By the time you read this, Barry Bonds may have moved into second place on the all-time home run list, passing Babe Ruth at 714 and having only the Hank Aaron number of 755 in front of him. It is a shameful moment.

Bonds and others have tried to play the race card at times in his quest to be the all-time home run leader. Reasonable women and men scoff. There is no race issue involved in finding Bonds unworthy.

He cheated. That is what the reasonable-man test finds upon reviewing all information available.

Bonds used steroids, but says he did not know that’s what they were. Read the book “Game of Shadows” and check out all the information there, including Bonds’ own statements, and no reasonable man can say he didn’t know.

He was using steroids in his biggest home run years, including 2001 when he hit 73. That’s what the evidence says.

All of which makes it worth repeating what was said in a New York Times story written Dec. 12, 2004. With the help of Baseball Prospectus, an organization that makes a living projecting how players will perform from year to year, the Times’ story questioned what Bonds’ home run numbers should be “using complicated algorithms to identify such trends and forecast current players’ future performance…”

Cutting to the results, they were thus: “Entering 2000 at age 35, Bonds was producing seasons with roughly 37 home runs and a .288 batting average. His skyrocketing performances in the five seasons since, particularly while moving from a good hitter’s park (Candlestick) to a horrible one (SBC), is all but unprecedented in baseball history. Had Bonds aged at a typical rate, he would have hit .272, not .339, and hit 142 fewer home runs, 116 instead of 258.”

Even giving Bonds the benefit of being in better shape than the average player of his age and being the incredible talent that he is, Baseball Prospectus still found his home run totals are at least 100 more than any reasonable man could expect.

That is where Bonds properly stands if a reasonable man without prejudice views all that is there in the public record regarding Bonds, steroids and home runs.

MLB’s great hope continues to be that Bonds will pass Ruth, hit a few more this year, and be gone next year. MLB believes fans can live with that and the game’s officials will not have to deal with the issue of Bonds closing in on Aaron.

Bonds has told at least one very close friend that he is not going to play next year. It is doubtful Bonds himself knows what he wants to do.

Bonds has been told by friends that if he means to retire, don’t tell anyone this year. He does not need the added attention, if such is possible, of the entire “final” this and the “final” that. He also does not need the added invectiveness that would roil about his head if fans who detest him knew they were getting a final chance to lay waste to their fury.

It is a shame really. Bonds is one of the greatest players ever, without steroids. He did not need the help of any supplements.

He has put at issue his Hall of Fame status and while he may have passed Ruth in balls hit out of the park, he has not passed him in home runs hit, not when the reasonable man eliminates the juiced shots.

Old Town native Gary Thorne is an ESPN and ABC sportscaster.