Barry Bonds - Patron Saint of Enhanced Drug Testing in MLB

When you look back at what caused MLB to adopt stricter drug testing of MLB Players, you can look at the year that Barry Bonds hit 73 Home Runs - 2001. A Congressional Investigation was held in 2002 and the MLB Players Association finally gave in to the Owners and allowed drug testing on a very limited basis. Why did this not happen in 1999? That was the year after MLB, the sports writers, and fans across the country thrilled at watching Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa parade around the bases after hitting HR's like there was no tomorrow. They were our new American Heroes - the guys who saved Baseball and elevated Baseball back to the where it was at before labor issues threatened to ruin the sport. I heard Jayson Stark talking the other day about how he and others should have seen this regarding Steroids or HGH and acted back then and not now when they want to withhold the Hall Of Fame from Bonds and anyone else thought to have used. No such thing as proof or a failed test that I am aware of, but Barry Bonds was the guy everybody loved to hate and his persona alone has moved MLB forward to where they are today in drug testing. He made a mockery of the game in 2001, and changed it forever. I was at PNC when he hit his 600th (I think) and I was definitely in the minority because I was standing and clapping. Many folks in the 'burgh will never forgive him for leaving, but that was the beginning of our curse of having ownership that would not pay for talent. We did get others after that and they too left, but somewhere in the back of my head I think Bonds was just that type of guy who got very ****ed when the whole country went GaGa over McGuire and Sosa and he made it a point to make sure everyone knew he could do as good or better. Lost in all of the contempt of Bonds is the fact that he was a 3 time MVP before the McGuire-Sosa charade. I know that Steroids do enhance the physical attributes of baseball players, but Bonds had that unbelievable hand-to-eye coordination and bat speed that very, very few players in the history of the game have ever possessed. After 2001 he never hit any more than 49 HR's, and prior to 2001, he never hit more than 40+ HR's.