NEWSMAKER - Home-run king Bonds forever tainted

By Adam Tanner

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Barry Bonds is the greatest master of baseball's most difficult skill -- hitting a ball thrown at more than 100 miles an hour over the outfield wall for a home run.

Yet the San Francisco Giants outfielder has also come to symbolise the nagging doubts many fans have about the spread of performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball and other professional sports since the 1990s.

The 43-year-old seven-times National League Most Valuable Player broke Major League Baseball's career record on Tuesday by belting out his 756th home run, one more than the number that made Hank Aaron the home-run king for the last 33 years.

Yet many fans are not celebrating what might otherwise be an occasion for national pride and marketing hoopla because of suspicion he may not have spoken truthfully when denying steroid use.

A sometimes abrasive personality has not helped his image, and has caused many fans outside San Francisco to jeer the slugger and root against his record run.

During his career, Bonds has set a wide array of records, from most home runs in a single season to most walks in a season and in a career. Over the years he has hit a home run every 13 at bats, far more frequently that Aaron's every 16 plus at bats.

"I don't know if he is the greatest ever, but he is soon going to be the greatest home-run hitter ever," Hall of Famer Willie McCovey, a vocal Bonds supporter, told Reuters ahead of Tuesday's game.