal link to Bonds in Untold: Hall of Shame but does state that he thinks Bonds' steroid use is "likely." Conte found out about the undetectable steroid from chemist Patrick Arnold and admitted to giving them to Bonds' personal trainer Greg Anderson.
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Barry Bonds Was Convicted Of Obstruction Of Justice In BALCO's Grand Jury Testimony (But Was Overturned In 2015)
In 2003, Bonds testified in front of a grand jury as part of the investigation into Conte's BALCO organization and its alleged use of providing athletes with steroids. According to the New York Times, Bonds was indicted in 2007 "on felony charges of obstruction of justice and perjury" for stating that he had never used, to his knowledge, anabolic steroids or human growth hormone. In 2011, Bonds was convicted of obstruction of justice for providing "an evasive answer" to a grand jury in 2003. The jury subsequently failed to reach a verdict which resulted in a mistrial.
It was not until April 2015 that Bonds' conviction was overturned. The case that took nearly a decade to build did not find Bonds guilty of perjury despite there being much speculation and assumption that Bonds did in fact perjure himself. According to Bleacher Report, the obstruction of justice charge stuck initially because Bonds would not give a clear answer as to whether his trainer Greg Anderson supplied him with a syringe to inject himself with performance-enhancing drugs. Anderson, of course, has well-known ties to BALCO and Victor Conte, however, Conte maintains his innocence in the case of Barry Bonds' steroid use.
Barry Bonds Was Never Officially Punished By The MLB For Steroid Scandal
Because Barry Bonds was never explicitly caught by the MLB for failing a drug test, he has not received a formal punishment for his steroid use, which he denies to this day. With the federal charges being overturned in 2015, there is nothing else that Bonds needs to do to further prove his innocence despite it being widely contended that he used steroids during his historic 2001 season. The noticeable difference in Bonds' physical physique combined with his proximity to Anderson, Conte, and BALCO gives critics of Bonds all the supportive evidence they need to reject his home run records, which still stand to this day.
The San Francisco Giants organization continues to honor Bonds' home run achievement without indication of the steroids scandal. Prominent baseball writers, who are responsible for voting for who gets into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame, have denied Bonds' entry for over a decade. In their eyes, Bonds is grouped as a member of the infamous steroid era of baseball with confirmed users of performance-enhancing drugs such as Mark McGuire and Roger Clemons. Despite some communities of the MLB honoring Bonds' records, public perception has widely considered him a cheater and has pushed him out of the spotlight since his last season in 2007.
Barry Bonds Is An Advisor To San Francisco Giants CEO In 2023
In 2017, Barry Bonds became a Special Advisor to the CEO of the San Francisco Giants Larry Baer, a job he still holds to this day. Bonds is still considered an integral part of the Giants organization to this day. He still holds a number of MLB records outside his home run accomplishments, including the most selections as the National League Player of the Year (13) and the Most Valuable Player Awards (7). Despite his controversy and tarnished legacy, Bonds' accolades still make him one of the greatest Major League Baseball players who ever lived. Bonds does not appear in Netflix's Untold: Hall of Shame.
Source: The New York Times, Bleacher Report
