SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - Barry Bonds rolled into Scottsdale on Tuesday, ready to resume his day job with the Giants and his pursuit of Babe Ruth on baseball's career home run list. But first there was the small matter of a press conference during which Bonds was asked several steroids-related questions that were supposed to be off-limits, and answered with several sneering riffs in which he accused reporters of being muckrakers and liars.

And ... we’re off.

We're off on the road to No. 714 and Beyond, and a joyless jalopy ride it figures to be. Bonds needs 11 home runs to tie Ruth. But whereas his previous milestone homers — 500, 71, 600, 661, 700 — have been celebrated as epoch-defining, franchise-affirming events, his next move up baseball's career list shapes up as a morality play of the highest order.

The steroid scandal that has rocked baseball over the last few years has cast an increasingly perceptible taint on all inflated home run records and totals, especially Bonds’. Meanwhile, Bonds’ relationship with the outside world has become increasingly contentious in the wake of off-season developments in the BALCO investigation.

On Tuesday, during the abovementioned verbal arm-wrestling with reporters, Bonds repeated his contention that his only goal in baseball is to see how good he can be. “I don’t care about the other parts of it,” he said, when asked if he is looking forward to overtaking Ruth for second place on the all-time list. “I just want to play the game.”

This much about Bonds has always been true — the closer you get, the more difficult it is to like the man. That lack of popularity has always worked against him, and in fact may have cost him MVP awards in 1991 and 2000.

His answer to that has come in the form of unparalleled sustained excellence, especially over the later stages of his career. You cheat him out of two MVPs? He’ll win seven others.

Things are different now, thanks to whispers of steroid use and the BALCO investigation. An alleged transcript of Bonds' testimony before the BALCO grand jury, published in the San Francisco Chronicle, turned things on their head.

In the leaked testimony, Bonds admitted using cream- and clear-like substances, but claimed he believed them to be arthritis balm and flaxseed oil. That spin has had trouble gaining altitude in the court of public opinion.

Thus, there has been a lot of chatter recently about Bonds’ pursuit of Ruth, followed by his inevitable pursuit of all-time home run king Hank Aaron. To say fans of the game are conflicted about those pursuits is probably understating the case by a factor of 10. The first cries for Bonds to retire are already in the air.

MORE FROM BASEBALL'S STEROID CRISIS

For some Dominican players, steroids worth risk

For some Dominican players, steroids worth risk Feds fight for key evidence against Bonds   Slideshow: Key players in steroid scandal   Slideshow: Steroid scandal, in cartoons   Add Baseball's steroid crisis headlines to your news reader: