Mistress may make Bonds pay

There are some who'll claim Barry Bonds' alleged former mistress Kimberly Bell, an unemployed graphic artist, is a gold digger. That can't possibly be so.
By my math, she's not even a silver digger.
According to Aphrodite Jones, the author of her memoir-to-be that's tentatively titled "Bonds Girl," Bell spent nine years with Bonds and requested only $200,000 sometime after he ditched her on the eve of the BALCO mess.
That's pennies compared with his career earnings of $131,379,882 (if he never gets the home-run record, at least he holds the earnings record). Based on his $18-million salary, $200,000 is 16 innings.
Meal money.
There are some who'd say being fired as Bonds' paramour is a blessing. But Bell didn't see it that way. She'd already logged nine years.
"She just wanted him to pay for her house, which is $157,000, and for [a couple years of] her college education. She would have signed a non-disclosure form. It would have come to $200,000," said Jones, an author and commentator for "The Today Show," "America's Most Wanted" and Fox News, among others.
Stinginess could becostly mistake
For all Bonds' supposed faults, the one that ultimately may derail him is stinginess. He allegedly offered only $20,000, beyond the $80,000 he'd already paid toward her Scottsdale, Ariz., abode.
Loose change.
"Barry Bonds was her life," Jones said. "Instead of doing the right thing, he left her no choice."
It seems Bonds easily could have kept Bell from transforming into the BALCO Bombshell. She testified with immunity once, and her attorney, Martin Garbus, said a second appearance is being set up. Garbus told Newsday he expects "they will ask further about tax evasion and the steroids."
Pitch selection always has been a Bonds strength. Choosing a mistress is another matter entirely. Bell found exactly the right author to get the story out. Jones is expert at publicity.
Bell met Bonds in July 1994 after she won a drawing for a day at the ballpark. They had what's been described as a "love at first sight" moment.
Bonds was firstto pay her attention
"Kimberly Bell is a people-pleasing person. Barry Bonds got to her when she was very, very young. She was a young 24. Growing up, she was an ugly duckling. He was the first guy who ever paid attention to her," Jones said.
"She had dated a couple other athletes, but there was no click. When Barry Bonds said he was crazy about her, she was absolutely dumbstruck that somebody, anybody, was crazy about her."
Of course, he's not just anybody.
"A life ensued that she really thought was going to be a substantial life," Jones said. "He said, 'I'll never get married again.' She didn't have a problem with that. She was thrilled to be with him."
Four years after Bonds and Bell started dating, Bonds married Liz Watson, a high school sweetheart, in 1998. Back then, Bonds told a baseball associate, "I always knew I was going to marry Liz."
He told Bell something different.
"The race card comes up," Jones said. "He said, 'I need to marry someone of my own race. I'm getting peer pressure.' "
Bell could have split, but decided to stay. "Barry's very good at controlling people," Jones said. After he dumped Bell, he lost control. She told him she knew things, and according to Jones, he told her, "No one will ever believe you."
Little did Bonds know that Bell doesn't throw things away.
Dug up tapesthat were damaging
"When he told her, 'I'm done with you' right before BALCO broke, she went through the garage of the house he bought for her. She thought, 'Where are those tapes?' " Jones said. She found "11 or 12" voice-mail tapes with Bonds' voice, Jones said.
Bell doesn't have much now, beyond those tapes. She doesn't have a job or a four-year degree. Jones said Bonds "squelched" opportunities for her on TV, in a sports bar and with the 49ers.
According to Jones, he told Bell, "I'll take care of you."
She used to be a model. "She's beautiful, but she's 35," Jones said. "The girl doesn't have anything."
The one thing she has, besides the tapes and a best-selling author, is a story. "She knows his inner life," Jones said.
The rest of us are starting to learn the details. Bell told the San Francisco Chronicle that Bonds instructed her to deposit the $80,000 in increments of less than $10,000, which if true could expose him to a money-structuring charge.
"I don't think she quite understood the totality of that," Jones said. "It was never her intention to do something illegal. ... He told her, 'I can't have my wife knowing.' She went along with that."
Steroids storyis sketchier
Bell's steroids story is sketchier. According to Jones, Bonds said a welt on his elbow was from steroids (a more obvious explanation could have been being hit by pitches). "What he told her was that the steroid made the muscle grow faster than the tendon," Jones said.
Considering Bell will testify again before the BALCO grand jury, it's easy to think she must have said something pertinent.
"She's not happy that this is upsetting Barry or that this is hurting Barry," Jones said. "She feels bad for him. She was there for him. She wanted him to be Barry Bonds, the Barry Bonds."
As it turns out, she may do more than anyone else to reveal the true Barry Bonds.
& copy; 2005, Newsday