"I'll promise to go easier on drinking and to get to bed earlier, " said Ruth once, "but not for you, fifty thousand dollars, or two-hundred and fifty thousand dollars will I give up women.

They're too much fun."

It didn't matter what he ate or drank or how late he stayed out partying because Ruth was a natural talent. The excess weight, the insatiable sexual appetite and the ridiculous diet scarcely affected his ability to swat the ball. On his way to hitting 714 home runs and becoming the game's greatest and most charismatic player during the Roaring Twenties, he also turned baseball into America's national pastime. This past fortnight, that nation has held its breath, waiting for Barry Bonds . . . perched on 713 home runs as of Friday . . .to tie Ruth's mark. Many have watched with their hands over their eyes, barely able to look at a little piece of sporting history being usurped by somebody they regard as a fraud.

Back in 1974, a man called Hank Aaron relegated Ruth to second place on the all-time list but he did so with some style and without any allegations of chemical assistance. This time it's very different. The disgust many feel watching Ruth being pursued by the surly San Francisco Giant was summed up best by fans in Philadelphia the other week. When Bonds stepped up to the plate to bat, they stretched out an enormous banner asking: "The Babe did it on hot dogs and beer, Aaron did it with class. How did you do it?" Hot dogs and beer. Definitely not how Bonds did it. His feats have apparently been as unnatural as Ruth's were natural.

According to a slew of revelations contained in Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams' exhaustive tome Game of Shadows, the last 300 of Bonds' home runs have come with the aid of a fascinating cocktail of substances. Among the drugs they say he used between 1998 and 2004 was Clomid. The brand name of Clomiphene Citrate, Clomid is a fertility drug given to women who are having trouble getting pregnant.

Doctors prescribe it to boost ovulation, body-builders have historically abused it to restore testosterone during the recovery period of a steroid cycle.

Even on a personal pharmaceutical inventory boasting the usual suspects like Human Growth Hormone (HGH), EPO, Nandrolone, Stanozolol, and a pair of designer steroids from the infamous Balco laboratory, Clomid has competition for weirdest entry.

It is also alleged Bonds was partial to Trenbolone. A synthetic steroid originally designed to improve the muscle quality in American cattle, more than one comic has claimed Bonds' only comment on the accusations so far has been "Moo".

Of course, Ruth used unorthodox means to give himself an advantage too. On hot summer days in New York, he'd place a fresh cabbage in the water cooler and every inning would take a wet, cold leaf and place it under his cap. When the Yankees redesigned their uniforms, they opted for navy pinstripes on a white background in the hope that such a style would make the rotund superstar appear slimmer and more athletic to opponents. And he used to take so much snuff that it eventually started blocking his nasal passages.

When Ruth put on 30 pounds during the winter break, it was pure flab, the inevitable consequence of a preference for 18-egg omelettes for breakfast and whole roosters for dinner. Towards the end of his career, his belly was so gargantuan that he looked like an egg tottering around on a pair of sticks as he ran the bases. The close-season that Bonds packed on 20 pounds of muscle to his frame and developed arms previously trademarked by Popeye it was, we now suspect, down to steroids, and complementary drugs like Modafinil, ordinarily taken to battle narcolepsy, and Insulin, abused by non-diabetic athletes in search of greater stamina and endurance.

Like almost every other player before and after him, Ruth's powers waned as he got older and his lopsided body finally began to crack under the strain of his excessive lifestyle. In his own late 30s, at a time when baseball refused to bring its drug policy into line with every other major professional sport, Bonds improved phenomenally. He got stronger and better, hitting more home runs and making them travel farther.

This sudden upgrade coincided with him employing Greg Anderson, a personal trainer who has since served prison time for steroid distribution.

"In the baseball world, Babe Ruth's everything, right?" said Bonds a few years back when it first looked like he might overtake his predecessor. "I'll take his home runs and that's it. Don't talk about him no more."

Over the past few weeks, America has shown Bonds that though he may surpass Ruth, he will never replace him.