That most Giants fans believed Bonds was about to pass Babe Ruth on the alltime home run career list that very summer merely added to the feverish talk and Giants home games were becoming one big Bonds discussion.

Bonds' links to the Giants are iron strong and his lineage is significant. He grew up in the suburbs of the Californian city and for seven years his All-Star father, Bobby, played ball for the club. On top of this, the young Bonds had Willie Mays, the greatest of all Giants players, as his godfather and from early in life Barry Bonds was immovably twinned with the ball club.

For these reasons and for the fact that Bonds and his home-run antics are pure boxoffice entertainment, San Francisco fans have been able to overlook his shortcomings.

And there are many. For years now, a cloud laden with rumours of steroid use has hung over his bald head.

Doubts prevailed in 2000 when the club had the best record in the National League, they were there two years later when they made it to the World Series and that cloud was still dangling in 2003 when the franchise recorded 100 victories for only the seventh time in its history.

Giants fans ignored the questions that lingered over Bonds because, hey, he was the one driving them towards success and anyway the fans weren't the only ones turning a blind eye. In 1999, as the Giants were set to move to their new stadium by the bay, club officials were becoming increasingly suspicious of Bonds and his souped-up body. But they too decided to discount the rumours. After all, they had a shiny stadium to open and Bonds was their superhero; he was Batman and Pac Bell Park was his very own Gotham City. The new ball park was tailor-made for Bonds. Among the most spectacular grounds in the major leagues, with its nod to the good old days of baseball and its impressive views of the bay, Pac Bell's outfield dimensions suit a batter with the juiced-up power and recordbreaking capacity of Bonds.

Home runs would be easier found here, compared to the older, colder and longer Candlestick Park. And sure enough, the crowds yelled and the records began to fall at Pac Bell. As 2001 progressed, Bonds was closing in on the single season home run record held by Mark McGwire and San Francisco was abuzz with baseball. Two years previous, McGwire's record-setting ball from 1998 had fetched $3 million at auction and with Bonds one home run away from McGwire's record, Giants fans were taking to the bay in canoes and diving suits in an effort to grab the ball that Bonds would surely float out of the park and into the waters of the Pacific. In early October, the flying lottery ticket arrived when the slugger connected with a loping, spinning pitch and by season's end he had racked up 73 home runs.

But Bonds' 73rd home-run ball sold for less than half of McGwire's record-setter and national hype surrounding the feat was noticeably muted. Bonds reckoned he knew why: "I'm a black man in a white man's world, " he said.

Perhaps he had a point but there were other reasons.

McGwire had broken a 37year record set by Roger Maris and it smelled rotten to some that a long-standing record should fall twice in three years. Besides, most Americans weren't in the mood to party. A month before McGwire's record crumbled so did the Twin Towers.

And his personality was doing him no favours. He has the reputation of a surly character, an untouchable. Before home games he sits by himself in the wood-panelled clubhouse he believes was constructed for him and him alone and studies tapes of the pitcher he is about to face down. He mingles little with his teammates.

Bonds has complete disregard for the media and the media, in turn, have done little to aid his reputation. Subsequently, the baseball folk of America possess nothing but apathy for Barry Bonds but at least he has always been assured of the support of his hometown fans. Now though, as he prepares for his 21st season in major league baseball, just six home runs short of Babe Ruth on the all-time list and 47 shy of all-time leader Hank Aaron, the good will of San Francisco may no longer exist.

Last Monday, one week before opening day, a book that has cast huge doubt over the records of the 41-year-old batter hit the stores of California. Game of Shadows, by Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams of the San Francisco Chronicle, takes the subject of Bonds and steroids firmly out of the domain of innuendo and with facts and government findings argues that Bonds has been taking performance-enhancing drugs since 1998.

He took his first course of drugs, they say, after suspecting McGwire was boosted with steroids during the crazy summer of '98 . . . a time when baseball refused to test its players for steroids. Bonds' suspicions are held by many, including some of McGwire's former teammates. Game of Shadows links Bonds to Balco, the Californian laboratory charged with designing and distributing anabolic steroids to top athletes. Most damning for Bonds is the admission of Balco owner Victor Conte, under investigation from government investigators, that Bonds took steroids "on a regular basis".

As part of the investigation into Balco, Bonds faced a grand jury three years back but he came away unscathed, the victim of a witch hunt, he claimed as he continued to play baseball. The book is the first time the cold facts have been collected and presented to the baseball public and the evidence against the batter is overwhelming and too strong even for Bonds hardliners to ignore. San Francisco is once again abuzz with baseball.

Today, the Giants take on neighbours Oakland in their final pre-season warm up and the home run counter will click into gear on Monday with the season's opening game. Giants fans still reckon it's a matter of short time before Bonds breaks down some more records. Whether they'll root for their slugger this summer is a whole different matter.