Poll: Most California voters believe Bonds used steroids

April 18, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A majority of California voters believe Giants slugger Barry Bonds used steroids to enhance his performance and he should be penalized for doing so, according to a poll released Saturday.

A Field Poll found that 58 per cent of voters think Bonds used steroids, a number that increases to 68 per cent among baseball fans. Ten per cent of voters believe he did not use steroids, and 32 per cent said they didn't know.

The poll comes as Major League Baseball probes alleged steroid use among players, and a federal grand jury investigates whether Bonds committed perjury when he testified in 2003 that he never used steroids.

Most respondents - 77 per cent of voters and 79 per cent of baseball fans - said they approved of the baseball probe, according to the survey by Field Research, a public opinion firm based in San Francisco.

If the investigation concludes that Bonds knowingly used steroids, 64 per cent of voters said he should be penalized, while 26 per cent said he should not.

Asked what sanctions Bonds should face, 43 per cent said they supported making him pay a large fine and 40 per cent said they favoured putting an asterisk next to his baseball records.

Researchers interviewed 917 registered voters, including 383 self-identified baseball fans, by telephone from April 3-10 in English and Spanish. The poll has a sampling error rate of 3.3 percentage points.