I came up with a formula to calculate how many home runs he would have if his power had declined after age 35, like every hitter on the all-time home run list, with the exception of Hank Aaron.

Aaron's non-decline at age 35, however, can be explained by his move from Milwaukee to Atlanta, where he played in a park referred to as "The Launching Pad" because so many home runs were hit there. (They also moved in the fences after he got there.)

Bonds' non-decline ... OK, let's be frank. It was a lot more than a non-decline. He went from being a very good home run hitter -- before age 35, he hit a home run every 15.7 at-bats, led the league in homers once and was in the top 5 seven times -- to what you see now. The greatest single-season home run hitter in history, about to pass Babe Ruth on the all-time homer list.

I knew I would get some flack, but I didn't think about the column being picked up by other newspapers, some of which are even closer to San Francisco than Fresno.

As one reader, Brian, wrote, "The Bonds Article is excellent!! I would love to see the arguments that you will get!!!"

OK, Brian, here are a few notable clips ...

"For your unenlightened mind, Barry is still the greatest talent MLB has seen since Willie Mays and Hank Aaron, he is still INNOCENT until PROVEN guilty and deserves to be treated as such, and he certainly doesn't need some second rate hack from a third rate town throwing more fuel on the bogus fire created, fed, and kept alive by media types that continually embarrass themselves everytime they write an article as stupid and classless as the one you wrote that appeared in a San Francisco paper. You are one pathetic person and, from a literary standpoint, a disgrace to those who aspire to be a truely creative and FACTUAL journalist. Why don't you try hairdressing college or something else worthy of your short sighted talents??"
-- Jess, Belmont, Calif.

Not sure whether Jess is male or female, or what he or she might have against hairdressers, but I certainly do not have the talent for it. I can french-braid hair, because my mom couldn't do her own, so she taught me when I was about 12 years old, and I would braid it before we went to church. (If that isn't the most Little-House-on-the-Prairie story you hear today, I'll come wash your car.) Also, I think Fresno is at least a second-rate town. C'mon, give it that.

"Let me see your sorry (bleep) use steroids and hit that many homeruns. YOU CANT. Give the guy credit for what he has done. Look at all these other players that used steroids-Did they hit that many homers? No. How do you know that Babe Ruth didnt use steroids or Hank Aaron? You dont. Was it legal in baseball at the time? Yes. There was probably players that used steroids that never hit 10 homers. HONESTLY THOUGH, YOU NEED TO GET OVER IT ALREADY ... Honestly the Fresno Bee should be ashamed for even letting your dumb (bleep) write this article 'Bonds Shouldn't Be Making History'. Also you said most peoples power begans to weaken at age 35. uh key word MOST not ALL but MOST get that through your head. YOU ALSO NEED TO REALIZE HE IS THE BEST BASEBALL PLAYER THAT EVER LIVED PERIOD. I dont know if you are racist or what but come on. YOU ARE A (BLEEP) IDIOT! Get back to me if you want I dont give a (BLEEP)."
-- Homie

Maybe Babe Ruth's physique was what happens when you take steroids and don't bother lifting weights.

"Hey Matt, thought your article on Barry Bonds on wednesday sucked. You know that your talking about a man that has never even tested positive for steroids?? Is it that your a racist or dodger fan or what?? You must be in the wrong town then. Stop acting like a little (bleep) & give credit where credit is due...."
-- anonymous

To be fair, some of the bleeps are words they can say on network television, but I'm not sure what our blog rules are, so I'm being safe. If I wouldn't say them in front of my mom, they don't make the blog. That's two mom references. Mother's Day is Sunday. I'm trying to help you.

"You aren't taking into account the record number of walks he incurs. Obviously they aren't all intentional, and for the one's that aren't, it's an opportunity to hit a HR. Considering the number of non-intentional walks would definitely bump up his HR/AB number, probably into the double digits which would be on par with Aaron and Griffey - who probably didn't receive nearly as many base on balls (although I haven't done the math). Love him or hate him, he's entertaining to watch...which for all intents and purposes is his job. I can't fault him for doing his job well. Every time he's on, I'm glued to the TV."
-- Jeff, Wisconsin

"I don't want you to think that I'm defending Barry Bonds - I don't know if Bonds used steroids or not ... What I do know is that Bonds up until his injury, operation and infection last year he was one of the best conditioned ball players around. He worked harder than most and it payed off for him. So, what changed for Bonds since he turned 35. For one thing he put on some weight and most of it was muscle -- maybe steroids and maybe not. Another thing that changed was his swing. Up until that time he had a dead level swing -- go back and look at the film. Six years ago he changed to an uppercut swing and his home run numbers took off. Maybe a better question than how many homers were added by steroids is the question how many homers would the man have if he had changed his swing when he was 25 and not 35? He might have 800 or more by now.
The other thing I really take issue with is how do you hit home runs. From my experience it has way more to do with eye-hand coordination, timing, and bat speed than strength. Steroids really don't help you with eye-hand coordination, timing or bat speed they only add strength. You have to hit the ball at the right trajectory for it to be a home run. If all it took was steroids and strength, Canseco would have hit 1000!"
-- Steve

"You must have played baseball at a pretty high level to know how to figure Bonds home run total without his "alleged steriod use." Wait...no...actually that article was based on your emotions towards one of the greatest baseball players of all-time. Since you obviously haven't been around baseball enough, let me fill you in. Players don't always decline with age. Some players get better with age. Bonds dedicated himself to the weightroom in the summers and built on his knowledge of hitting as the years went on. Don't believe everything in "Game of Shadows," the authors are making lots of money by throwing out falsehoods for gullible people to believe. Even if Bonds unintentionally did use steriods for those few years, steriods add only about 10 feet on the ball. So over those few years, only a handful of his homers would've stayed in the park. Your number of 564 falls very short. So in the future, please be more informed when you write articles on such a big topic such as this."
-- Kyle

I've actually been around the game my whole life. My dad and grandpa and I were all catchers. My brother played, too. My dad and I were short, stubby, lead-off, slap-hitting catchers with good arms. My grandpa was a short, stubby catcher who had forearms like mailboxes and could crush the ball. After he died, when I was about 12, my grandma and I would drive through the small towns in western Kansas where he used to play, and she would show me where the baseball fields used to be and where some of his home runs had landed.

Did I play the game at a "pretty high level"? Not even close. They have a name for 5-foot-6 catchers in college. They're called "students."

"hey man you are a complete idiot, ok yes this is the obvious answer to your garbage article did Bonds once test positive to steroids? ummm, dont think so, so then how can you come out and say he shouldnt be making history. All you have to say is ohh his head got bigger, ohhh he is a lot bigger then he was when he was a rookie, yea no (bleep). if thats all you got then you should just stop writing all together. WHAT has he done to you! us in san francisco stick up for our players we dont act like dodger fans and boo our own. You can keep writing all you want mr. james, but you just dont make any sense! What did he not give you his autograph so it gives you a reason to whine? poor baby!"
-- anonymous

You would not believe how often I hear people say that a reporter or columnist must have gotten refused for an autograph. First off, I've never seen a reporter ask for an autograph. I'm sure it's happened somewhere, at some point, but that's a good way to lose your credentials. It just doesn't happen.

Unless of course Bonds had turned me down for an autograph as a kid, and it upset me so much that I decided to make sports writing my career, on the odd chance that Bonds would be in the middle of a steroid controversy and still playing at age 41, and I could rip him in a column. My revenge is finally complete! Ah-ha! Now I can finally pursue my dream of hairdressing.

"Don't you think using the number of "plate appearances" instead of "at bats" would reflect a truer measure of Bonds' success? I do not think the players you cited were walked intentionally (or unintentually) even close to the of times as Bonds."
-- anonymous

"An interesting story on Bonds, but, you forgot to count walks in the at bats...your statistics based on at bats should include them...they are "trips to the plate." His HR ratio in the "73" year is 8.9 trips per HR--not counting the BB's, particularly in the cases of Bonds and Ruth skews the stats. You should note that Aaron was never walked 100 times in a year. Aren't statistics interesting?"
-- Roger, Coarsegold, Calif.

So those are a few of the emails. There were more, many of which agreed with the column, but they weren't nearly as colorful as the ones that didn't. Mostly, they said, "Couldn't agree more."

A lot of readers brought up the walks issue, as I knew they would. They are under the impression that because Bonds gets walked so much, it somehow explains how he could have gone from hitting a home run every 15.7 at-bats on average before age 35, to one every 9.8 at-bats in 2000, to one every 6.5 at-bats in 2001 -- the year he hit 73 home runs -- to around every 8.5 at-bats since then.

Here's the thing. Bonds didn't always get walked like he does now. He always had a good eye, but not until age 35 did everyone start pitching around him so obviously. He's been intentionally walked with the bases loaded, for goodness' sake. If a guy starts hitting a home run every 6.5 at-bats, of course you're going to walk him.

His alleged steroid use caused the walks, they don't explain it away.

Yes, if you calculated home runs per plate appearance, instead of home runs per at-bat, it would bring his numbers after age 35 somewhat closer to the 10 greatest home run hitters of all-time. But that's not fair to Bonds (or steroids, depending on who you give credit) because you're counting a walk as a negative; a non-homer. You're giving all of Reggie Jackson's strikeouts the same value as Bonds' walks.

The truth is, if Bonds hadn't walked so much, if pitcher's hadn't been so afraid of him, he'd have hit even more home runs since turning 35 and would probably have already passed Hank Aaron, which only further demonstrates how much better the end of his career has been than any other baseball player in history.