Barry Bonds and Balco

[Alex Linder]

In our tabloid #1a, we've got Barry Bonds, captioned "chemical man." And Babe Ruth captioned "champion, without an asterisk." Looks like the news is coming into line:

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/news/story?id=1937513

Thursday, December 2, 2004

BALCO owner comes clean
*
By Victor Conte and Shaun Assael

On Sept. 3, 2003, federal agents raided the offices of the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative and set off one of the biggest sports scandals in history. Now the man at the center of the scandal, Victor Conte, wants to tell his side of the story -- about giving Marion Jones performance-enhancing drugs, about helping Tim Montgomery become the world's fastest man, about supplying Barry Bonds' trainer, Greg Anderson, with the designer steroid THG.

"Did I do things wrong? Yes. Am I the only one? No," says Conte, who has been indicted on 35 counts of steroid distribution and money laundering. "The whole system is rotten. I have too much information to go quietly. They want to expose the rotten side of sports? Bring it on."

On April 21, 2001, I was sitting in an Embassy Suites hotel room in Covina, Calif., about a foot away from Marion Jones. The next day, she was going to try to break the world record in the 300 meters. It was her first competition of the 2001 season, and we were both excited.

We'd had a lot of success since the previous August, after I'd begun sending her packages of various performance enhancers including "The Clear," a steroid that later became famous as THG, and nutritional supplements. She was on all of it at the 2000 Games in Sydney, when she won three gold medals and two bronzes. I tell you this knowing Marion passed a lie-detector test saying it's not true. All that shows me is lie detectors don't work.

She came to my room for a new piece of equipment I'd brought, a $1,000 NovoPen injector that looked like a Sharpie and can be used for human growth hormone. I needed to teach her how to use it. Marion wasn't the least bit nervous; she's always in control. She pulled the spandex of her bicycle shorts above her right thigh. She dialed up a dose of four-and-a-half units of growth hormone and injected it into her quadriceps.

Marion won the race the next day, but didn't break the record, which has stood since 1984. I wasn't surprised. Back then, before year-round drug testing, sprinters could use as much as they liked, as long as they tapered off just before a race. No one can get away with that today. I liked Marion and I don't think she was doing anything differently than anyone else. But I do know she was using the very best stuff. I made sure of it.

Want to know how this part of my life started? It wasn't with drugs. When I played bass for Tower of Power in the '70's, I was one of the only band members who wasn't using drugs. Believe it or not, I'm very conservative. I ran track in school in Fresno, so I've always believed in fitness.

In 1984, after 18 years in music, playing with people like Herbie Hancock, I needed to get off the road and take care of my family. So I invested in a preventive medicine center, and a machine that traces 40 minerals in the blood. I couldn't pronounce the name of the thing, but I figured if it cost me $25 to do a test, and I could charge $100 to give one, maybe I could make a business out of it.

That was the beginning of BALCO.

I went to Stanford's medical library and started to copy articles about minerals and how to measure them. I got pretty good at it. One day in 1985 I was at a medical conference talking about my work when a coach from Cal-Berkeley said, "How'd you like to help the world's fastest swimmer?"

Matt Biondi was strong up to 120 meters, but then he hit the wall. We gave him a battery of tests, found he was depleted in magnesium and got him on supplements. Six weeks later, he smashed the American 200-meter record. One thing led to another, and I started to work with athletes who were heading to the 1988 Olympics in Seoul. I prepared 15 Americans -- in track, swimming and judo -- who brought back medals.

[Alex Linder]

I had no idea how corrupt the Olympics were until four years later. I was working with Gregg Tafralis, who'd been a shot-putter since he was 12. Somewhere along the line, a coach told him, "If you want to go to the Olympics, you have to do steroids." I knew Gregg was doing them when he finished ninth in Seoul, but I didn't provide them. He was still doing them in 1992, when he finished fourth at the Olympic Trials in New Orleans and didn't make the team. Naturally, he was upset. But it was nothing compared with how he felt two days later, when a friend of mine, an official with USA Track & Field, called to say: "Your boy tested positive. It's just a matter of time before he's banned."

Gregg was destroyed. A day later, the same friend called back. "Guess what?" he said. "Your boy's results are getting covered up. I guess they figure it's not a good time for positive tests to come out, on the eve of the Olympics." That's when I learned there are two sets of rules: the ones in the book and the ones everybody plays by.

I was still going by the book when Bill Romanowski showed up at BALCO early in the summer of 1996. He'd heard about our tests from his speed coach, and loved what we did for him ... so much so that he introduced me around at Broncos camp. I wound up designing mineral programs for all the guys.

By the time Romo was finished referring players to me, I had a database of about 250 NFL clients. I knew that more than two thirds of them ran low on zinc and magnesium after strenuous exercise. That's why I created ZMA, a supplement that replenishes those two minerals and adds a shot of vitamin B6, too. It had gross sales of $25 million in 1999, its debut year. Since I got 10 percent of that, I'd made enough money that I didn't have to show up at a job in the morning anymore. Now I could do whatever I wanted.

By then I'd become interested in steroids. At the San Francisco Pro Invitational Body Building contest in 1998, they asked me to talk about BALCO. Twenty-one bodybuilders were there, all curious about what our tests could tell them. I collected their blood and urine and discovered the steroids they were using -- trenbolone, primobolan -- were plain old $10 testosterone that had been re-labeled. I told them that whoever was selling them the stuff was ripping them off.

What really surprised me was that, although these guys were taking massive doses of anabolic steroids, their biochemical profiles weren't that bad. One or two guys had abnormalities, but in general the effects weren't nearly as bad as what I'd expected.

In the spring of 1999, I was at another bodybuilding show when someone offered me a clear liquid. I won't tell you who gave it to me. All I'll say is he called it "The Stuff." I assumed it was some sort of pro-hormone. It was norbolethone, the first generation of "The Clear." I tried it myself, then gave it to some people I trained with. Even at a moderate dosage, it enhanced recovery without any crazy side effects -- 'roid rage or anything like that. We gradually started to incorporate "The Stuff" into programs of certain elite athletes. Romanowski got it first. A couple of months later, I gave a small amount to the sprinter Chryste Gaines. But let me tell you something about Chryste: She wasn't a fan of any of this. Then I gave it to the twin Olympians, Alvin and Calvin Harrison, the summer before the 2000 Olympics. Let's be clear: This didn't happen overnight. It's not like I ran out and started giving "The Stuff" to any and all athletes that may have wanted to try it. And none of this over-the-line activity had to do with making money. I was already rich.

It was about Victor making history.

And I did a few months later, even if it wasn't the way I'd intended to. In August 2000, the world's sports media sat in a hotel conference room waiting to hear Marion Jones defend her husband, C.J. Hunter, at the Sydney Games -- and I was on the stage right next to them. Three days earlier, Marion had won the 100 meters by the second-biggest margin in Olympic history. Then the media busted the news that C.J. had failed four drug tests for nandrolone in Europe earlier in the summer, and all hell broke loose. Why was I on that podium? C.J. had called me six weeks before the Olympics to ask me to work with Marion. I started providing her with insulin, growth hormone, EPO and "The Clear," as well as nutritional supplements. None of this had anything to do with C.J.'s failed tests. He swore to me he wasn't using nandrolone. When I asked him about supplements he was taking, he said he bought some iron pills at a pharmacy in Rome.

I'd heard about problems with the brand he mentioned. The Olympic lab in Germany found more than half the bottles they tested were contaminated with nandrolone. I called the plant where it was made, and the owner said there were three machines making different supplements one day. One was making the iron pill C.J. bought, but another was making a pro-hormone that contained nandrolone, and its particles flew all over the place. That was proof enough for me. I told C.J. his supplements were contaminated.

The morning after the news broke in Sydney, C.J. came to my hotel with guys from NBC and Nike and said, "Tell 'em what you got." I told them the mixers story. The next thing I knew, I was facing Johnnie Cochran. I told him, too. That's when he said: "We got the media waiting. You're going to explain all this." It took 45 minutes to get there. On the way, we picked up Marion. It was the first time I'd actually met her. We talked the whole way. When we got to the press conference, she got up and said, "I stand by my man." C.J. said, "I didn't take anything." Then he turned to me. "Take over, Victor."

It was clearly my job was to create reasonable doubt. But here's the part that amazed me: I never, ever worked with C.J., but the media reported I gave him the contaminated supplement.

[Alex Linder]

Giambi steroid revelations beg question of Bonds

Another player, another admission. Another picture to hang on baseball's steroid wall, which better have room for more.

Now it's Jason Giambi, if the San Francisco Chronicle report is true, telling the grand jury of his quest for better hitting through injections and creams and any other ideas that allegedly hatched from the fertile mind of Barry Bonds' trainer.

Barry Bonds' trainer. That is the phrase that sets off the alarm and knocks at the door and fans the flame. In the charges from the BALCO investigation, Greg Anderson is the guru. The authority. The sage bartender of steroids.

Barry Bonds' trainer. The man with the plan.

If baseball is not trembling anew, it should be.

This only gets worse. With Giambi's reported testimony the latest syringe to drop, the scandal creeps ever closer to Bonds, like dirty river water slowly rising to flood stage.

To the player who acquires MVP awards like new suits. To the hitting machine with 703 home runs, leaving Babe Ruth's 714 in his crosshairs next spring, and Hank Aaron's 755 after that.

To the greatest performer of the age. All ready to make enormous history. Except history must be wondering, like the rest of us.

Bonds' steadfast denials remain in force. But today the clouds are as low hanging as ever, the questions more pressing. Before he sends another ball into McCovey Cove, before the crowds fight for another souvenir, before the final climb to Mt. Ruth and Mt. Aaron begins, the public needs to know.

And the game needs to know.

And the future needs to know.

If we are to have a new home run record, has it come out of a bottle? What kind of asterisk would that require?

For the moment, Giambi is the face of the scandal. Another sad case of what can go wrong. He is only 33 but there is legitimate doubt if he will ever be what he was.

His body may have rebelled against the steroids. He was a shell of a slugger last season, healthy enough to hit only .208 and play 80 games, sidelined by a mysterious and reportedly benign tumor, about which he had virtually no comment.

Now reports say it was a tumor in the pituitary gland. Medical experts say that pituitary function can be altered by anabolic steroid use. No wonder, then, the silence.

Giambi's power has eroded, not to mention his credibility. When he reported as an obviously shrunken Yankee last season, apparently off the steroids by then, he claimed he had lost only four pounds, but sounded like a disreputable used car salesman. And no, he answered to the inevitable question, he had not been taking anything illegal.

The grand jury reportedly heard something quite different in December 2003.

His was another dose of denial for baseball, which faces this problem only when forced to. More common, there are maybes and possiblys and we'll sees, especially from the players' union. An inferno has broken out, and baseball takes baby steps toward an extinguisher.

The time is spent talking of contract clauses. Meantime, the real life cases stack up. There Jason Giambi sat last season, watching October go by, a $120 million player with nothing to offer. An irrelevant Yankee. Who knows how many other names this will engulf in the end?

And now, somewhere out there is Barry Bonds, with all his remarkable feats. But the integrity of his career and the foundation of his legacy are at stake, not to mention the soul of the game.

For this, he does not get an intentional pass. There are insinuations and implications, from Gary Sheffield to Jason Giambi. Before the cheering starts again, and the balls pitched to Bonds are specially marked for Cooperstown, baseball needs to know.

How did Barry Bonds come to be?

---

Mike Lopresti writes for Gannett News Service

[nazibunny]

Um, never liked Barry Bonds. Sad to hear about Giambi, I watched him hit some impressive dingers during a home run derby a few years back. Who will be my baseball hero? Todd Helton of the Rockies? He doesn't look like he does the steroids. How about the Big Unit? Do pitchers take steroids? How can we fans tell?
As I write this, CNN talks of a baseball bat of McGuire sold for a lot a $$$$$.
What is the value of a souvenir by a steroid taking baseball player?

[White Winger]

And,of course,you can bet the house,that BeelzeBonds will get only a little slap on the wrist,while Giambi will get the boom lowered on him.

[nazibunny]

hee hee, so Negro Bonds is sticking to his story that he didn't take steriods.
How long can he keep it up while all around him 'fess up?
Isn't that what is happening now? I don't watch too much news, but I think I saw the Baseball commisioner on the tube saying something about the issue.
They would be wise to take up this issue now.

[COTW]

A Black Mark on Baseball
(http://www.castefootball.us/viewarticle.asp?sportID=14&teamID=0&ID=22393) LOL, black mark.

[nazibunny]

A Black Mark on Baseball
(http://www.castefootball.us/viewarticle.asp?sportID=14&teamID=0&ID=22393) LOL, black mark.

That was a good article. I am not as excited about the upcoming baseball season. Love the game but now I have to look twice at all my favorite players. :( Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth still hold the highest honor in our house.
I dig that picture of Cobb stealing home base, with his spikes up and a look of grunt pain on the catchers face. Great shot.
I bet they will let this steriod thing die down. How can they police it now if they didn't before. I bet too many players dickered into the steriod jar. And I was thinking the other day, if they let the steriods continue than they may as well let Rose into the Hall of Fame. At least he honestly made his records.
And this is not my normal feeling on Rose.

[Alex Linder]

Latest on Barry "Balco" Bonds...

Book details Bonds' steroid regimen

Barry Bonds used a vast array of performance-enhancing drugs, including steroids and human growth hormone, for at least five seasons beginning in 1998, according to a book written by two San Francisco Chronicle reporters.

Beginning in 1998 with injections in his buttocks of Winstrol, the same steroid used in the 1988 Olympics by Ben Johnson and last year by Rafael Palmeiro, Bonds' massive doping regimen grew more sophisticated as the years went on, according to "Game of Shadows," a book to be released later this month written by reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams.

Fainaru-Wada and Williams write that "more than a dozen people either had been told directly that he was using banned drugs, had seen him using the drugs with their own eyes, or had been provided with information that made the conclusion he was doping inescapable," according to a book excerpt in this week's Sports Illustrated.

The book, written in narrative style, is said to be based on more than a thousand pages of documents and interviews with more than 200 people.

Bonds, who testified before a San Francisco federal grand jury looking into steroid use by top athletes, repeatedly has denied using performance-enhancing drugs. Phone messages left by The Associated Press seeking comment from his attorney and publicist were not immediately returned Tuesday.

Bonds said Tuesday at Giants camp in Arizona that he was not aware of the book. When asked if he would read it, he said, "I won't even look at it. There's no reason to."

"I've read what was reported," Bonds' agent, Jeff Borris, told The Associated Press. "Barry is looking forward to playing this year and the improved health of his knee, and being as productive as he's ever been."

Among the items detailed in the excerpt:

• Bonds was motivated to take performance-enhancing drugs by the Mark McGwire-Sammy Sosa chase of the single-season home run record in 1998 and he had never taken any before 1998.

• Through research, Bonds developed a deep knowledge of performance enhancers. He even talked, through third parties, to medical authorities who advised him not to use steroids.

• He began with Winstrol after the 1998 season. He also worked out extensively, sometimes spending 12 hours a day at the gym where he met the Weight Guru, who turned out to be Greg Anderson.

• He also took Deca-Durabolin. By 2001, the authors allege, he was using two designer steroids referred to as the Cream and the Clear, as well as insulin, human growth hormone, testosterone decanoate (a fast-acting steroid known as Mexican beans) and trenbolone, a steroid created to improve the muscle quality of cattle. That's the same year Bonds broke Mark McGwire's single-season home-run record (70) by belting 73.

• He got the substances from Anderson, his personal trainer who became a San Francisco Giants employee. Anderson got them from BALCO labs, headed by Victor Conte. Anderson's employment by the Giants irked the team's training staff, according to the excerpt. The Giants also did a background check, discovering that "World Gym was known as a place to score steroids and that Anderson himself was rumored to be a dealer. But the club decided it didn't want to alienate Bonds on this issue, either. The trainers stayed."

• Despite seeing a big change in Bonds' physical appearance, Giants officials did not challenge their star for fear of upsetting him. "The Giants, from owner Peter Magowan to manager Dusty Baker, had no interest in learning whether Bonds was using steroids, either," the excerpt contends. "Although it was illegal to use the drugs without a prescription, baseball had never banned steroids. Besides, by pursuing the issue, the Giants ran the risk of poisoning their relationship with their touchy superstar -- or, worse, of precipitating a drug scandal the year before the opening of their new ballpark, where Bonds was supposed to be the main gate attraction."

• Anderson kept meticulous records on Bonds' program, many of them on a computer. At times, Bonds gulped as many as 20 pills at a time. He also learned to inject himself.

• Bonds had a relationship with Kimberly Bell, a woman he met in the Candlestick Park parking lot in 1994 while he was married. Bonds even put a downpayment on a house for Bell in Arizona from monies he made from card-show appearances (and didn't report as income). She claims he later threatened to kill her.

• According to the excerpt, Anderson told an acquaintance who was wearing a wire in 2003 that: "The whole thing is, everything I've been doing, it's all undetectable. The stuff I have, we created it. You can't buy it anywhere else; you can't get it anywhere else. You can take [it] the day of [a drug test], pee, and it comes up clear.

"See, like Marion Jones and them -- it's the same stuff they went to the Olympics with and they test them every f------ week. So that's why I know it works, so that's why I know we're not in trouble. So that's cool."

• Bonds had immunity in grand jury testimony from everything but perjury. He claimed in testimony that he didn't know what Anderson was giving him. "At the end of [the] 2002, 2003 season, when I was going through [a bad period,] my dad died of cancer.... I was fatigued, just needed recovery you know, and this guy says, 'Try this cream, try this cream,'" he said. "And Greg came to the ballpark and said, you know, 'This will help you recover.' And he rubbed some cream on my arm ... gave me some flaxseed oil, man. It's like, 'Whatever, dude.' "

Later, Bonds said: "You know me, I'm 39 years old. I'm dealing with pain. All I want is the pain relief, you know? ... I never asked Greg," according to the excerpt. "When he said it was flaxseed oil, I just said, 'Whatever.' It was in the ballpark ... in front of everybody. I mean, all the reporters, my teammates. I mean, they all saw it. I didn't hide it ... . You know, trainers come up to me and say, 'Hey, Barry, try this.' "

The book is scheduled to be published on March 27.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2358236

[Alex Linder]

Despite seeing a big change in Bonds' physical appearance, Giants officials did not challenge their star for fear of upsetting him.

Just like when darky manager Dusty Baker's grandkid ran onto the field while a run was scoring durying a playoff game - and nobody said anything.

That seems to be the leitmotiv of our jew-produced society: niggers go ape, and we all sit around pretending it isn't happening.

[Itz_molecular]

Despite seeing a big change in Bonds' physical appearance, Giants officials did not challenge their star for fear of upsetting him.

What a joke ! They knew it and said nothing because he was 'performing' for the team .



Same thing with Ben Johnson . He went from average shape to super buffed, IN JUST A COUPLE OF MONTHS ! It was an open joke that Johnson was using steroids .

I would guess , if someone was able to go back in time and analyze Jesse Owen's blood and tissue, they would find some chemical enhancement , amphetamine or something . It would fit the common pattern.

[durendal]

sports init of itself is corrupted and ridiculous wipe it out and start anew

[Alex Linder]

Bonds's head looks like a giant overripe eggplant-pumpkin hybrid.

[albion]

http://www.comcast.net/data/br/2006/03/08/br-44288.jpg
San Francisco Giants' Barry Bonds walks to the dugout after running laps in the outfield during a spring training game against the Arizona Diamondbacks in Scottsdale, Ariz., Monday March 15, 2004. According to "Game of Shadows," a book written by two San Francisco Chronicle reporters, Bonds used a vast array of performance-enhancing drugs, including steroids and human growth hormone, for at least five seasons beginning in 1998.

Bonds exposed
Shadows details superstar slugger's steroid use
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/baseball/mlb/03/06/news.excerpt/index.html

NEW YORK (SI.com) -- Beginning in 1998 with injections in his buttocks of Winstrol, a powerful steroid, Barry Bonds took a wide array of performance-enhancing drugs over at least five seasons in a massive doping regimen that grew more sophisticated as the years went on, according to Game of Shadows, a book written by two San Francisco Chronicle reporters at the forefront of reporting on the BALCO steroid distribution scandal.

(An excerpt of Game of Shadows that details Bonds' steroid use appears exclusively in the March 13 issue of Sports Illustrated, which is available on newsstands beginning on Wednesday. The book's publication date is March 27.)

The authors, Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, describe in sometimes day-to-day, drug-by-drug detail how often and how deeply Bonds engaged in the persistent doping. For instance, the authors write that by 2001, when Bonds broke Mark McGwire's single-season home-run record (70) by belting 73, Bonds was using two designer steroids referred to as the Cream and the Clear, as well as insulin, human growth hormone, testosterone decanoate (a fast-acting steroid known as Mexican beans) and trenbolone, a steroid created to improve the muscle quality of cattle.

BALCO tracked Bonds' usage with doping calendars and folders -- detailing drugs, quantities, intervals and Bonds' testosterone levels -- that wound up in the hands of federal agents upon their Sept. 3, 2003 raid of the Burlingame, Calif., business.

Depending on the substance, Bonds used the drugs in virtually every conceivable form: injecting himself with a syringe or being injected by his trainer, Greg Anderson, swallowing pills, placing drops of liquid under his tongue, and, in the case of BALCO's notorious testosterone-based cream, applying it topically.

According to the book, Bonds gulped as many as 20 pills at a time and was so deeply reliant on his regimen that he ordered Anderson to start "cycles" -- a prescribed period of steroid use lasting about three weeks -- even when he was not due to begin one. Steroid users typically stop usage for a week or two periodically to allow the body to continue to produce natural testosterone; otherwise, such production diminishes or ceases with the continued introduction of synthetic forms of the muscle-building hormone.

Bonds called for the re-starting of cycles when he felt his energy and power start to drop. If Anderson told Bonds he was not due for another cycle, the authors write, Bonds would tell him, "F--- off, I'll do it myself.''

When informed of the book this morning and asked if he was concerned about it, Bonds told a group of reporters gathered around his locker, "Nope. I won't even look at it [the book]. For what? I won't even look at it. There's no need to." He then walked away.

The authors compiled the information over a two-year investigation that included, but was not limited to, court documents, affidavits filed by BALCO investigators, confidential memoranda of federal agents (including statements made to them by athletes and trainers), grand jury testimony, audiotapes and interviews with more than 200 sources. Some of the information previously was reported by the authors in the Chronicle. Some of the information is new. For instance, in an extensive note on sourcing, the authors said memos detailing statements by BALCO owner Victor Conte, vice president James Valente and Anderson to IRS special agent Jeff Novitzky were sealed when they first consulted them, but have been unsealed since.

The preponderance of evidence is by far the most detailed and damning condemnation that Bonds, formerly a sleek five-tool player, built himself into a hulking, record-setting home run hitter at an advanced baseball age with a cornucopia of elaborate, illegally-administered chemicals. Through 1998, for instance, when he turned 34, Bonds averaged one home run every 16.1 at bats. Since then -- what the authors identify as the start of his doping regimen -- Bonds has hit home runs nearly twice as frequently (one every 8.5 at bats).

The authors describe how Bonds turned to steroids after the 1998 season because he was jealous of McGwire. Bonds hit 37 home runs in '98 -- a nice total and the fourth most of his career at that point -- but he was ignored by fans and the media who were captivated by McGwire's 70 home runs and his duel for the record with Sammy Sosa, who hit 66 that year.

According to the book, Bonds, in comments to his mistress, Kimberly Bell, often dismissed McGwire with racially-charged remarks such as, "They're just letting him do it because he's a white boy." But Bonds looked at McGwire and his hulking physique and decided he needed to dramatically increase his muscle mass to compete with him.

It was immediately after that 1998 season, the book said, that Bonds hooked up with Anderson, a gym rat known to obtain steroids and growth hormone from AIDS patients in San Francisco who were legally prescribed the drugs but sold them to make money. The authors write that the San Francisco Giants, Bonds' employer, would later discover through a background check that Anderson was connected to a gym that was known as a place to score steroids and that he was rumored to be a dealer. Yet the Giants -- who didn't want to upset their superstar -- continued to allow Anderson free reign about their ballpark and inside their clubhouse.

The authors write that Anderson started Bonds on Winstrol, also known as stanozolol, the longtime favorite steroid of bodybuilders, disgraced sprinter Ben Johnson and baseball player Rafael Palmeiro. In 100 days, Bonds packed on 15 pounds of muscle, and at age 35 hit home runs at the best rate of his career, once every 10.4 at bats. But he also grew too big, too fast. He tore his triceps tendon, telling Bell that the steroids "makes me grow faster, but if you're not careful, you can blow it out."

The book said Anderson and Bonds subsequently tweaked the program, adding such drugs as the steroid Deca-Durabolin and growth hormone, which allowed Bonds to retain his energy and physique without rigorous training. Not only did the growth hormone keep him fresh, but after complaining in 1999 about difficulty tracking pitches, he noticed it improved his eyesight as well.

Bonds added more drugs after the 2000 season, when Anderson hooked up Bonds with BALCO and its founder, Conte, according to the authors. In addition to the Cream and the Clear, the steroids designed to be undetectable, Bonds took such drugs as Clomid, a women's infertility drug thought to help a steroid user recover his natural testosterone production, and Modafinil, a narcolepsy drug used as a powerful stimulant.

Whereas Anderson's drug acumen had been forged in the gym culture, Conte and his chemists brought Bonds to another level of sophistication, by prescribing him elaborate cocktails of drugs designed to be even more effective and undetectable. For instance, the authors write that in 2002, when Bonds won his fifth MVP Award and had a .700 on-base percentage in the World Series, he was fueled by meticulous three-week cycles in which he injected growth hormone every other day, took the Cream and the Clear in the days in between, and capped the cycle with Clomid. The cycle was followed by one week off. The authors write that Anderson usually administered the drugs to Bonds at Bonds' home, using a needle to inject the growth hormone and a syringe without a needle to squirt the Clear under his tongue.

In addition to detailing the drug usage, the excerpt portrays Bonds as a menacing boor, a tax cheat and an adulterer given to (probably because of the rampant steroid use) sexual dysfunction, hair loss and wild mood swings that included periods of rage. The authors report that Bonds gave Bell, with whom he continued his affair after his second marriage in January 1998, $80,000 in cash in 2001 from memorabilia income not reported to the IRS. Theirs was a volatile relationship. Bell retained answering machine recordings of him after he threatened to kill her, remarking that if she disappeared no one would be able to prove he even knew her.

In 2003, as their relationship completely unraveled, Bell angered Bonds by showing up late for a hotel rendezvous. According to the excerpt, Bonds put his hand around her throat, pressed her against a wall and whispered, "If you ever f-----' pull some s--- like that again I'll kill you, do you understand me?"

A few weeks later, the authors write, Bonds told Bell, "You need to disappear."

In secret grand jury testimony obtained by the authors, Bonds testified that he did not know what the substances were that Anderson gave him and he put in his body, saying at one point, "It's like, 'Whatever, dude.'" Bonds testified under a grant of immunity, though he was told the immunity did not extend to perjury.

Bonds begins this season with 708 home runs, seven short of passing Babe Ruth for second on the all-time list and 48 from surpassing Hank Aaron as the all-time leader. Three knee surgeries limited Bonds to 14 games last season, have reduced his mobility and left in question his fitness for regular duty this year.

In October, Conte was sentenced to four months in prison and four months of home confinement as part of a plea deal with prosecutors. Anderson pled guilty to money laundering and a steroid distribution charge. He was sentenced to three months in prison and three months of home confinement. Valente pled guilty to reduced charges of steroid distribution and was sentenced to probation.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/images/03/07/si_cover.jpg

[Steve B]

You guys are nuts! It is flaxseed oil 'tis all.

http://www.comcast.net/data/br/2006/03/08/br-44288.jpg


http://www.cnnsi.com/multimedia/photos_from_the_field/2004/12/03/bonds.years/bonds1.jpg

[N.B. Forrest]

hebeSPN said that Bonds became a juice monkey after becoming "infuriated" by the attention "inferior, slow, home run specialist" - WHITE - McGwire was getting the year he smashed Maris' record. That lousy coon has made openly racist statements before, saying that he wanted to break Babe Ruth's records, just to topple White fans' ultimate hero.

Who's been toppled, you fucking nigger? :D

Let's hope the 'roids guarantee that the black bastard'll join Kirby Puckett in the race for the worm chow pennant very soon indeed. :cheers:

[nazibunny]

And the shit hits on Barry.

Man, this is the day I was waiting for. lol :D :cheers:

It is a good day in baseball today no matter how this plays out,
a sigh of relief for all the fans of THE BABE and good old 'whites-only' baseball. :cool:

[Itz_molecular]

And the shit hits on Barry.

Why isn't he charged with 'FRAUD' ? Why doesn't he have to forfeit his earnings and savings, they were obtained by fraud ?



Is there testing for drugs in the PGA ?
Tiger Woods sure has accomplished a lot, in a short time .

[nazibunny]

Fraud? lol, that will be the day!

I don't think they charged the other players that doped up, did they? Maybe fines and suspension.

Maybe they will bust ol' Barry for tax evasion.

[Steve B]

Retired Wendell points finger at Sosa, Bonds
Fox sports, Mar 17, 2006


Retired pitcher Turk Wendell says Sammy Sosa used steroids to become a prolific home run hitter, and that Barry Bonds has used them too, according to a report in Chicago's Daily Herald.

Wendell was a teammate of Sosa's with the Cubs from 1993-97.
When asked specifically about Sosa's alleged use, the typically blunt Wendell said, "C'mon. Of course. There are so many guys who did and it's all going to come out. Here's a guy (Sosa) who goes from 30 homers to 60 homers every year, and just as fast he's out of baseball. Can't get a job. How's that work?"

Wendell also predicted that baseball's steroids problem will only get worse.

"Baseball people know this is going to get worse and nobody wants anything to do with the guys who were on the stuff," he said. "We would sit there in the clubhouse and laugh. How's a guy gain 30 pounds of solid muscle in three months (over the winter)? It's physically impossible without the juice.''

Rampant steroid use is often thought to be (at least) a partial cause for early death. Former NFL standout Lyle Alzado is often cited as an example of that.

Could some MLB players find themselves facing the same fate?

Wendell seems to think so.

"You still see Yogi Berra and Phil Rizzuto and Johnny Pesky around, but this era of players is going to be dying early,'' Wendell told the Herald. "The stats don't lie. The stuff will kill you.

"Who cares if you have unreal numbers? You need that bad to be 'the man' for a few years? Those guys will pay later.''

Wendell also revisited a claim he first made two years ago — that Bonds has used steroids too.

"Obviously, he did it," Wendell said. "It's clear just seeing his body."

Wendell, a former Cubs pitcher, says Bonds alleged steroids use was common knowledge in baseball circles.

"Everybody in Chicago knew what was going on, just like everybody in baseball knows about Bonds,'' Wendell said. "The coaches knew. So did the managers and owners. How could they not know?"


http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/5422242