He’s a Long Way From Being in the Clear

With the subject of Barry Bonds and steroids dominating conversation in this city Friday, Shelly Seymour had one thought.

“Say it ain’t so, Barry.”

The 44-year-old family law attorney, spending the afternoon shopping for Christmas presents, had heard about the San Francisco Giant slugger’s testimony before a grand jury last year.

According to a report in the San Francisco Chronicle, Bonds testified to using a clear substance and a cream given to him by his trainer, Greg Anderson. Those substances broadly match the description of two steroids -- “the clear” and “the cream” -- at the heart of the federal BALCO steroids case.

Bonds reportedly said he thought the substances were flaxseed oil and an arthritis balm.

On Friday, his attorney Michael Rains decried the leak of the sealed grand jury transcripts, calling it an attempt to smear Bonds in the court of public opinion.

It is familiar territory for one of the most powerful hitters in the history of baseball, a player who has faced increasing scrutiny as his body has grown more thickly muscular and his home-run production has soared.

This latest development only intensified speculation.

Among major league baseball players who commented on the situation, Angel outfielder Tim Salmon worried about fans looking at records that have been broken recently and saying: “Yeah, we can see why.”

One of Bonds’ teammates, pitcher Brett Tomko, told the league’s Internet site that “if you’re doing something wrong, you should be exposed because it’s not fair.”

But there were also words of caution. In a telephone interview from New York, Marvin Miller, former head of the baseball players’ union, pointed out that there was still no concrete evidence Bonds used steroids.

“I’m a little cynical about all this,” he said of the uproar. “There’s just so much that is not known.”

Nowhere was the talk and conjecture more prevalent than in the city where Bonds lives and plays, and where he grew up when his father, Bobby, was with the Giants.

Staunch fans expressed a stubborn sense of denial if not anger that the testimony had been leaked.

“They shouldn’t be talking about him like that,” said Dennis Franklin, 43, a San Francisco native. “I think it’s a political thing.”

Working a corner shoeshine stand near the cable-car turnaround on Market Street, Franklin said many of his customers were talking about Bonds and “they didn’t believe it either.”

Others were less sure that their beloved left fielder was innocent.

On a Yahoo chat group for Giant fans, a woman named Julie wrote: “I don’t want to believe that someone with the background of Barry Bonds would stoop to this level but I have this weird feeling in my stomach and it isn’t a good one.”

Outside SBC Park, Greg Starnes lingered near a statue of Willie Mays, who is Bonds’ godfather. The 45-year-old information technology planner was worried about how the news might affect steroid use among teenagers.

“That’s the part that disturbs me,” he said, “when you read that high school students are doing it to get ahead -- because they feel they have to.”

At Lefty O’Doul’s, a bar dedicated to Giant lore, Art Sarkisian drank a gin martini and talked about the need for baseball to take decisive action.

“If they let [Bonds] off with a hand slap it’ll just be more damaging,” the 64-year-old retired engineer said.

Other patrons had concerns that struck closer to home. Brien Sawyer, a 45-year-old paper hanger, said he was training his 4-year-old daughter to be a NASCAR fan, figuring there would be less chance of tainted heroes.

And Seymour, taking a break from shopping, worried about what she will tell her 13-year-old daughter, a softball and Bonds fan.

“I heard his testimony,” she said, referring to Bonds’ claim that he did not knowingly take steroids.

“I’d like to believe it,” she said. “But I don’t think it’s true.”

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Romney reported from San Francisco, Wharton from Los Angeles. Times staff writer Ben Bolch contributed to this story.