He is a sports writer's dream come true. Superb on the field, he has spent the past few years rewriting some of the most hallowed records in that most tradition-minded of sports, baseball. Flinty and flawed off the field, he has kept tabloid press and Pulitzer-winning papers busy chronicling his arrogance and personal relations.

And now in the twilight of his career, allegations of doping may forever taint the legacy of Barry Bonds.

Starting as a true five-tool player, Bonds wowed fans and journalists alike with his highlight-reel catches, sizzling speed on the bases and prowess at the plate. Today, the first two elements have all but disappeared from his baseball profile, while the last has grown to mythic – some charge questionable – proportions and have put the focus almost exclusively on what Bonds does when he's not on at the plate.

CBC Sports Online takes a look at the recent allegations against the player some say is the greatest ever, detailed in Game of Shadows, a book released this month by two San Francisco Chronicle reporters.

1. What are the allegations against Barry Bonds?
2. What kind of drugs did Bonds allegedly take?
3. Where did Bonds get the drugs he allegedly used?
4. Has Bonds ever tested positive for steroids?
5. If the drugs were undetectable, how did authorities find out about them?
6. What is baseball's doping policy?
7. So why didn't baseball take action against drug cheats earlier?
8. So what happens now?
9. What is Bonds's legacy?

Barry Bonds works out at the Giants practice facility. (CP File Photo)

A cloud of suspicion has hovered over the Giants slugger ever since the 2000 season, when a bulked-up Bonds began hitting more homers with increased power.

Bonds smacked 37 home runs in 1998, his fourth-highest total up until that time. In 2000, he hit a career-high 49 homers and the next year rewrote the history books, clobbering 73 to break Mark McGwire's single-season record. He followed that up with three consecutive 45-home run seasons.

Prompted by his change in appearance (a bloated face, thinning hair and muscles aplenty), there were murmurs inside and outside baseball that Bonds was using steroids. Bonds attributed his changed physique and increased hitting power to an intense off-season weight-training regime.

But a recently published book alleges Bonds used a host of performance-enhancing drugs before Major League Baseball introduced mandatory drug testing in 2004.

The authors of the book Game of Shadows conducted a two-year investigation which included audio tapes and interviews with more than 200 sources, as well as court documents, affidavits filed by investigators into the BALCO scandal, confidential memoranda of federal agents (including statements made to them by athletes and trainers) and grand jury testimony.

Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, reporters for the San Francisco Chronicle, claim Bonds was spurred on to seek out steroids after the 1998 season in which McGwire and Sammy Sosa engaged in their home-run record chase.

The book asserts Bonds grew jealous of the attention paid to McGwire (which Bonds felt was partially motivated by race) and enlisted the help of Anderson to supervise strength conditioning prior to the 1999 season.

The authors also cite the grand jury testimony of Kimberly Bell, Bonds's mistress. In addition to telling the grand jury that Bonds confessed to her in 2000 about his steroid use, Bell also described the numerous changes in Bonds's physical appearance and behaviour that are consistent with steroid use, including acne, hair loss, and a larger-than-normal head.

Another new book, Love Me, Hate Me: Barry Bonds and the Making of an Antihero by Jeff Pearlman, also outlines Bonds's jealousy over McGwire as the impetus for taking steroids.

Recounting a dinner at Ken Griffey Jr.'s house following the 1998 season, Pearlman quotes an agitated Bonds as saying, "As much as I've complained about McGwire and (Jose) 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.

"I'm just gonna start using some hard-core stuff, and hopefully it won't hurt my body. Then I'll get out of the game and be done with it.''

Griffey has recently denied that conversation ever happened.

What kind of drugs did Bonds allegedly take?

Fainaru-Wada and Williams allege Bonds used a cornucopia of performance-enhancing drugs before 2003, including insulin, human growth hormone, testosterone decanoate (a fast-acting steroid known as Mexican beans), trenbolone (a steroid created to improve the muscle quality of cattle), Clomid (a women's infertility drug thought to help a steroid user recover his natural testosterone production), and Modafinil (a narcolepsy drug used as a powerful stimulant).

He also allegedly used designer THG-base steroids that were undetectable by drug tests.

ESPN claims Bonds, in 1997, took androstenedione – the same drug a keen-eyed reporter spotted in McGwire's locker during his historic 1998 season.

Furthermore, Game of Shadows claims Bonds took the drugs in a variety of ways: injection, pill form or liquid drops.

He's also said to have eschewed the breaks from the cycles of steroid use. The time off from the drugs help the body naturally produce testosterone.

Where did Bonds get the drugs he allegedly used?

BALCO founder Victor Conte. (CP File Photo)

Aside from Bonds himself, Victor Conte and Greg Anderson are the two key figures at the centre this steroid maelstrom.

Conte – the scientist found guilty of selling illegal performance-enhancing drugs through his San Francisco-based company BALCO – made the designer steroids Bonds allegedly used.

Anderson, the slugger's long-time personal trainer, introduced Bonds to Conte.

Together Conte and Anderson built Bonds into the most fearsome home run hitter ever.

According to Fainaru-Wada and Williams, Anderson was already injecting Bonds with powerful steroids and human growth hormone when Conte arrived on the scene prior to the start 2000 season.

Bonds told the bodybuilding magazine Muscle and Fitness the two men put him on a comprehensive training and individualized diet regime that included consuming Conte's signature nutritional supplement ZMA.

In their book, Fainaru-Wada and Williams claim Conte gave steroids to high-profile athletes in exchange for ZMA endorsements.

The authors also argue it was Conte's expertise with performance-enhancing drugs that pushed Bonds to the next level.

"Anderson knew steroids, but his knowledge was from the inject-and-grow school," wrote Fainaru-Wada and Williams.

"Conte's drug cocktails were designed not only to be undetectable but also to address an athlete's specific needs."

The book cites U.S. law enforcement officials who says Conte claims Bonds used his two THG-based drugs – dubbed The Clear and The Cream – "on a regular basis."

In 2004, Bonds testified during a grand jury investigation into BALCO that Anderson incorporated flaxseed oil and a pain-relieving balm into his regime.

Bonds said he didn't know those substances may have contained steroids.

Has Bonds ever tested positive for steroids?

There is no smoking gun. Bonds has never tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs.

In an interview with USA Today earlier this year, MLB commissioner Bud Selig confirmed there is "no empirical data that [Bonds] did anything wrong."

That said, baseball didn't test for steroids until 2003.

Bonds did undergo a random drug test in September 2004. Afterward, he said he was "glad" the test was done and it would prove he was clean.

"The fact that someone should write in the newspaper is, 'I've never failed a drug test,'" demanded Bonds in the fall of 2005.

That said, a Fainaru-Wada and Williams story in the San Francisco Chronicle suggested Bonds passed tests because Conte's drugs couldn't be picked up.

"The whole thing is, everything that I've been doing at this point, it's all undetectable," Anderson said in a secret recording obtained by the newspaper.

"See the stuff I have, we created it, and you can't buy it anywhere else, can't get it anywhere else, but you can take it the day of [the test], pee, and it comes up perfect."

If the drugs were undetectable, how did authorities find out about them?

The case against Bonds erupted in 2003 after the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) received a tip from an anonymous track and field coach, who claimed several star athletes were using a designer steroid that couldn't be detected by tests.

The unnamed source – later revealed to be Trevor Graham, the coach of Olympic sprint champion Justin Gatlin – provided a syringe with a sample of the steroid, which would come to be known as THG.

Graham alleged the drug came from BALCO.

On Sept. 3, law enforcement officials raided BALCO's San Francisco area lab and confronted Conte and his partner James Valente.

Conte co-operated with government officials, giving what Fainaru-Wada and Williams called, a "remarkable account of the steroid conspiracy he had directed."

Conte also surrendered boxes of "The Clear" and "The Cream" – variants of THG – and implicated 27 athletes – including Bonds. Detailed files on all Conte's athletes were also turned over, according to Fainaru-Wada and Williams.

Conte was contacted in prison by Reuters just before the release of Game of Shadows. In a letter to the wire service, Conte condemned Fainaru-Wada and Williams's book saying it "contains outright lies."

"Much of the information prepared by federal agents regarding what I said on the day of the BALCO raid was completely fabricated," Conte wrote.

Conte also recently issued a statement to USA Today denying he gave Bonds steroids directly, but he did admit giving drugs to Anderson.

Valente told officials Anderson was BALCO's contact with baseball players.

According to Fainaru-Wada and Williams, Anderson admitted giving baseball players drugs, including "The Clear" and "The Cream," but wouldn't say he gave steroids to Bonds.

Anderson, Conte and Valente all pleaded guilty to distributing steroids last year. Conte was sentenced to four months in jail. He's due to be released at end of March 2006. Afterward he'll begin four months of house arrest.

What is baseball's doping policy?

Major League Baseball's stance on drug use has changed over the years from turning a blind eye to casting a suspicious glance, thanks in large part to political prodding.

Prior to the 2003 season, players were not subjected to drug testing and risked pretty much nothing for taking steroids. A clause in the collective bargaining agreement forced MLB to adopt mandatory drug testing of all players starting with the 2004 campaign.

However, the punishments doled out under the new testing were seen as too lenient by many critics, and in the aftermath of the BACLO scandal, America's pastime came under attack.

Politicians like U.S Senator John McCain joined with anti-doping officials to call on baseball to institute tougher drug testing. U.S. President George W. Bush asked MLB to take "strong steps" to eradicate the use of steroids and performance-enhancing substances in baseball.

The possibility of legislative intervention from Congress was enough to force Selig to unveil a new drug policy in January 2005.

Last season, players were subject to one mandatory test and random testing during the course of the season, as well as out-of-season testing. Players also faced a one-year ban after a fourth positive test.

Despite the tougher penalties, baseball was put directly under the microscope when a U.S. congressional hearing conducted a formal investigative hearing into the game's new drug-testing policy.

Current and retired baseball players were subpoenaed to come to Washington to testify, an infamous event punctuated by Rafael Palmeiro's over-the-top denial of steroid use, later shown to be a lie. But Bonds was not there.

Many legal experts believe Bonds was not called because his testimony could undermine a potential perjury case against him – Bonds did not receive immunity for his testimony before the grand jury in 2003, leaving him open to a potential perjury case if he lied under oath.

Following the hearings, and with the U.S. senate now threatening legislative action, MLB players and owners revised the drug-testing program in November 2005, coming to terms on a set of tougher penalties for steroids, as well as amphetamine use.

Starting this upcoming season, all players will be tested during spring training physicals and at least once during the regular season. There is also the possibility of random tests. Players now risk a lifetime ban for a third positive test.

So why didn't baseball take action against drug cheats earlier?

Mark McGwire captured the attention of sports fans with his historic chase of Roger Maris in 1998. (CP Photo)

Most critics argue the seeds of baseball's current drug scandal were sown in 1994.

That summer, the game's owners waged a bitter labour war against the players, resulting in a 232-day strike that led to the cancellation of the World Series.

Baseball returned in spring of 1995, but many disillusioned fans didn't. Revenue, attendance and TV numbers dropped. The game was never able to recover in some markets, such as Montreal.

Team owners looked to the past for a cure, and found it: the home run.

In 1919, baseball was almost destroyed by the Black Sox match-fixing scandal. Fans were horrified by revelations that eight members of the Chicago White Sox conspired with gamblers to throw the World Series.

To win fans back, a livelier "juiced" ball was introduced. The move ended, what baseball historians call, the "Dead-ball Era" and launched the legend of Babe Ruth.

Ruth's bravado and big bat brought fans back to the game in droves. Due in no small part to his popularity, the New York Yankees were able to build a new, bigger ballpark in the Bronx. Yankee Stadium would become known as the "House that Ruth Built."

Owners reasoned if homers saved the game at the beginning of the century, they could do the same at the end of the century.

"Every concession was made to power," wrote Thomas Boswell in a column for the Washington Post.

One of those "concessions," according to Boswell, was turning a blind eye to the use of performance-enhancing drugs by its players.

And it appears the move worked. Many experts credit a home-run spike and the Mark McGwire-Sammy Sosa chase of Roger Maris's single-season homer crown in 1998 with resurrecting the game.

And today the league is flourishing. Major League Baseball generated a record $4.8 billion in revenue last year, according to USA Today.

In that light, Boswell argues Bonds's alleged drug use should be viewed as merely a symptom of baseball's bigger problem: greed.

"When sports fundamentally warp themselves out of greed, we never know until later where the long-term damage will manifest itself," he wrote.

"… [Y]our sins don't 'find you out' in the forms of your own choosing. Your misdeeds come back in warped and intractable ways."

So what happens now?

That's the $64,000 question.

With the steroid controversy the talk of the sports world thanks to the publication of Game of Shadows, Bud Selig announced plans for formal investigation into drug use in baseball.

Selig hired- former Senate majority leader George Mitchell to conduct the probe. Mitchell has been given complete control of the investigation, which won't focus only on Bonds but other players as well.

"The unique circumstances surrounding BALCO and the evidence revealed in a recently published book have convinced me that Major League Baseball must undertake this investigation," Selig said.

Selig isn't the first commissioner to hire an independent investigator: Bart Giamatti hired lawyer John Dowd to probe Pete Rose's gambling activities in the 1980s. The Dowd Report detailed Rose's betting on baseball games, and led to Rose's lifetime ban in August 1989.

So what will Selig do?

Many pundits are encouraging the commissioner to invoke the "best-interests-of-baseball" clause written into baseball's Major League Constitution to suspend Bonds, thus bypassing the guidelines for suspension outlined in MLB's drug-testing policy.

But unilaterally suspending Bonds, who has passed every drug test since 2003, isn't that easy: short of direct evidence that Bonds took performance-enhancing drugs, a suspension would lead to a standoff with Donald Fehr and the players' association.

Veteran player agent Alan Hendricks told USA Today that if Selig tried to suspend Bonds, "the (players) union would squash him.

"It may be all right to make Bonds uncomfortable, but it's not right to suspend him."

It's also important to keep in mind that baseball first implemented its drug-testing policy in 2003. Before then, it was not illegal for players to take steroids.

Legal experts believe Bonds would have strong grounds for a lawsuit if Selig tries to suspend him for taking steroids during a period in MLB's history when it wasn't even illegal to do so.

What is Bonds's legacy?

Barry Bonds is the only member of the 500 homer-500 stolen base club. But will he make it to the Hall of Fame?

Some believe Bonds's name should be uttered in the same breath with baseball deities like Ruth, Hank Aaron and Willy Mays.

Others argue Bonds should be made a pariah, banished from the game like Rose and Joe Jackson.

If Bonds retires after the 2006 season he'll be eligible for baseball's Hall of Fame in 2011. Based just on his gaudy numbers he's an automatic first-ballot inductee.

But critics maintain Bonds's legacy shouldn't solely be based on statistics. They argue a player's character should also be considered when determining Hall-worthiness.

While on the field his numbers may be unmatched, it's in this arena where Bonds may come up short.

"If the allegations in Game of Shadows are accurate," wrote Michael O'Keeffe of the New York Daily News, "Bonds' integrity, sportsmanship and character are well below the Mendoza line, and the only way Bonds should get into Cooperstown is if he buys a ticket."

Bonds has never been accused of being a nice guy. His clashes with teammates, trainers and media have been well chronicled.

Over the years, he's been described as arrogant, self-absorbed and bitter and now he's being called a drug-cheat and a liar.

Bonds's stiffest critics charge he knowingly took steroids and committed perjury when he told the grand jury he didn't. They also argue all of Bonds's records should come with an asterisk, if they're not erased outright.

"As someone who has been counting ballots for 13 years, I can say our people don't like drug users, Jack O'Connell," secretary-treasurer of the Baseball Writers' Association of America – the group that decides who gets into the Hall – told the San Francisco Chronicle.

Bonds's defenders point out there's no iron-clad proof of steroid use and even if Fainaru-Wada and Williams's allegations are true, Bonds didn't break any of baseball's rules, at least not until very recently.

Baseball had no policy against steroids when Bonds was allegedly doping in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Steroids weren't outlawed until a year ago and Bonds hasn't failed a drug test.

"I couldn't care less what people write or about this investigation or that investigation," said superstar Alex Rodriguez when asked about the steroid allegations against Bonds.

"Until you are proven guilty, you are innocent. We are in America, right?"

And even if proof that Bonds cheated does surface, it wouldn't make him be first baseball player saddled with ethical baggage. Hall of Famer Ty Cobb was a racist. Pitcher Gaylord Perry used all sorts of questionable methods to illegally doctor baseballs.

Some also maintain Bonds's alleged crimes against the game are not nearly as heinous as those perpetrated by Rose and Jackson, who violated baseball's cardinal rule when they brought gambling into the clubhouse.

"[Steroid] cheating is, in a twisted way, in keeping with the spirit of the game. They're trying to win," wrote Stephen Canella for CNNSI.com.

"Drug use doesn't guarantee a home run any more than throwing a spitball guarantees a no-hitter. Even if everyone's juiced, the ball still has to be hit, pitches still have to be made.

"Rose's gambling, on the other hand, casts into doubt nearly everything that happened in any game he was involved in. It raises the possibility that those games were rigged, that the outcomes were determined before the first pitch."

Bonds boosters argue the slugger would be a Hall of Famer with or without the help of drugs.

Before the 1999 season – Bonds's first on steroids according to Fainaru-Wada and Williams – he'd already won the National League's most-valuable-player award three times, made eight all-star teams and won eight Gold Gloves for his stellar defensive play.

Bonds had also slugged 411 home runs – more than Joe Dimaggio, Hank Greenberg and Johnny Bench.

Still, pitcher Bob Feller, who has been in baseball's Hall of Fame longer than any other living player, doesn't believe players like Bonds or Palmeiro, maybe even McGwire, will be enshrined.

"He's not going to get the numbers when it comes to Cooperstown," said the 87-year-old Feller about Bonds.

"Those players who have been convicted of using steroids or are caught using them are not going to get the numbers to be elected to the Hall of Fame when they become eligible for that great honour. And I am with them on that."