Analysis published in The Cheater's Guide To Baseball indicates that Bonds' performance was affected by his cyclying on and off steroids. In 2002 Bonds slugging percentage was 345 points higher during hypothetical "on" times and his stats followed the pattern over the whole season. They didn't follow such a pattern in 1997 or 1998.

While everyone in baseball condemns (publicly) the use of steroids, players like Ken Caminiti were applauded by teammates and management for sacrificing their bodies and giving everything they had to help the team. Again, those people will never condone steroid use but they seem to actually appreciate the fact that Caminiti had done it to help the team.

Now Guillermo Mota gets $5 million from the Mets with seemingly little chance of being effective over the next two years.

Barry Bonds' personal trainer and longtime friend, Greg Anderson, was ordered back to prison by a federal appeals court for refusing to answer questions about Bonds' use of performance-enhancing drugs. Anderson has until Nov. 20 to report and could serve up to a year.

The Flash timeline visually puts events from Baseball's Steroid Era into chronological perspective. You can view events as they happened OR as they were revealed to the public. Roll over each circle for more information on that particular situation.

When the Rangers hired Ron Washington to be their manager, owner Tom Hicks said his GM was 'studying' the possibility of signing Bonds.

Two days later he said:

"I was listening to what some other people thought, but I know the issues involved, and that's not going to happen here."

"You can be adamant in saying that Barry Bonds won't be signing with the Rangers."

Baseball is a business, baseball is a business, they drill it into our heads. It's always a 'business decision' when a longtime employee/player is let go, so why can't the Rangers sign Bonds as a business decision. The production and publicity would far outweigh any negative reaction to the 'business.'

Whispers of baseball colluding to keep Barry Bonds from breaking the home run record have been around since the season ended.

Now, just in time for free agency, multiple reports claim Bonds wasn't a team player, refusing to take the field after a pinch-hit walk and not being available to pinch hit in a crucial moment (in a non-crucial game) because he was changed out of his uniform. The report says the Giants may not offer him a contract at all.

There have been countless reports of Bonds nagative antics for years, and they're nothing new. Bonds' ability to draw fans and get on base make him so valuable it would take collusion on a 1980s level to keep him out of the game. How can no team have expressed any interest in Bonds? Someone will offer him money, and if there is collusion going on, the other owners will be pissed.

Bonds may or may not deserve to play next year, but there is no doubt he has a lot of value.

Trevor Graham, the track coach who started the whole BALCO scandal by anonymously mailing a vial of previously undetecable steroid, 'The Clear' to the World Anti-Doping Agency, is about to be charged with obstruction of justice by the very grand jury investigating his tip.

Wayne Derkotch, 40, was arguing with the coach Sunday during a game of 6- and 7-year-olds when he drew the weapon, police said. No shots were fired. Derkotch was charged with aggravated assault. A referee accused of throwing a punch at a man was also arrested on assault charges, police said.

This stuff is getting out of hand. It seems like only yesterday coach Mark R. Downs took nine year old Keith Reese aside and offered to give Reese twenty five dollars if he purposely beaned an autistic boy on the team so the autistic boy couldn't play in the playoffs.

The 5-year deal, struck during bargaining in New York on Friday night and Saturday, is subject to the sides putting the deal in writing. In the often bitter history of baseball labor relations, reaching agreement before a contract's expiration has to be considered a milestone.

Thomson went after the high fastball "like a tiger pouncing on some wounded antelope." said Ralph Branca after learning in the mid 1950's about the plot to steal signs in 1951.

"The Echoing Green" is about a long-rumored but never before substantiated plot by the 1951 New York Giants to steal the signs of opposing catchers in games played at their home park, the Polo Grounds, during the last 10 weeks of the season. With one out in the bottom of the ninth inning of the final game of the NLCS, on Oct. 3, the Giants' Bobby Thomson hit a three-run home run off Ralph Branca for a 5-4 victory.

Beginning on July 20, their manager, Leo Durocher, planted Hank Schenz, a spare infielder with a Wollensak telescope, in the center-field clubhouse. From a cutout in the mesh grid covering one of the 14 windows along the distant wall, Schenz - a former Chicago Cub who in 1946 had peered in at opposing catchers' signs from the scoreboard at Wrigley Field - easily deciphered the signals and had them erlayed to the dugout.

Courtesy of a sharp-eyed photo editor and a 12-year-old kid, both of whom spotted what a generation of baseball historians had missed. And this new find goes a long way toward explaining what happened on the field that night at Shea Stadium.

What ESPN.com photo czar Sean Hintz spotted -- and what Uni Watch and countless other researchers had missed over the years -- was that Bill Buckner was wearing a Chicago Cubs batting glove under his first baseman's mitt. (And no, it's not a Photoshop job -- it's the real deal.)

Baseball Commisioner, Bud Selig said he would be seriously considering having less home games for the Wild Card team in next season's playoffs.

Talking to reporters before game 3 of the ALCS, Selig also said he would like to see at least one World Series day game in the future. He discussed expanding the first round of the playoffs to a 7-game series and increasing the number of playoff teams but said both were unlikely.

A list of people who have played a major part in ridding baseball of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs. The list includes journalists, scientists, government officials and even a couple of players. Many don't get the credit they deserve such as Gary Wadler, Charles Yesalis, Robert Cantu and Richard Melloni.

You can always count on Sheffield for a good quote. If there was any doubt that the Yankees wouldn't pick up his option, it's gone now. "I can't believe they're going to get rid of (Joe) Torre," Sheffield said of the Yankee manager, "I figured they'd be trying to get rid of me and A-Rod ( Alex Rodriguez) first.

"I think (the lineup shuffle) affected the morale and psyche of the entire team, not just A-Rod," Sheffield said. ""I'm not making any excuses, but everyone was wondering what was going on. It made it a real weird day. You would like to be treated with a little respect, I don't care who you play for.

Sources have told the New York Daily News that George Steinbrenner will replace the manager who was credited with returning the team to its fabled glory. The Yankees reportedly plan on giving Torre the chance to retire and 'save face.' Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman is expected to keep his job, as are most members of the front office.