NEW YORK—Barry Bonds may have played the last game of one of baseball's most extraordinary careers as the home-run king prepares to face federal charges he lied to a grand jury about using performance-enhancing drugs.
"I think everyone's reaction is negative," Lee MacPhail, 90, the oldest living member of the Hall of Fame, told Reuters. "It's probably as bad as anything we have had in years in baseball."
Bonds will plead not guilty to four counts of perjury and one of obstruction of justice announced Thursday stemming from his testimony in a separate investigation of a drug laboratory catering to athletes, his lawyers say.
Yet months of possible legal wrangling, possible action by Major League Baseball and the public relations nightmare he carries with him could well spell the end of the 22-year career of Bonds, arguably one of the greatest hitters of all time.
A free agent after the San Francisco Giants decided to cut ties with the slugger after the 2007 season, sportswriters across the country generally agreed Bonds was unlikely to find a new major league team to play for.
"Barry Bonds has played his last game, worn his last major league uniform, defied the truth for the last time," wrote Gene Wojciechowski of ESPN.com.
Bonds, 43, has been ordered to court on December 7 and will likely be released on bail, legal experts said. ESPN reported that he was hunting in Colorado when the grand jury handed down the indictment.
The indictment accused Bonds of lying about his use of anabolic steroids and other performance-enhancing substances during his testimony before a grand jury investigating the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative.
The criminal investigation into BALCO uncovered evidence that Bonds had tested positive for the drugs, which give athletes enhanced power, endurance and ability to heal.
The combined counts carry a maximum potential sentence of 30 years, but Bonds could end up serving only a few years because he has no prior offenses, legal experts said.
Outfielder Bonds was a star for more than a decade before his home run totals shot up and whispers grew louder that he might be one of baseball's sluggers using steroids. He began his career with Pittsburgh before joining the Giants in 1993.
Mind-Boggling Stats
Major League Baseball did not begin testing for performance enhancing drugs until spring training for the 2003 season.
By then Bonds, who had also won eight Gold Gloves as an outstanding defensive player, had improved from a 34-home run season in 1999 to 49 the next year and a mind-boggling 73 as a 37-year-old in 2001 for the single-season home run record.
Bonds, winner of an unprecedented seven National League MVP Awards, claimed the honor four times in a row from 2001 before missing most of the 2005 season due to knee injuries.
Major League Baseball said on Thursday it was reserving judgment, though the league could follow the lead of the National Football League, which barred Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick from training with his team until federal indictments over dog fighting were resolved.
The Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, said it would continue to display artifacts surrounding Bonds' climb up the all-time home run list, where he passed Babe Ruth's 714, and Hank Aaron's previous mark of 755.
Bonds hit 28 homers last season to stand at 762.
His legal troubles also raise questions about Bonds' possible election to the Hall of Fame.
Hall of Fame spokesman Brad Horn said on Friday the vote by baseball writers "shall be placed on a ball player's record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character and contributions to the teams on which that player played."
Horn said the museum had not yet received the announced donation of the ball hit for the 756th home run by Bonds that pushed him past Aaron into first place on the home run list.
That ball was branded with an asterisk by its owner, Marc Ecko, to signify the record was achieved unfairly.
Horn said the museum would accept the ball and decide the best way to tell the story of Bonds and the home run record.
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