what fans think of Barry Bonds.

Jason Dearen, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS--
Fri Nov 16, 9:10 PM ET



SAN FRANCISCO - At his corner stand a few blocks from the Giants' waterfront ballpark, shoe shiner Monroe Greene, who counts a few major leaguers as clients, didn't mince words when expressing what he thinks of players who use steroids.

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"I want to see them indict them all: McGwire, Sosa, all of them. Bonds is just the guy they love to hate," said Greene, surrounded by shiny leather boots and shoes on the sidewalk.

Bonds, the former Giants slugger and newly crowned home run king, was charged Thursday with four counts of perjury and one of obstruction of justice following a four-year federal investigation into steroids.

Although his hometown may have been the one place where Bonds retained some support, Monroe and others milling about the ballpark Friday did not feel the slugger should escape punishment if he lied to the grand jury.

"I think if he lied then he has to pay the consequences," said Janie Butler, 44, who was standing on a plaque honouring Bonds' season home run record.

A Giants fan, Butler said she could tell Bonds was using steroids by the way his body bulked up and said it bothered her because she often took her 13-year-old son to games.

"The only good thing about this is it lets kids know that you have to do things the right way. How you approach things, it means something," she said.

Although few are ready to pardon Bonds for allegedly lying to a federal grand jury about using performance-enhancing drugs, Greene and others questioned the government's timing and the apparent focus on the slugger as enemy No. 1.

"Why didn't they do this three years ago?" asked 29-year-old David Schaeffer, who was plopped on a barstool across the street from the park.

"The timing looks bad. I mean, Bonds was looking for a contract for next year, and now he's obviously not going to play next year," he said.

Bonds is certainly not the only player to have been associated with performance-enhancing drugs, but his status as the home run king makes him the poster boy.

"I still enjoy the game. But any of the records that were broken during this time period don't look the same as Hank Aaron or Babe Ruth," said Ed McConnell, 34, who lives across the street from the ballpark.

Now a federal court likely will determine Bonds' future off the field. If his career is over, the next argument will be whether he should be in the Hall of Fame.

Even fans embittered by the steroids era believe Bonds should be enshrined.

"It's a tough question. But he was a Hall of Famer before he started using steroids, and a lot of players cheated, not just Bonds," Schaeffer said.