SAN FRANCISCO -- Barry Bonds finally came clean Thursday, admitting the secret to his superhuman slugging. The secret, he said, is chemical. The secret, he said, is lurking in his blood. It's called deoxyribonucleic acid.

You probably know it by its shortened name:

DNA.

Bobby Bonds may be the best eligible player not in the Hall of Fame. (US Presswire)

"My genes," Bonds said before the Giants played Atlanta at AT&T Park, "are pretty good." There you go. The secret behind Bonds' 753 home runs, two behind all-time leader Hank Aaron's record of 755, isn't steroids or HGH, the cream or the clear. It's not something nefarious or even mysterious. It's not the Da Vinci code. It's the genetic code.

In two wide-ranging and often bizarre interviews before the game, one on the field and one in the clubhouse, Bonds hammered home his family's genetic superiority. As Bonds continued to harp on his "genes for playing this game," turning questions on various topics into discourses on his lineage, he began to sound like a politician spouting a campaign theme.

Maybe this is Team Bonds' strategy for digging out of the public relations hole he finds himself in -- reminding the world that he's not some Superman from Krypton, or worse, some cheater from BALCO. He came from good, solid baseball stock.

Bonds reminded the media that his father, Bobby Bonds, was a great outfielder. He reminded the media that another slugging former outfielder, Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson, is a cousin. And that yet another slugging former outfielder, seven-time All-Star Reggie Smith, is also a cousin.

"People don't talk about that, but it's true," he said. "I have very good genes for this game. My dad could have played a lot longer (than he did) if he'd taken better care of himself."

His father, Bobby, might be the most talented player to be eligible for the Hall of Fame but not get in it. Bobby retired in 1981 and 26 years later hasn't come close to induction. In 1997, when a player needed at least 355 of the possible 473 Hall voters to get in, he received 20 votes. How bad is 20 votes? Bob Boone received 28 votes that year. Bob Boone.

Which makes no sense to me. A long battle with alcohol cost Bobby several years on the back end of his career and diluted the production of his prime, but he remains one of the most unique offensive forces in baseball history, power and speed in the same package. He's one of four players with at least 300 home runs and 300 steals; the others being his son, Willie Mays and Andre Dawson.

Had it not been for the alcoholism, Bobby would've finished with a lot more than 332 homers, 461 steals, 1,258 runs, 1,024 RBI and 1,886 hits. He'd be in the Hall of Fame. He should be in there anyway. You ask me, Bobby is more deserving than Craig Biggio.

So that's Barry's father. But there are more great athletes in the family than just Bobby. A brother, Robert, was a football player drafted in the 13th round by Kansas City in 1965. A sister, Rosie, was a hurdler on the 1964 U.S. Olympic team. Barry said the best athlete in the family might be his younger brother, Bobby Jr., whom he called a martial arts expert.

And then there's the uncle who trains wolves. I kid you not. Barry said he has an uncle who trains wolves.

"My family is all athletes, all of them," Barry said. "We had a lot of competition around the house. Out of all those athletes, you're bound to get one better than anybody else."

And that one was Barry. He has been one of the best baseball players of all time for more than a decade, since winning three MVPs in four years in the early 1990s. Back then he was strong, skinny and fast. He was a lot like his father, only better. Somewhere along the way he became the product of something more than superior DNA. Allegedly.

Millions of baseball fans think Barry used steroids to pack 60 pounds of muscle onto a frame that once weighed 180. The federal government thinks the same thing. An amazingly persuasive book has been written on the topic.

The skeptics are missing the point, Barry seemed to be saying Thursday. His greatness didn't come out of Victor Conte's chemistry set. It came out of his ancestor's chromosomal set.

"I've got family members who still look young in their 50s and 60s," he said, and that explains that.