The big news concerning the ESPN book, "Love Me, Hate Me: Barry Bonds and the Making of an Antihero" by Jeff Pearlman concerns, of course, steroids. In an excerpt published in the upcoming issue and also on ESPN.com, Pearlman details a dinner conversation in amazingly Bob Woodward-esque detail between Barry and Ken Griffey Jr. at a dinner party in 1998 in which Barry says, basically, that he's going to join the juicers, not beat them. Here's the supposed quote:

"You know what...I had a helluva season last year, and nobody gave a crap. Nobody. As much as I've complained about McGwire and Canseco and all of the bull with steroids, I'm tired of fighting it. I turn 35 this year. I've got three or four good seasons left, and I wanna get paid.",

Which if true (both Griffey and Bonds denied having the conversation) makes us actually sympathetic to Barry here. Could you blame him, really? We like to think our star athletes are some sort of mythical figure, straight out of some sort of chivalrous tale from the Middle Ages, but at this point, we should know better.

Also in the excerpts are stories from little known utility guy on the 1999 Giants team, Jay Canizaro (as in who?) who also gives evidence that Barry was juicing. He also mentioned that a lot of players on the '99 team were juicing and said that the Giants had a problem with it back then. Unlike every other team in baseball at the time.

Screencap from Saturday Night Live