espn.com

    Baseball will reportedly investigate the steroids controversy swirling around Barry Bonds.

    The New York Daily News reported Thursday that commissioner Bud Selig has already decided to begin an investigation, according to an unidentified baseball official.

    Barry Bonds
    Bonds

    The newspaper said Selig is expected to announce the decision next week, but hadn't yet decided if the investigation would be done by Major League Baseball officials or outside investigators.

    Two books that are being released this spring accuse Bonds of using steroids, human growth hormone and insulin for at least five seasons beginning in 1998. Baseball did not ban performance-enhancing substances until after the 2002 season, and Bonds has denied ever knowingly using performance-enhancing drugs.

    Selig also faces pressure from Congress. On Wednesday, Rep. Cliff Stearns, who previously sponsored legislation calling for tougher drug testing in pro sports, sent the commissioner a letter asking about his role in policing steroid use from 1998 to 2002.

    "As commissioner, you have the essential responsibility to safeguard the integrity of the game and to ensure that cheaters have no place in professional baseball," Stearns said in the letter.

    Specifically, the Florida Republican asked Selig for information about a 2004 meeting with Bonds, baseball's policy for addressing alleged steroid use if a player doesn't fail a drug test and what Selig's authority is to investigate alleged steroid use.

    Under pressure from Congress before last season, the players' association agreed to toughen drug testing rules and penalties.

    Bonds broke Mark McGwire's single-season home run record in 2001 and is approaching Babe Ruth's career total.

    Now it's just a question of whether his surgically repaired right knee is ready for the daily rigors of playing in the field.

    Bonds, in the lineup on back-to-back days for the first time this spring, homered for the second straight day and made a brief appearance in left field in the Giants' 10-6 victory Wednesday over the Brewers.

    Despite being hounded by allegations of steroid use and slowed by his knee, Bonds is in midseason form at the plate. He is 7-for-9 with three home runs and a double in four games.

    He played in left for the second time this spring, leaving after his homer in the bottom of the second inning.

    Bonds has 708 home runs in his career, seven shy of passing Ruth and 48 away from breaking Hank Aaron's career record of 755.

    Selig would not publicly commit to an investigation last week.

We all wear a green carnation.