One, I don't think Bonds was taking anabolic steroids, but the circumstantial evidence certainly points towards the use of HGH-- to put it in Rome-speak, have you checked that dude's dome? Two, steroid use absolutely can help you increase your batting average. As Freak pointed out, if you're suddenly hitting your fly balls 10 or 15 yards further, bingo, that's several more fly outs that turn into home runs or drop into the gap. More importantly, it also radically changes the way pitchers approach you at the plate. At the point it becomes obvious that you're whacking the **** out of the ball like never before, pitchers are going to approach you conservatively and you're going to end up ahead in the count more often than not. When that happens, the pitcher can either continue throwing balls and let you walk, or he can challenge you-- meaning as long as you're patient (as Bonds is) and a good contact hitter (which Bonds is), you're still going to get a lot of good pitches to hit. If McGwire or Sosa had Bonds' discipline, either or both of them might have hit 73 homers or had a much better batting average. It's a combination of things-- raw talent, plate discipline, and in Bonds' case, ingestibles harvested from human corpses-- that produce the improvement in B.A. BLOW YOUR NOSE
