Major League Baseball home run king Barry Bonds has a fear of needles according to testimony by his orthopedic surgeon at his perjury trial on Friday. Bonds dislike of having blood drawn for medical tests was so severe that he required small shots of novocaine prior to the procedure according to Dr. Arthur Ting. Most bodybuilders and veteran steroid users find such fears laughable among newcomers in the steroid subculture .
The defense is likely to use Bonds fear of needles to create reasonable doubt among the jury that Bonds was the recipient of any injections for non-medical purposes. The government believes that Bonds committed perjury when he told a 2003 grand jury investigating BALCO that he never received any injections from his personal trainer or anyone else other than a medical professional. The defense will their work cut out for them after Bonds’ former personal shopper provided eyewitness testimony that she observed Bonds receiving an injection from Greg Anderson; the likeable Kathy Hoskins made a very favorable impression on most observers in the courtroom and most likely the jury as well.
Bonds’ fear of needles could be used to suggest that Bonds did not knowingly use steroids because he thought steroids were only available as injectable solutions. This defense strategy is very unlikely since it is common knowledge that steroids are available in orally-ingested pill form. In fact, the anabolic steroids Barry Bonds has admitted to using, albeit unknowingly, were oral (“the clear” aka THG) and transdermal (“the cream” aka testosterone).
Stay tuned for more useless trivia about Barry Bonds body parts and phobias as the perjury trial continues. Bonds is widely considered the government’s ultimate target in the steroids in baseball – BALCO investigation.
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