Steroid Nation

MLB fan opinion: High salaries are more problematic for baseball than steroids

The American Chronicle carries a piece on baseball, and the problems fans perceive.  Apparently salaries -- which are set by supply and demand -- are perceived are more problematic than steroid-cheats.

I was watching Mike & Mike in the Morning on ESPN 2 today (March 2009), when they discussed an interesting survey conducted with baseball fans. The question: What is the one thing that is most responsible bringing Major League Baseball down? Both Mikes thought the majority would say high ticket prices, but this was only 23%.

Even the steroids abuse was only 22%. The answer that received 51% was the high salaries being paid to baseball players. Interesting is it not? Despite all the media exposure of big name ball players exposed as hypocrites and liars about their steroid use. Despite high ticket prices directly affecting their family economics. Exorbitant salaries are what tick fans off the most.

Perhaps this should not be such a surprise. After all, exorbitant salaries and bonuses have been getting even more media attention than steroids as of late. The public is quickly losing their taste for those being paid ridiculously high salaries and bonuses. We see so many examples of pay far exceeding the value that any one person could offer. If you are the owner of a business, then I say that this is an entirely different matter, but if you are an employee (and even a CEO is an employee), of a publicly help corporation, there should be a fiduciary responsibility to the shareholders for reasonable wages.

One argument for high CEO pay is that they are being paid according to their peers. If you do not pay, they will leave and move on. The self serving argument has produced a situation in the USA where a CEO makes over 400 times the earnings of the average worker. The next highest country is 29 times the average worker. The boards of directors that are supposed to oversee companies are composed of CEOs. Why wouldn't they participate in the escalation of salaries and bonuses?

If you argue that the business increases and they deserve these extravagant amounts, I would argue the businesses might be charging too much. If we cut baseball player's salaries then this money flows back to the owners. We then put pressure on the owners to reduce the price of attending a ball game. If we cut executive pay, then shareholders, employees and customers should all benefit.

As a nation, we need to make better judgments as to when enough is enough. Why is it that we so envy power, money and fame? Where has it gotten us? Why are we so concerned about what we have rather than who we are as a human being? What would our daily life be like if we were all more concerned with being good people rather than rich people? All we have to do is establish a mindset of sharing the wealth rather than stealing the wealth.

Interesting comment.  We noted the fan survey which rates salaries a problem.  On one hand, salaries are determined by the market o supply and demand.  Ticket prices too.  This is what baseball fans will pay.

On the other hand the high compensation drives the cheating to a degree.

Chicago Sun Times writer Rick Telander points out Ryan Theriot epitimizes MLB steroid problems (but is NOT under steroid suspicion)

The Chicago Cub's shortstop Ryan Theroit hit one home run last year.  Sure the winds were always blowing in against him, and the mound was elevated only when he batted, but one home run is not impressive.  The slugger has banged out 5 this May alone.  What is this...Brady Anderson revisited?

The Chicago Sun-Times columnist Rick Telander points out that the Theriot power outburst now comes under suspicion in 2009 MLB times.  In time past, fans might conclude Theriot spent more time working out over the winter, or matured as a hitter this year.  No more: the juice is in.

Sorry, Ryan Theriot, you're a suspect. Forget Manny Ramirez and Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi and Mark McGwire and all the other hulking, accused performance-enhancing drug users.

You, sir, all 5-11, 175 pounds of you, are doing devious things.

To wit, Theriot -- no disrespect, but if he's 5-11, I'm 6-12 -- hit two home runs Wednesday night at Wrigley Field against the Padres, giving him five times more home runs in 33 games this year than he hit all last season.

Brrinnnng! Eee -- ah! Eee-ah! Zzzt! Zzzzt!

That rings the steroid/HGH/ whatever-designer-drug-is-in bell, doesn't it?

Well, yes, ''The Riot'' hit only one dinger in 2008 and only five so far this year.

But if he were, say, Manny Ramirez (37 home runs in 2008), he would have just hit his 185th homer of 2009.

Really, Theriot is not a serious suspect for juicing.  Apparently his bat found a sweet spot or two.  However, this is 2009 and post-Clemens, post-Bonds, post-A-rod, Post-Manny, post-McGwire...it goes on and on and on.

But this is what baseball has wrought.

This is what we tried to tell Bud Selig and Donald Fehr and all the head-in-the-sand executive clowns for years and years would happen if Major League Baseball and its union left athletes to their own devices, acting as though crazy numbers came about just because eating and lifting had become trendy...

  What's the old saying -- you reap what you sow?

When you plant cheating, Major League Baseball, cynicism will be your crop.

Telander's correct.  Once the slippery slope of enhanced achievement is breached, then it is a long slide down.  Speaking of enhancement,where is Ms. California when you need some positive enhancement?  Or Brady Anderson for that matter?

Lenny Dykstra, 'Nails' with steroids, a complete sports and business fraud

EPSN compiled an in-depth story on Ex-Philadelphia Philly, Ex-New York Met Lenny Dykstra once known as 'Nails".  Dykstra was a  hustling aggressive ballplayer in the MLB, but when it was revealed that Nails used steroids to juice up his play, his athletic reputation appeared a a bit rusted.  (commentary at Deadspin)  Now, like other steroid cheats (Marion Jones, Barry Bonds, Tim Montgomery) we see his business dealings are also fraudulent.

Fish's article looks at the fraud that is Lenny Dykstra's business 'empire'.  Like the fake stats he juiced up in baseball, Dykstra fraudulently juices up his business acumen, massaging the data to look great, meanwhile he lies, cheats, misrepresents, and defrauds his clients, friends and family.

In case you missed the HBO profile last year or the magazine stories that trumpet Dykstra's business acumen, his life beyond baseball includes acquisitions such as hockey legend Wayne Gretzky's old house ("the best house in the world," Dykstra says) in Thousand Oaks, Calif., which he bought for $18.5 million. He drives a black Rolls Royce Phantom with an extended wheelbase, and hires pilots to fly him around in his Gulfstream II jet...

And after thumbing through a series of lawsuits that stretches from coast to coast and chatting up his business associates, you wonder if this aspiring financial Pied Piper is, indeed, living in a fantasyland. You wonder if the dream, built on glitz and greed in a time of economic uncertainty, is a teetering house of cards. You wonder if anyone this side of Bernie Madoff has ticked off more people -- business partners and family, alike -- than Lenny K. Dykstra.

The lawsuits suggest that one of two things is going on here: Either Lenny hates to pay his bills, or he's a financial train wreck.

Just in the past two years, Dykstra has been the subject of at least 24 legal actions, including 18 since November. Three suits hit the courts on Jan. 29. He's been sued by publishers and print companies, by three different groups of pilots and by a Maryland-based financial and litigation consulting firm that offered expert testimony on his behalf in an earlier lawsuit. He's even been sued by a die-hard Mets fan who was the best man at his wedding 20-some years ago, though that New York investor claims there is no bad blood. 

Dykstra cheated at baseball with steroids and PEDs, and it also appears he cheats at business.  Critical point: look at Barry Bonds, Marion Jones, Tim Montgomery, and Lenny Dystra.  Heck, look at A-Rod too.  These athletes expose serious character flaws that cheat the games, the fans, their competitors, and now their clients.

Those who say illicit steroid and PED use presents no big deal need to answer to the cheating.  The cheaters are consistently flawed and frequently fraudulent.  Sports fraud leads to business fraud leads to personal fraud leads to a wacky moral compass.

Baseball may not be really important or as revered as devotees think.  Then again, ostensibly the sport offers a break from the stress of life...the sport defines itself between the lines where the setting is controlled and the results immediate.  Man v man, like the old days.  However, the cheating and back-stabbing that now takes place daily in the business sphere, is mirrored between the lines.  Great refuge huh?  Human nature, huh?

If Baseball doesn't give a dran about reputation, let the cheaters go on about their way, and we look on the sport as an interesting pastime, kinda like Vegas.  However devotees demand 'integrity'.  Clean up the game and the records if that is the case  From 1990 on there is little  integrity in the game in the 'Steroid Era'.

Dystra's brother turned against him, after the business burns; guess who supplied Nails with Roids:

Kevin Dykstra acknowledges that he briefed investigators for the Mitchell report as well as Major League Baseball security on what he describes as Lenny's use of recreational and performance-enhancing drugs during his playing days. Kevin says he was a source of the drugs for his brother, even after Lenny's baseball career ended.

And here is what the tainted records are worth:

So Dykstra, an assistant and a driver dash out of his office en route to the meeting, carrying plastic-wrapped bundles of The Players Club magazine. Inside the office elevator, Dykstra lifts his right leg like a dog relieving itself -- he retains a degree of the old flexibility -- and farts.

ESPN writer Howard Bryant calls out 2002 Angels - Giants World Series as apex of steroid juiced MLB

ESPN writer Howard Bryant (Juicing the Game) calls out the players and management of both teams in the 2002 World Series between the Anaheim Angles (Troy Glaus) and the San Francisco Giants (Barry Bonds).   Bryant doesn't spare the doctors, also popping unethical California physician Ramon Scruggs who supplied steroids to the Angels' players.

The cornering of Alex Rodriguez and his subsequent admission that he used performance-enhancing drugs represented, for all intents and purposes, the nadir of the steroid era with few, if any, remaining ambiguities: The A-list, Hall of Fame's best used drugs; and so did the mediocre; and so did the worst. The general managers demurred, the leaders shrank and the men who signed the checks, like everyone else, made a fortune. The shock is gone. Little else can surprise our calloused sensibilities.

That said, the intricate details of just how this confidence game was carried out still carry immense value, for they cement a discredited time with facts instead of speculation. Understanding the foundations of the steroid era also reveals that this industrywide failure stretched far beyond the players connected to Brian McNamee, Kirk Radomski or the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative. It provides even more evidence that so much of what we've seen on the field during the past decade and a half needs to be recast.

Recently, The New York Times obtained transcripts of interviews by federal agents with four major league players conducted as part of the ongoing criminal investigation of Ramon Scruggs, a physician under indictment for illegally distributing steroids to big leaguers, police officers and corporate executives, among others.

As we have said, dirty trainers, doctors, and health professionals often stand behind the doping curtain:

Meanwhile, dirty doctors such as Scruggs have applied the same cheap excuses for their behavior that we've heard for years from the players. Glaus told investigators he used steroids to recover from a shoulder injury that was not healing. According to the Times, Schoeneweis told federal agents he felt run-down. Greene said he was fearful of losing his spot on a major league roster and so would not be able to support his family. Valdez said shoulder and knee injuries were not healing. Suggs mailed him steroids and syringes.

Each player used an old rationalization -- I wasn't trying to cheat; I was trying to stay on the field -- to soften the appearance of his actions, but the domino effect remains the same. At this late date, the excuses grow thin, the lies nothing more than a self-created noose.

And that 2002 Series pitting Glaus and the 'Angels' v. Bonds and the 'Gaints'.  We will not point out the delicate irony behind those monikors (we just did):

The 2002 Angels, for example, are the legitimate champions of an illegitimate time, just as Bonds is the legitimate home run champion of a discredited era. Despite Angels manager Mike Scioscia's adamant public stand against drugs, people around the game point privately to that club as one of the premier steroid-fueled teams thanks in part to a bullpen rife with career minor leaguers who suddenly began throwing in the mid-90s after their 30th birthdays.

Glaus was the MVP of that 2002 World Series, which is looking more and more like the definitive Steroid Series. Glaus, Brendan Donnelly and Schoeneweis, all of whom have been implicated, played for the Angels that season. On the Giants, there were Bonds, Benito Santiago, Marvin Benard, David Bell and Rich Aurilia. And that doesn't include the players who were suspect.

Bryant's exleeent writing is very dense reading, packed full of fact and logic.  Excellent piece.

Gary Sheffield launches tainted home run *500*

One more milestone, one more 'asterisk'.  Gary Sheffield luanched home run #500 in Citi Field for the New York Mets.  Here is what the New York Daily News says:

"Everything happens for a reason," Sheffield would say. "There's a reason I hit 19 homers instead of 20 last year. Doing it on the biggest stage, it makes it that much more special to me." Then he talked a bit piously about "a higher purpose" and "a bigger reason."

Sheffield is only the 25th player to enter the 500 Club, the fourth oldest, yet his accomplishment deserves one of the larger asterisks handed out in the steroid era. His election to the Hall of Fame is far from assured, despite this statistical feat. Sheffield has admitted to using a performance-enhancing cream back in 2001 while claiming he had no idea at the time about its chemical makeup or potency. He is named in the Mitchell Repor

If the feat sells more caps and jerseys and tickets it's all OK.  Like one big MLB Ponzi scheme.  Of Sheffield recieved one penny for each home run, he could buy one share of CitiBank Stock...

His narrative on that subject is about as believable as the tales we have been hearing from Marion Jones and Barry Bonds all these years. Friday night, no reporter was going to bother Sheffield about such things when the slugger showed up at the postgame press conference with two children on his knees and his wife at his side. And again, if you think the crowd at Citi Field cared in the least about any of this in the seventh inning, down a run, then you don't know much about baseball fans. They'd cheer the cream itself, right there in the container, if they thought it could win them a pennant. "We needed it in a big way," Jerry Manuel said of the homer.

Jocks breaking rocks: Athletes (boosters, trainers) behind bars

Reasononline carries a very nicely researched piece on athletes, boosters, and trainer who walk the line in a prison.  The athletes end up in jail for drug-related offenses, which recently included illegal steroids and PEDs.

 The article sets the stage with the conviction of Logan Young, the 'Bama Booster who bought players for the Crimson Tide:

Before his untimely death in 2006, Logan Young faced six months in federal prison for “conspiracy to commit racketeering” and “crossing state lines to commit racketeering,” both felonies. While those charges made Young sound like a mafioso, his real offense was violating the recruiting rules of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)...The conviction of Logan Young as “the first college sports booster sentenced to prison essentially for busting NCAA rules” (in the words of ESPN.com’s Mike Fish) is just one example of a disturbing trend: the federal criminalization of private rule breaking in the world of sports.

The authors look at athletes who did time for crimes which include steroid offenses:

Marion Jones:

Former Olympic gold medalist Marion Jones served six months in federal prison last year for making false statements to two grand juries about her personal use of performance-enhancing steroids. As part of a highly unusual plea agreement, unrelated check fraud charges against Jones were dropped in return for her publicly admitting her past steroid use and retiring from the sport...

Barry Bonds:

All-time Major League Baseball (MLB) home run leader Barry Bonds was scheduled to begin trial in March on perjury and obstruction of justice charges, based on his grand jury testimony in a steroid distribution case that closed in 2005 after producing just four minor convictions that netted seven months prison time combined (half as long as Bonds’ personal trainer served behind bars for criminal contempt after refusing to testify about his boss). At press time, yet another federal grand jury was hearing testimony about whether former MLB pitching great Roger Clemens committed perjury when he denied using steroids after being hauled in front of Congress in February 2008.

There are also 'derivative crimes'; as a 'derivative' in finance refers to an instrument that derives value from the underlying entity so do 'derivative crimes.  For instance money laundering, obstruction of justice, racketeering and so on.  Same with jock crimes.

In 1990 Congress added performance-enhancing steroids to its list of banned substances, largely in response to a scandal involving Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson, who was stripped of his 1988 Olympic gold medal after testing positive for anabolic steroids. Capitalizing on the public outcry, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) held hearings on doping in sports. McCain threatened to introduce legislation that would take away the autonomy of the U.S. Olympic Committee unless it adopted aggressive anti-doping policies.

The article continues with a lengthy discussion of the BALCO derivative crimes, found after the jump..

Steroid prophet Rick Helling, hired by MLB Player's Association

The LA Times says that Rick Helling, once the prophet of steroid corruption in the MLB, will be hired by the players union.

Rick Helling's major league career was nothing remarkable. He won 20 games for the Texas Rangers in 1998, albeit with a 4.41 ERA, but mostly he showed up every fifth day and ate a lot of innings.

But Helling, a Stanford product, was active in the players' union. In the winter of 1998-99, following the season in which Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa captivated America with the race to set the single-season home-run record, Helling stood up at a union meeting and said--this according to an excerpt from Joe Torre's book, "The Yankee Years"--what prompted Time magazine to label him "The Man Who Warned Baseball About Steroids."

He told his fellow union leaders that steroid use by ballplayers had grown rampant and was corrupting the game.

"There is this problem with steroids," Helling told them. "It's happening. It's real. And it's so prevalent that guys who aren't doing it are feeling pressure to do it because they're falling behind. It's not a level playing field. We've got to figure out a way to address it.

"It's a bigger deal than people think. It's noticeable enough that it's creating an uneven playing field. What really bothers me is that it's gotten so out of hand that guys are feeling pressure to do it. It's one thing to be a cheater, to be somebody who doesn't care whether it's right or wrong. But it's another thing when other guys feel like they have to do it just to keep up. And that's what's happening. And I don't feel like this is the right way to go."

What Helling had just done was the equivalent of turning up all the lights, clicking off the music and announcing the party was over. "He was the first guy," David Cone said, "who had the guts to stand up at a union meeting and say that in front of everybody and put pressure on it."

Back in the day, Donald Fehr disputed Helling's account.  However:

The news: Fehr hired Helling as a special assistant this morning. From the union's news release...

Interesting.

Cal State Fullerton editorial on steroids in baseball

From the Daily Titan, an interesting take on the PED/steroids in baseball issue:

Today’s baseball players are cheating just as their forefather’s before them, but their means to an end have far more severe consequences.

Gone are the days of spitballs, sandpaper and Vaseline. Now there are new buzzwords such as HGH (human growth hormone), performance enhancers and “the clear.”

There is never a good reason to cheat, but at least the old-timers were doing it to win, not to inflate stats and get a few extra million in their wallets. The bigger concern remains with what the long-term effects of using steroids will be.

Not only are the best players in the world using them without any regard for themselves and their long-term health, they are also jeopardizing the youth that idolize them so much.

With owners, the media and everyone in between turning away from the problem at the beginning, the use of performance enhancing drugs has quietly become acceptable for college and high school players looking to make the leap into professional sports.

There are no guarantees in sports. The lives of millions of student-athletes shouldn’t be at stake because it has become acceptable in the professional level. There is no reason to be using any illegal substances to improve your level of play.

Yes, everyone wants to be the best and have a chance, but by allowing baseball’s promiscuity with drugs get to this point everyone is now at risk.

Major League Baseball, Bud Selig in particular, has to step in and finally put an end to this mess...

Anti-Steroid, anti-doping crusader and IRS agent Jeff Novitzky under the spotlight

ABC News posts a story on the journey of IRS agent Jeff Novitzky, who once tried out for Lute Olson at Arizona basketball, as he crusades against steroids and  doping and some say too zealously Barry Bonds.

The story starts in a California courtroom where Novitzky participated in the BALCO trial of Victor Conte.  And it will continue in the same courtroom:

Sometime in the next few months, Jeff Novitzky will walk back into the same 10th floor courtroom, raise his right hand and swear to tell the truth in the case of the United States v. Barry Lamar Bonds. He will say that Bonds lied in that same courthouse five years ago when he told the grand jury he never knowingly took steroids. And then he'll wait for the jury to decide if baseball's home run king was telling the truth.

But no matter what the jury decides -- and face it, most of us have already made up our minds about Bonds -- it is clear that the detective and his gun has replaced the scientist and his test tube. What isn't clear is whether Jeff Novitzky is part of the solution -- or if he's now the bigger part of the problem. 

Novitzky's early life was highlighted by the Olson connection:

There is nothing about Novitzky's life before Balco that suggests a man destined to direct the biggest investigation in sports history. Or one who would crave or abuse power. He grew up the son of a Bay Area hoops coach, a basketball and track star who still owns the San Mateo County high jump record of 7 feet. Coming out of high school in 1985, he tried out for Lute Olson's Arizona University basketball team. When he fell short, Novitzky returned home to play backup forward and teammate to his big brother at San Jose State.

His athletic career over, Novitzky got a degree in accounting and took a job in San Jose with the IRS's criminal division, a select group of agents who use tax laws and their guns to bust up all sorts of criminal operations.

After the jump we examine more of the extended story on Novitzky...

San Francisco judge bars positive steroid drug tests in Barry Bonds trial

Judge Susan Illston barred federal prosecutors from introducing 3 positive blood tests in Barry Bonds perjury trial to begin later this year.  The AP reports this story.  (New York Times story here)

Evidence in court must adhere to rules unique to courtrooms, and good for that.  However, the judge cannot banish those positive tests from the minds of baseball fans and Hall of Fame voters, where Barry Bonds really lives...tainted forever.  (BTW Bonds is looking pretty old in the photo)

A federal judge ruled Thursday that prosecutors cannot show jurors three positive steroid tests and other key evidence in the slugger's trial next month.

U.S. District Judge Susan Illston said the urine samples that tested positive for steroids are inadmissible because prosecutors cannot prove conclusively that they belong to Bonds. The judge also barred prosecutors from showing jurors so-called doping calendars that Bonds' personal trainer, Greg Anderson, allegedly maintained for the slugger.

The judge said prosecutors need direct testimony from Anderson to introduce such evidence. Anderson's attorney said the trainer will refuse to testify at Bonds' trial even though he is likely to be sent to prison on contempt of court charges.

However the judge did not bar us from continuing the story after the jump...

New witnesses to be called in Barry Bonds BALCO trial, including Patroit linebacker Izzo

The Los Angeles Times delineates the list of potential witnesses in the Federal case against Barry Bonds for lying to the San Francisco Grand Jury about PED use.  A few new names surfaced including Marvin Benard, and football player Larry Izzo.

The government's perjury and obstruction of justice case against Barry Bonds includes plans to call witnesses who will testify that they saw the slugger "being injected" and heard him make statements "admitting his use of steroids," according to court filings Friday in San Francisco.

Among its 39 witnesses, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Northern California said it would call upon "the defendant's mistress," Kimberly Bell, former personal assistants and former teammates Bobby Estalella, Benito Santiago, Armando Rios and Marvin Benard, as well as other major league players...

Syringes, human growth hormone vials and documents pertaining to other athletes with connections to Anderson, including Estalella, Santiago, Jason and Jeremy Giambi and New England Patriots linebacker Larry Izzo, are on the government's exhibits list.

The Feds will also present relatively embarrassing testimony from Bonds's ex-girlfriend Kimberly Bell:

In its filing, the government said Bell "will testify that the defendant told her that he was taking steroids prior to the 2000 baseball season. [She] will further testify to personal observations regarding changes in the defendant's body [beginning in 2000] . . . including bloating, acne on the shoulders and back, hair loss and testicle shrinkage," which prosecution experts will testify is indicative of steroid use.

We could do without some of the images that paragraph invokes.

Federal prosecutors to inject surprise witness in Bonds trial: Says she saw Bonds inject

Federal prosecutors say they will produce a witness who saw Greg Anderson inject some boost into Barry Bonds.  The contents of that boost may not matter, but the injection may , as the Feds charge Bonds with lying to a Grand Jury.  Other witnesses, including some ex-baseball teammates of the Giant slugger will also be called to the witness stand.  They all should be on their best behavior, without lies.  To the New York Times:

Federal prosecutors said on Friday that they planned to call Barry Bonds’s former personal shopper at his perjury trial next month to testify that she saw Bonds being injected by Greg Anderson, his trainer.

Kathy Hoskins, the former personal shopper, is the sister of Steve Hoskins, a childhood friend and former business manager of Bonds’s and a person expected to be a key witness against him at trial.

The disclosure, in a pretrial filing by the prosecution, did not say what Kathy Hoskins thought Bonds was being injected with. But that may not matter. In the government’s indictment of Bonds, it said that Bonds lied when he testified before a grand jury investigating the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative in 2003 that he was never injected by anyone other than his own doctors.

Kathy Hoskins “will further testify that she observed interactions between the defendant and Greg Anderson,” the filing said, “including Anderson giving the defendant an injection.”

The trial, slated for March 2, will also produce Giant players like Benito Santiago, and the ever present Jason Giambi:

The filing by the prosecutors listed current and former baseball players — including Jason Giambi, his brother Jeremy and Benito Santiago — who will testify about how they received performance-enhancing drugs from Anderson. The prosecutors said that Bobby Estalella, who played with Bonds on the San Francisco Giants in 2000 and 2001, will testify that Bonds admitted to him that he was using performance-enhancing drugs.

Hoskins, however, was a surprise to the press.

But it was the new information about Kathy Hoskins that was the most surprising development in the filing. Last week, the prosecution was set back when United States District Judge Susan Illston indicated she was inclined to throw out several pieces of evidence against Bonds, including positive steroid tests and doping calendars that the prosecution believes link him to drug use.

But Kathy Hoskins’s testimony underscores that the government is also accusing Bonds of perjury for denying that anyone but doctors injected him.

We would suggest Hoskins watch her back the next few weeks...

A-Rod A-Bomb! Slugger Alex Rodriguez tested positive for anabolic steroids in 2003

Baseball nuclear Armageddon exploded at Sports Illustrated today when the magazine/web site dropped an A-Bomb on R-Rod.  The website reports that Yankee slugger Alex Rodriquez tested positive in 2003 for two steroids: testosterone and primobolan (not legal in the US).

As background, A-Rod delivered fantastic 2001-2-3 seasons for the Texas Rangers.  The steroid slugging era was chugging on full-steam with accusations flying everywhere.  The MLB Players Association agreed to PED testing with the MLB;  if a certain percent of players tested positive, then a full blow elaborate PED testing system would be set up for MLB players.  As we all know now, the minimum criteria (5%) of positive tests was met which meant steroid testing for steroid sluggers.

Steroid testing started in spring training 2003, and apparently continued throughout the year.  Wonder when A-Rod dropped his positive urine?  Wonder how long Rodriguez juiced?

In 2001 for the Ranger A-Rod put up monstrous numbers: 52, 135, .318.  A-Rod's 2002 was even better:  57, 142, .300.  Slugging was .622 and .623 respectively. 

In 2003, A-Rod launched a 47, 118, .298 year, which was good for the MVP, even though the numbers were down from previous years.  Considering A-Rod's positive tests, one wonders why production decreased in 2003.  To Sports Illustrated:

In 2003, when he won the American League home run title and the AL Most Valuable Player award as a shortstop for the Texas Rangers, Alex Rodriguez tested positive for two anabolic steroids, four sources have independently told Sports Illustrated.

Rodriguez's name appears on a list of 104 players who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball's '03 survey testing, SI's sources say. As part of a joint agreement with the MLB Players Association, the testing was conducted to determine if it was necessary to impose mandatory random drug testing across the major leagues in 2004.

When approached by an SI reporter on Thursday at a gym in Miami, Rodriguez declined to discuss his 2003 test results. "You'll have to talk to the union," said Rodriguez, the Yankees' third baseman since his trade to New York in February 2004. When asked if there was an explanation for his positive test, he said, "I'm not saying anything."

Test results were obtained when federal agents raided CDT labs as part of the BALCO investigation.

Though MLB's drug policy has expressly prohibited the use of steroids without a valid prescription since 1991, there were no penalties for a positive test in 2003. The results of that year's survey testing of 1,198 players were meant to be anonymous under the agreement between the commissioner's office and the players association. Rodriguez's testing information was found, however, after federal agents, armed with search warrants, seized the '03 test results from Comprehensive Drug Testing, Inc., of Long Beach, Calif., one of two labs used by MLB in connection with that year's survey testing. The seizure took place in April 2004 as part of the government's investigation into 10 major league players linked to the BALCO scandal -- though Rodriguez himself has never been connected to BALCO.

The testing procedure itself appears to be corrupt:

Because more than 5% of big leaguers had tested positive in 2003, baseball instituted a mandatory random-testing program, with penalties, in '04. According to the 2007 Mitchell Report on steroid use in baseball, in September 2004, Gene Orza, the chief operating officer of the players' union, violated an agreement with MLB by tipping off a player (not named in the report) about an upcoming, supposedly unannounced drug test. Three major league players who spoke to SI said that Rodriguez was also tipped by Orza in early September 2004 that he would be tested later that month. Rodriguez declined to respond on Thursday when asked about the warning Orza provided him.

An incredibly embarrassing situation exists in baseball now as corruption dogs the top sluggers and record holders.

Baseball's career and single season home run record holder, Barry Bonds, will be on trial soon for lying about his steroid use. The man pegged as having the best chance to overtake Bonds was A-Rod, who now appears to be a big time juicer.  Mark McGwire, who broke Roger Maris's single season HR record was exposed last month as a huge 'roider.

Baseball, like track, needs to dump the records of the lost steroids and PEDs decades.  Most performance records from the steroid decades appear to be tainted.

Barry Bonds's doctor -- Arthur Ting -- goes roid rage on another doc at hospital

Dr. Arthur Ting, Barry Bonds's physician appears to have gone a bit 'roid rage himself.  The San Francisco By area orthopod might be charged with assaulting a colleague during a confrontation in a hospital.  Good lord, do doctors need to pee for steroids tests 4 times a year now too?

Ting is not a stranger to controverts.  As we noted Ting has been disciplined by the California medical board in the past.  His twin boys quit the USC football team after a reported steroids violation.  And hey, California is a state governed by a former juicer -- Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. To the San Jose Mercury:

A physician obtained a court restraining order Thursday against former Giants slugger Barry Bonds' orthopedic surgeon, whom he accused of assaulting him last December inside a Redwood City hospital during a fit of rage.

Dr. Arthur Ting, who may be called to testify at the upcoming trial of baseball's all-time home run leader, is accused of attacking Dr. Michael Eiffert during a confrontation at Sequoia Hospital.

Ting has not been arrested and the case has been submitted to the San Mateo County District Attorney's Office to determine whether criminal charges should be filed, Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said.

Under the restraining order signed by Superior Court Judge John Grandsaert, Ting must stay 100 yards away from Eiffert, an internal medicine physician and Palo Alto resident, for three years.

During Thursday's brief hearing, Ting's attorney Josh Bentley did not argue against the restraining order, telling the judge he would "not present any evidence at this time." Eiffert represented himself at the hearing.

Bentley declined requests for comment outside the courtroom. Ting did not appear in court and did not return calls seeking comment.

Here is the roid rage episide, which the assualted physiican termed 'roid rage'.  Priceless.

According to a police report on the Dec. 26 incident, Eiffert, 37, said Ting grabbed him by the neck inside a stairwell and pushed him up against a wall. Eiffert told Redwood City police that Ting, 57, was upset because Eiffert refused to do a consultation on one of his surgery patients.

Asked in an interview outside the courtroom whether he saw any connection in his case to Bonds' trial for perjury and obstruction of justice, Eiffert said: "The behavior exhibited by the defendant seems to be reminiscent or consistent with roid rage." The term "roid rage" refers to the intense bouts of anger people on steroids sometimes display.

Pressed to explain whether he believes Ting was using steroids when he allegedly lost his temper Dec. 26, Eiffert said: "I couldn't make a judgment as to that, but certainly the behavior was out of control."

Ting, who is the San Jose Sharks' team physician and has a medical practice in Fremont, performed knee surgery on Bonds several times in 2005. Court documents show federal prosecutors plan to call Ting as a witness in their case against Bonds.

Nandrolone or Winny?  Hmmmmmm, wonder what Ting benches?  Rest of the report:

Ting was placed on probation in 2004 by the state medical board for lax supervision of physician assistants and other subordinates, according to state documents.

Eiffert said he is considering filing a civil lawsuit against Ting but would not elaborate, saying he wants to consult with an attorney.

Redwood City police were dispatched to Sequoia Hospital at about 3:30 p.m. on Dec. 26 to a report of a battery, according to the police report.

Eiffert told police Ting called him to ask for a consultation on one of Ting's surgery patients, who had a history of seizures.

Eiffert said Ting just wanted another doctor to check out his patient on a Friday afternoon because that "unlucky doctor is stuck with the responsibility of caring for the patient" once Ting leaves.

The phone conversation escalated, with Ting saying "something to the effect of, 'Ya know, I had a problem with you a year ago,'" according to Eiffert's statement in the report.

Eiffert said he replied, "Your (sic) the ding dong who was giving alcohol to a patient," according to the report.

Ting had been accused of bringing alcohol into the hospital and making cocktails for a patient Eiffert was treating for alcoholism, Eiffert told police.

Eiffert went on to say he did not know whether Ting was disciplined for the alcohol incident. Sequoia Hospital spokeswoman Joanie Cavanaugh declined to comment on the matter Thursday.

After Ting arrived in person at the small office Eiffert was working in, Eiffert said he had other patients to see and refused to immediately consult with Ting's patient, according to the report.

Eiffert said he eventually left the room and an angry Ting followed him into a stairway, grabbed him by the neck and held him up against a wall, according to the report. Ting let go and grabbed him a second time more forcefully, then "pushed Eiffert hard against the wall," hitting the back of his head.

"I'll kill you. I'll crush you. You don't know who I am. I'll kick your ass. And don't ever call me a ding dong again," Ting said, according to Eiffert's account.

Eiffert said he continued to try to defuse the situation and Ting finally let him go, the report said.

Federal prosecutors striking out: Judge to bar Bonds's steroid tests

Looks like federal prosecutors are up against and ump with a shrinking strike zone.  Judge Susan Illston appears ready to strike out the most import piece of evidence federal prosecutor hold in the Barry Bonds perjury trial: the positive steroid urine tests.  To the San Jose Mercury:

A federal judge Thursday appeared poised to weaken the government's perjury case against Barry Bonds, indicating that she plans to strip prosecutors of perhaps their strongest evidence that baseball's all-time home run king lied to a grand jury about using steroids in 2003.

During a hearing in San Francisco, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston indicated she will bar prosecutors from using what they say are records showing the slugger tested positive for steroids three times in 2000 and 2001. Despite prosecutors' objections, Illston said the steroid tests were not admissible because there is no concrete link proving the urine and blood samples belonged to Bonds. Such a finding would remove a cornerstone of the government's evidence when the case reaches trial next month.

Illston is expected to issue a final decision soon, but if she blocks use of the drug tests it would mark the strongest suggestion yet that prosecutors will be hobbled because they lack the testimony of Greg Anderson, Bonds' former personal trainer who has steadfastly refused to cooperate and tell his account in a courtroom.

Interesting that the judge would simply bar the tests rather than let the jury decide on the power and the legitimacy of the BALCO tests.  However, it doesn't surprise us.  Judicial realism can be out-of-control, in determining what is and isn't 'truth' these days in the legal system.

Readers should expect some ridiculous maneuvering in the case; no good getting upset or outraged.  The entire conspiracy is an example of how far far from a sense of ethical fairness certain segments of society has drifted.  Cheating: no problem.  At least Bonds didn't rob people of their live savings as Bernie Madoff did in his 50 billion doallr Pnozi scheme.  Bonds only robbed fans of their sens of integrity.

Baseball's lost steroid decade...one more big Ponzi scheme only played out with steroids rather than strictly played out with investments.

New developments in the Bonds perjury case: The Feds ramp up for the trial

The ramp up to the Barry Bonds BALCO perjury trial took off this week.  Yesterday Federal Judge Susan Illston released court documents (found here for the adventurous).

The AP complied the positive urine tests Bonds dropped over the years.  The first three will be contested  because the tests were taken while Bonds was allegedly doped up by BALCO, and thus did not have positive chain of custody.   Bonds shows himself to be an accomplished doper: steroids, amphetamines, and (if Game of Shadows be believed), HGH, insulin, and clomid.  The LA Times also counts 3 positive tests for anabolic steroids.

The court documents unsealed by a federal judge Wednesday in the government's criminal case against Barry Bonds included the results of 26 blood and urine tests. Prosecutors contend five are positive for performance-enhancing drugs. Three of the results were seized from BALCO and did not include Bonds' name; the government said it determined they belonged to Bonds through a Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative log. The other two were taken by Major League Baseball. One later was retested by the government, which is when it came up positive.

_ Nov. 28, 2000: BALCO urine test positive for methenolone and nandrolone

_ Feb. 5, 2001: BALCO urine test positive for methenolone

_ Feb. 19, 2001: BALCO urine test positive for methenolone and nandrolone

_ June 4, 2003: MLB urine test positive for THG, clomiphene, exogenous testosterone

_ July 7, 2006: MLB urine test positive for D-amphetamine

The Smoking Gun posted images of Bonds's alleged doping calender...or someone who was a BALCO client with initials BB.  Perhaps that would be Bruce Banner, The Hulk.

Gwen Knapp, of the San Francisco Examiner, argues that the various dirty urines produced by Bonds should not be introduced in court as evidence.  She cites confidentiality and personal rights as reasons why. We are not quite sure of the legal grounds of that argument. 

It's alarming that Major League Baseball drug tests on Barry Bonds from 2003 and 2006 could be used as evidence in his federal perjury and obstruction of justice trial. Results of both were released Wednesday, and Judge Susan Illston will rule Thursday on their admissibility.

If she allows them, the validity of all sports drug testing should be called into question. Players' unions and agents should call for the immediate suspension of all drug screening, and Olympic athletes should consider their own rebellion.

The very act of urinating into a cup to satisfy terms of employment straddles the line between an ugly necessity and a civil-liberties violation. But in sports, the benefits of drug testing - creating a disincentive for athletes to pump hormones, speed and blood thickeners into their bodies - outweigh the detriments.

The US Government does not sign confidentiality reciprocal agreements with Major League Baseball.  The Govt in pursuit of evidence in the commission of a crime also can obtain other records, including your bank and phone records.  Medical confidentiality is given but not in the case of a crime investigation (unless the records are psychiatric).  Therefore Knapp's argument appears to be a canard.

As we have argued, the responsibility for protection of confidentiality lies with the lab and with the MLB.  If those organizations want complete confidentiality they would have had either a weaver signed with the Govt, or blinded the test results.

Sports Illustrated claims that Greg Anderson, Bonds's ex-trainer will be key to the prosecution.  Anderson is an unwilling witness, however is deep into this mess.  An Anderson conversation goes like this:

The most important document may be the transcript of a recorded conversation between Bonds' personal trainer, Greg Anderson, and Bonds' former business partner and longtime friend, Steve Hoskins. Assuming the transcript reflects an accurately recorded conversation -- which Bonds' counsel will question, given that Hoskins, rather than a recording specialist, taped it -- Anderson tells Hoskins that he injected Bonds with substances that sound very much like steroids. Here is a particularly telling excerpt from that conversation:

Anderson: [E]verything I've been doing at this point is undetectable.

Hoskins: Right.

Anderson: See, the stuff that I have . . . we created it. And you can't, you can't buy it anywhere. You can't get it anywhere else. But, you can take it the day of and pee.

Hoskins: Uh-huh.

Anderson: And it comes up with nothing.

Hoskins: Isn't that the same [expletive] that Marion Jones and them were using?

Anderson: Yeah same stuff, the same stuff that worked at the Olympics.

Interesting.  Anderson's conversation implicate Bonds in this widespread sports fraud conspiracy.  Whatever a person's attitude toward the use of PEDs in sports, the subversion of the normal rules and workings of the sports leagues and Olympics should give pause.

Bonds documents released today in San Francisco

As the Barry Bonds perjury trial date nears, more information flows out from San Francisco.  The SF Examiner today reports that taped conversations between Bonds and trainer Greg Anderson, as well as Bonds's urine tests will be made public today.

A federal judge plans to unseal hundreds of pages of court documents at the heart of the government's case against Barry Bonds, who's accused of lying to a grand jury about using performance-enhancing drugs.

Among the documents to be released today are a transcript of a recorded conversation of Bonds' personal trainer Greg Anderson discussing steroids - first reported by The Chronicle on Oct. 16, 2004 - as well as positive drug-test results that prosecutors say belong to Bonds.

One is a urine sample submitted by the former Giants outfielder during baseball's anonymous survey-testing program in 2003, according to a report on the New York Times' Web site. Bonds' sample did not test positive under Major League Baseball's program but was retested by investigators after it was seized in a 2004 raid, unidentified sources told the newspaper.

Originally Judge Susan Illston sealed the documents, as urged by Bonds's attorneys; however media pressure prevuialed and out into the light comes the information.  More legal manuveriung is reported:

The all-time home-run leader is expected to plead not guilty Thursday to a grand jury's third indictment, which charged Bonds with 11 counts of lying and obstruction of justice.

On the same day, Illston will consider Bonds' lawyers' motion to exclude certain government evidence from his trial, which is scheduled to begin March 2.

In correspondence with Bonds' legal team, prosecutors have said their witnesses include athletes who can testify about doping calendars that Anderson allegedly created for them to track their drug regimens. The government says Anderson kept identical calendars for Bonds.

The Feds have procured witnesses including Bonds's teammates, and looked for information even into last week:

Former Giants catchers Benito Santiago and Bobby Estalella, and returning A's first baseman Jason Giambi, who acknowledged they had received banned drugs from Anderson, seem set to be prosecution witnesses in Bonds' trial.

Bonds has twice before pleaded not guilty, the first time in November 2007 when prosecutors unsealed an indictment charging him with perjury and obstruction of justice charges. A judge has ordered prosecutors to revise the indictment twice to repair legal technicalities.

Bonds told a grand jury in December 2003 that he took "the clear" and "the cream," provided by Anderson. Bonds testified that he did not know he was taking performance-enhancing drugs.

He also has denied knowingly taking other steroids and human growth hormone. Prosecutors argue they will prove through positive test results and other evidence that Bonds lied.

Bond's teammate Bobby Estalella, as well as Jason Giambi, targeted for perjury trial testimony

Barry Bonds's teammate appear to be key at the upcoming federal perjury trial where the Govt accuses ex-Giant slugger Barry Bonds of lying about his steroids, HGH, and PED use.  Bobby Estrella and Jason Giambi have been named as juice squeezers.  To the AP:

 Former major league catcher Bobby Estalella has been subpoenaed by federal prosecutors to testify at Barry Bonds' trial, ESPN.com reported Thursday.

Estalella, who was on the San Francisco Giants with Bonds in 2000 and 2001, is expected to testify to firsthand knowledge that Bonds used steroids, the Web site said, citing an unidentified source with knowledge of the evidence. The Web site attributed knowledge of the subpoenas to two unidentified sources.

Estalella testified before a federal grand jury in November 2003. He admitted to the grand jury that he used performance-enhancing drugs, the San Francisco Chronicle reported in December 2004.

The book "Game of Shadows," by two Chronicle reporters, says Estalella received a drug schedule from Greg Anderson, Bonds' trainer, advising him to use human growth hormone, the steroids "the cream" and "the clear," and the female fertility drug Clomid.

The book also indicates Estrella is a relatively obnoxious character.

Ex-Oakland A and ex-Yankee player Jason Giambi, a prodigious juicer -- better be prepared for court testimony too (notice any hting similar with Estalella and Giambi?):

Prosecutors also plan to call Jason Giambi and his brother, Jeremy, as witnesses at Bonds' trial so they can testify that Anderson gave them performance-enhancing drugs, The New York Times reported on its Web site Thursday night.

The newspaper said prosecutors want to use testimony from the Giambis, teammates in Oakland from 2000-01, to show that Anderson developed doping calendars for them. Then the prosecutors could argue that Anderson made similar calendars for Bonds, the Times said, citing an unidentified person briefed on the government's evidence. The newspaper said the person spoke on condition of anonymity because he didn't want to jeopardize his access to sensitive information.

There will likely be a trickle of big names coming out with involvement in the Bonds BALCO-steroids-perjury trial.  SHold keep the media busy this year with names and faces.

Feds raid home of Bonds ex-trainer Greg Anderson's mother-in-law

Federal agents found themselves busy yesterday raiding the home of Barry Bonds's ex-trainer Greg Anderson (and leaving everyone with a very wordy headline).  Anderson is accused of delivering PEDs including steroids and HGH to the slugger.  His journey included a long stint in jail while mum about Barry Bonds's drug use.  This raid indicates continued interest in Anderson's role, and perhaps unrest about the Govt case against Bonds.

Twenty federal agents raided the home of the mother-in-law of Barry Bonds' personal trainer on Wednesday.

Madeleine Gestas and her daughter Nicole Anderson, the trainer's wife, are the target of a tax investigation that the lawyer for Greg Anderson said is aimed at pressuring the trainer to testify at Bonds' upcoming trial.

Bonds, baseball's career home run leader and a seven-time MVP, has pleaded not guilty to charges he lied to a federal grand jury in 2003 when he denied knowingly using performance-enhancing drugs.

"Even the mafia spares the women and children," said Anderson's lawyer, Mark Geragos.

Anderson's lawyer takes blame credit for the raid:

Geragos said he believes the raid was in response to his refusal to tell prosecutors whether Anderson would testify. Geragos said he ignored a letter faxed to his Los Angeles office Monday by prosecutors that asked about Anderson's plans for the Bonds' trial.

Anderson served more than a year in prison for refusing to testify against Bonds before a federal grand jury. Geragos said that on the day after her husband was released from prison, Anderson's wife received a so-called target letter informing her that she was under investigation.

Geragos said Anderson received a government subpoena last week demanding his testimony at the March 2 trial. Geragos declined to say whether Anderson would testify. If Anderson refuses, he could be sent to prison again.

However, other forces may be in play here -- to tighten the noose around the Bonds thickened neck:

The New York Times, citing an anonymous source, reported Thursday that prosecutors have evidence that links Bonds to the use of performance-enhancing drugs other than the "cream" and the "clear" — the designer substances that have become synonymous with the Bonds case.

A person who has reviewed the prosecution's evidence said that authorities detected anabolic steroids in urine samples linked to Bonds, according to the Times.

The Rocket near explosion status: Clemens target of grand jury probe

A federal grand jury will examine Roger Clemens's truthfulness under oath last year in the Congressional steroid hearings.  Regardless of anyone's opinion about the worth of the Congressional hearings, it should be agreed that lying under oath is not a good thing, even if you're a Hall of Fame caliber pitcher.  To the Washington Post:

A federal grand jury is investigating whether former pitcher Roger Clemens lied under oath to Congress last year when he denied taking performance-enhancing drugs, according to two sources familiar with the investigation.

The sources said the grand jury was convened several months ago in response to a referral in February by Congress asking the Justice Department to investigate Clemens's sworn statements in a deposition and his testimony during a hearing Feb. 13.

However, the grand jury probe was described by the sources as a routine part of such an investigation and that no indictment or other public action was imminent

The evidence that Clemens lied under oath appears over-whelming to laymen; however that doesn't mean an indictment if forthcoming:

Clemens told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform during the Feb. 13 hearing that he had "never taken steroids or HGH [human growth hormone]" but that he had received injections of vitamin B12 and the painkiller lidocaine from team personnel over the years.

But his statements contradicted the testimony and assertions of other witnesses, including Brian McNamee, a former personal trainer who has been cooperating with federal authorities and who told the House committee he had personally injected Clemens with steroids and HGH at least 38 times between 1998 and 2001, at Clemens's request.

Two weeks after the hearing, the committee, headed by chairman  Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) and then-ranking minority member Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.), formally asked the Justice Department to investigate Clemens. Through a spokesman, Waxman declined to comment yesterday.

There is speculation that Clemens and McNamee may have another chance to set the record right:

An attorney for Clemens, Lanny Breuer, did not respond to a phone message seeking comment. Clemens has filed a defamation suit against McNamee. Another attorney for Clemens, Rusty Hardin, was unavailable to comment because he is in trial, according to a receptionist at his Houston law firm.

Richard Emery, a lawyer for McNamee, said yesterday his client has not been subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury, but welcomed the opportunity to do so. "Obviously, Brian has been a federal witness in this case and will continue to cooperate fully," Emery said.

Many players, trainers, and drug dealers could have something to say about Clemens's history, and it doesn't look good:

Multiple news organizations reported that the grand jury has subpoenaed Kirk Radomski, the former New York Mets clubhouse attendant who supplied McNamee with the drugs he allegedly administered to Clemens.

It is also possible pitcher Andy Pettitte, a longtime Clemens teammate and friend, could be called to testify. Pettitte, a free agent who spent last season with the New York Yankees, gave a sworn affidavit to the congressional committee in which he claimed Clemens confessed his HGH use to him 10 years ago. Pressed by committee members during the hearing about Pettitte's claim, Clemens said his friend "misremembered."

Prosecuting hearing isn't easy; Raffy Palmeiro received a pass despite his obvious inaccuracies about his steroid abuse years ago.  However the Post ends it's report with this important observation:

In the past year, baseball has seen the best hitter and best pitcher of the past quarter-century under federal investigation for lying about steroid use. Seven-time most valuable player Barry Bonds was indicted last year for perjury and obstruction of justice, stemming from 2003 grand jury testimony, and his trial is scheduled to begin next month in San Francisco.

Ken Burns returns to PBS: HIstoric records blown away by steroids; Is this America?

Filmmaker Ken Burns last documented baseball in 1994, with a series of documentaries, 9 in fact, looking at the game and looking at America.  Burns returns to PBS with an extra-innings special in 2009.  His thesis: Hallowed records blown away by steroids-fattened players. Jere Hester writes on NBC:

Sometimes adding a new chapter to a classic film series after a decade or more layoff produces results that don't quite live up to everyone's expectations (see Jones, Indiana; and Wars, Star).

But documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, ever the boyishly enthusiastic storyteller, is gamely heading back to the plate, adding to his nine-part 1994 PBS series, "Baseball." The new film, to be called "The 10th Inning," will cover the National Pastime from 1993 to 2008, and air on PBS next year.

"So much has transpired in baseball since we last examined the game and all of its many nuances," Burns said in a statement -- or rather, an understatement.

Cal Ripken earned away Lou Gehrig's Iron Man title in 1995. Mike Piazza's dramatic home run in the first game played after 9/11 gave the country something to cheer about, if only for a fleeting moment. The Red Sox finally reversed the Curse of the Bambino in 2004.

Baseball is idyllic right?  Well...

But real story of baseball over the last 15 years is steroids: records smashed by impossibly big sluggers who looked like little men testifying before Congress; and the ongoing saga of an all-time home run king who is a walking, under indictment, asterisk.

Baseball is America, and America is baseball, unless you live in Kansas City...

Burns will do well to stick to his simple, possibly overblown -- and very probably true -- thesis that the story of baseball is the story of America. The last 15 years have given us tales of perseverance, resilience -- and illusion-shattering cheating.

Baseball, like life, is unpredictable, with narratives that can't always be neatly tied up with a bow  -- as the late George Carlin noted in his classic routine about the differences between baseball and football: "Baseball has no time limit: we don't know when it's gonna end - might have extra innings!"

So Burns' challenge is different than those of filmmakers who revive movie fantasy characters or aged action heroes. It's more akin to the "Seven Up" documentary series where British youngsters, first interviewed at age 7, are revisited every seven years (they're up to 49). The return of "Baseball" is a welcome visit from an old friend with new stories to tell.

Meanwhile, Burns' and Lynn Novick's original Emmy-winning series -- with new commentary by Burns -- is being rerun on the new MLB Network. Not a bad way to wile away the winter, waiting for another Opening Day.

Not enough is enough: Bonds continues to dream of baseball comeback

Barry Bonds wants to return to baseball.  Yeah, the big (now smaller with better steroid testing) show.

Bonds, about 38 home runs short of 800, and about 200 mg short of 1 million testosterone, wants to inject more offense into his career (and yes that was meant on several levels).  However Bonds recently underwent hip surgery, that might delay any comeback. 

You wonder if Bonds considered the legal entanglements he faces in 2009: a major perjury trial in federal court, and legal challenges to MLB?

To CBS5:

Barry Bonds still wants to play baseball, but recent hip surgery may delay his return even if a team wants to pick him up, the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper reported.

The former San Francisco Giants superstar underwent a hip operation that wasn't considered major, reportedly conducted by Dr. Arthur Ting, according to the Chronicle. They cited a source familiar with the operation.

Ting, as you recall, was involved in 'roiding  possibly with other athletes including his kids, who played football at USC.

Bonds isn't expected to return before spring training in six weeks, but could be fully recovered and ready for opening day, the published report said. He hasn't played in a major league game since Sept. 26, 2007, the end to his 15 years as a Giant.

Bonds, 44, holds the Major League Baseball record with 762 home runs. He needs another 38 home runs to reach 800 and 65 hits to reach 3,000.

And the scheduled trial:

He faces a March 2 trial on charges of lying to a federal grand jury in 2003 and obstructing justice regarding the use of steroids in the BALCO case. Bonds has pleaded not guilty to 14 counts - since reduced to 10, and has maintained he never knowingly took performance-enhancing drugs...

While waiting outside a Los Angeles restaurant on Dec. 15, Bonds told celebrity news Web site TMZ.com that he would not retire from the game, his first comments since a public appearance in October in San Francisco, at which he said he was enjoying life away from baseball.

"I had fun," Bonds said then, "but I like my freedom."

Back in October, the MLB Players Association said it had evidence that teams conspired against signing Bonds last season, but the union reached an agreement with commissioner Bud Selig's office to delay the filing of any grievance.

Like Lance Armstrong and other high profile athletes, Bonds is one of these guys who cannot gently relinquish the spotlight.  But hey, after hip surgery, Bonds might be able to legally use steroids.

Baseball steroids are old news in MLB playoffs this year

As this report in the WaPo points out, the effect of steroids (and PEDs) to jack up home runs appeared to be most dramatic on older players.  Evidence indicated Barry Bonds used the anabolic drugs to increase his power as he aged past the usual prime; by doing so Bonds held on to a roster spot that in the pre-steroid era days would h ave gone to a younger slugger.

Following a tightening (one could say 'following minimal invigorated enforcement') of baseball's steroid policy younger players now hold down roster spots.  The obvious result can be seen in the ALCS where the young Tampa Bay Rays hold a commanding 3 to 1 lead over an aging Boston Red Sox team.  To the WaPo:

The ball was in the first baseman's mitt, but the speedy hitter, 27 years old and at the peak of his career, was safe by a step, and the pitcher, 42 years old and looking every creaky minute of it, was lying face down in the grass. And there you had it -- the perfect metaphor for the glaring differences between Carl Crawford's youthful Tampa Bay Rays and Tim Wakefield's suddenly age-worn Boston Red Sox, at least as things have played out so far in the American League Championship Series...

Increasingly, in the post-steroids and post-amphetamines era, baseball is a young man's game, and the Red Sox, as other dynasties and mini-dynasties before them, are being betrayed by their age.

Two of the three straight losses they have suffered to the Rays in this series have been charged to 42-year-old pitchers -- Wakefield on Tuesday night, and reliever Mike Timlin in Game 2. Their 36-year-old captain, catcher Jason Varitek, is hitting .125 with no extra-base hits and no RBI this postseason. Their 34-year-old third baseman, Mike Lowell, is out with a hip injury that will require surgery on Monday.

When considering steroid users in baseball, the Boston Red Sox do not come to mind as quickly as the New York Yankees, the San Francisco Giants, Texas Rangers, Baltimore Orioles, and  St. Louis Cardinals.  Thus one wonders about the line of logical reasoning for the WaPo's assertions.  The Red Sox consistently survive in an post-steroid era that has seen the big time juicers - the Giants, Cardinals, Yankees, and Rangers bite the doping dust, hard.  Thus, there seems to be a kernel of truth when looking at the results of a long MLB season: without the dope to keep older players juiced, youth will prevail.

Baseball to look at growth of HGH in sport: Why no 'non analytic positives'?

Major League Baseball and UCLA will examine the growth of HGH in sports come next month.

Major League Baseball and the law firm Foley & Lardner LLP have partnered with the Office of Continuing Medical Education at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California at Los Angeles to conduct a Growth Hormone Summit on Monday, Nov. 10th, Baseball Commissioner Allan H. (Bud) Selig announced today.

The world's leading anti-doping experts and scholars will convene in Beverly Hills, California for the summit and will be chaired by Dr. Gary Green, Clinical Professor in the Division of Sports Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and Major League Baseball's consultant on Performance Enhancing Drugs. Entitled "Growth Hormone: Barriers to Implementation of hGH Testing in Sports," the summit will attempt to identify the scientific, medical, legal and ethical issues that must be addressed before Human Growth Hormone testing can be considered a routine part of sports drug testing.

The educational objectives of the comprehensive program will focus on understanding the currently available methods for identifying use of hGH and understanding the viability of urine testing for hGH in the future; building a consensus on the most effective methods of implementing widespread blood testing for abuse of hGH; identifying future strategies for hGH testing; and understanding the United States Laws regarding the regulation and distribution of hGH.

"After the Mitchell report, one of my main goals was to bring together the leading anti-doping experts for an hGH summit," said Commissioner Selig. "The effective regulation of hGH remains one of the foremost challenges for anti-doping efforts in all sports. This summit is a significant step forward, and Major League Baseball is pleased that Dr. Green, one of the foremost experts in the field, will head this initiative."

Here is the All-Star cast:

Moutian Wu, PhD, who served as the Laboratory Director for the 2008 Beijing Olympics and who currently works with the National Anti-Doping Laboratory and the China Anti-Doping Agency, will be one of the principal speakers at the summit. Other summit presentations and panel discussants will feature Anthony W. Butch, PhD, Director of the UCLA Olympic Analytical Laboratory; Don H. Catlin, MD, Director, Anti-Doping Research; Alan Goldhammer, PhD, Vice President, Scientific and Regulatory Affairs, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America; Richard I.G. Holt, MD, PhD, Professor in Diabetes & Endocrinology in the School of Medicine at the University of Southampton; Lance Liotta, MD, PhD, Co-Director, Center for Applied Proteomics & Molecular Medicine at George Mason University; Robert D. Manfred, Jr., Major League Baseball Executive Vice President for Labor Relations & Human Resources; Matthew J. Mitten, Professor of Law and Director of the National Sports Law Institute at Marquette University Law School; Thomas H. Murray, PhD, President & CEO, The Hastings Center; Thomas T. Perls, MD, MPH, FACP, Director of the New England Centenarian Study; Douglas E. Rollins, MD, PhD, Executive Director, Sports Medicine Research and Testing Laboratory; Travis T. Tygart, CEO of the United States Anti-Doping Agency; and Frank D. Uryasz, President of The National Center for Drug Free Sport.

 

Maybe someone can explain why MLB never punished baseball players who reportedly ordered HGH form the Florida Internet pharmacies.  Track suspended athletes with  'nonanalytic positives', but baseball doesn't (uinless a player is in the minor leagues)

Steroids figure prominently in Washington Post's 'hateable athletes' list

The WaPo drew up one of those 'Top 5' lists today...this one listed: " Who is, or was, the most hateable successful athlete?" Numero Uno on the list, went to two athletes: a tie between Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens.

Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens (tie)

It's a tie! What can we say, maybe we just didn't want to see either of these schmucks come in first in anything. But really, the two just have so much in common, principally being on most people's never-send-a-Christmas-card list. Both men enjoyed late-career renaissances that seemed remarkably impressive at first, until a pile of evidence made us all feel remarkably naive. Thanks to the Balco scandal, Bonds became the suspiciously bulbous face of baseball's problem with performance-enhancing drug use, while Clemens, displaying his trademark competitive fire, caught up in a hurry after being named in the Mitchell Report and subsequently appearing, unconvincingly, before Congress. But the beauty of both men is that they were hateable long before anyone began to contemplate what they were jabbing into themselves. Bonds became widely known as surly, arrogant and indifferent to fans back when he still played in Pittsburgh. He hardly endeared himself to the Pirates faithful by repeatedly referring to then-teammate Andy Van Slyke, a fan favorite and a very good player in his own right, as "The Great White Hope." When Bonds returned to Pittsburgh for the first time as a Giant, he was booed with the cathartic venom of thousands of people finally telling the guy how they really felt about him. But Barry has nothing on Rog when it come to charming remarks. After winning the 1986 AL MVP, Clemens was informed of Hank Aaron's opinion that once-every-five-days players shouldn't be eligible for the award. Clemens's take? "I wish he were still playing. I'd probably crack his head open to show him how valuable I was." Nice. Then there was the time during the 1990 ALCS when he told Oakland pitcher Bob Welch, a recovering alcoholic, "Have another beer, be a man." And who can forget Clemens throwing a bat shard at nemesis Mike Piazza during the World Series? Yup, both Bonds and Clemens a a lot alike. Mostly in not being liked.

Number 4 was another juicer: Bill Romanowski.

Bill Romanowski

Many think that, with his nonstop antics, Terrell Owens is spitting in the face of the game. Well, here's a guy who really did hock one, right into the face of an opponent. That's just one of Romanowski's heinous acts; he also kicked a player in the head, broke a teammate's eye socket with a punch and snapped an opponent's finger. Oh yeah, and he later admitted to loading up on steroids, so he was a dirty player and a cheat.

2,3, and 5 were Kobe Bryant, Christian Laettner, and Curt Schilling.

We would venture that #4 Romo was far worse than the others.  Not only was Romo a 'roid abuser, but he viscously hurt people.  Clemens missed Piazza with the bat piece.  Bonds never hurt anyone physically with his brand of arrogance.

Move Romo up.

Bud Selig would not have resigned: Japan's sumo wrestling boss Kitanoumi steps down over drug scandal

Quite a difference in cultures.  Bud Selig, captain of the ship when USA Major League Baseball cruised through a 'steroid era' continues in power and continues to rake in tens of millions of salary dollars.  Meanwhile a venerable Japanese sumo wrestler, presiding over the national sport reigns in disgrace when two Russian sumo wrestlers possess marijuana.  To the IHT for the summary:  (further update with the Guardian; the Russians were the first sumo wrestlers expelled for life)

Two popular Russian sumo wrestlers were slapped with lifetime bans from Japan's ancient national sport for allegedly using marijuana and the head of the Japan Sumo Association resigned Monday to take responsibility for the scandal, officials said.

The wrestlers, brothers Roho and Hakurozan, tested positive for the drug when the sport conducted its first drug tests following the last month of another Russian wrestler, Wakanoho, for marijuana possession.

The scandal has rocked the sumo world, which has its roots in religious ritual and tends to hold its athletes and officials to high moral standards. Marijuana possession is considered a serious offense in Japan, and the scandal has been front-page news.

High moral standards...not astronomical economic booties.

The punishment was handed out at an emergency meeting of top sumo officials Monday, according to the Japan Sumo Association.

Kitanoumi, the association's chairman and Hakurozan's mentor, also told the meeting that he would resign to take responsibility. Kitanoumi is a former grand champion wrestler who is considered by many to have been one of the best ever.

"It was my decision to resign," Kitanoumi said. He will be replaced by another former wrestler, Musashigawa.

Understand that Kitanoumi did nothing wrong.  He apparently believed  his sumo wrestlers -- considered men of honor -- about drug use.  However the standard of integrity he must  uphold were violated.

"I am filled with remorse because it was my responsibility to keep an eye on my wrestlers at all times," Kitanoumi, 55, told reporters. "They denied [smoking marijuana] and I believed them."

How different than Mr. who might be considered an enabler for drug use in the USA's MLB.

It's not good to be associated with Bonds trainer Greg Anderson: Feds target Nicole Gestas

Reports from the AP and others tonight say that the federal government is targeting Barry Bonds's trainer Greg Anderson's family for investigation.  Anderson and Bonds are intimately involved in the BALCO affiliated investigations of witnesses who the Gov't labels as perjurers.  Anderson is considered a key wtiness to the Bonds trial;  the personal trainer can probably seal Bonds's fate.  Leverage could be applied for ANderson to spill the beans on his former BFF if charges mount up on his family.

Federal prosecutors are considering charging the wife and mother-in-law of Barry Bonds' personal trainer in an effort to pressure Greg Anderson to testify against the slugger during his perjury trial, The New York Times reported.

A lawyer representing Anderson's wife, Nicole Gestas, and others familiar with the matter told the newspaper that prosecutors are considering charging her and her mother, Madeleine Gestas, with tax-related crimes.

"There are violations that both Nicole and Madeleine are worried about," Nicole Gestas's attorney, Charles J. Smith of Redwood City, Calif., told the Times.

"They are matters that I don't believe would rise to the level they would prosecute under the current standards of the U.S. Attorney's office. But in this circumstance, perhaps they'll ignore their own standards to prosecute Madeleine or her daughter to get what they want."

We documented many times how Anderson spent a good part of his life rotting in jail as he steadfastly refused to answer questions about Barry Bonds.  This brings speculation that Bonds 'will take care' of Anderson (very doubtful); Bonds doesn't seem to take care of anyone but Bonds.

Anderson also spent more than a year in prison after refusing to testify before a federal grand jury investigating Bonds for perjury. Prosecutors told a judge that Anderson's testimony about Bonds' alleged drug use was vital to their perjury case and asked that he be jailed to coerce him to talk.

He was released the same day Bonds was indicted and has vowed to keep his silence, even if ordered to testify at Bonds' trial.

Anderson could be sent back to prison if he resists a government order to testify.

Gestas is listed as personal trainer as the Powerhouse Gym:

NICOLE GESTAS:  Nicole specializes in body sculpting, weight management and nutrition.  Certified by the International Sports Sciences Association (ISSA), she is committed to teaching healthy hab its and designing routines to end client's struggles with fitness and body fat. Her clients come in with fitness needs and walk out with fitness results.

Sounds like the Feds are aggressively pursuing all angles on the Bonds investigation.  Perhaps a little too aggressively?  Or maybe they object to the 'body sculpting'?

Barry Bonds lawyers move to dismiss charges

The SF Chronicle says Barry Bonds's lawyers want charges dismissed.

Barry Bonds' legal team took a second run Monday at paring back the indictment facing the former Giants' slugger, who is accused of lying to a federal grand jury about whether he used steroids.

In documents filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, Bonds' lawyers asked Judge Susan Illston to dismiss 10 of the 15 charges of perjury and obstruction of justice contained in an indictment handed up in May.

Seven charges should be dismissed because the prosecutors asked Bonds "fundamentally ambiguous" questions when he testified before the grand jury that investigated the BALCO steroid case, wrote lawyers Dennis Riordan and Donald Horgan. The lawyers claimed other defects in three other charges.

A hearing on the matter is set for Oct. 24. If Bonds prevails, he would go to trial in March on five charges of perjury. If convicted of perjury and obstruction, he faces a maximum sentence of about 24 to 30 months in prison, legal experts say.

The filing marked the second time that Bonds' lawyers have asked the judge to toss parts of the indictment.

And why not get charges dismissed on procedure?   The trial is set for next spring.  Sounds like a year more of legal wrangling is about to ensue.

...Bonds' lawyers objected again, this time arguing that the questions the prosecutors had posed to the former Giants star often were impermissibly vague and confusing.

For example, Bonds was accused of perjury for answering "no" when asked whether he had been taking "anything like" steroids in 2000. That count should be stricken, the lawyers wrote, because the question "utterly fails to reasonably identify what substances can be deemed 'anything like' steroids."

 

 

PM Steroids Dose Redux

1. Looks like Yahoo read our list of ex-dopers running or jumping for the USA.  (Yahoo Sports)

2.  Now they are doping babies.  (Democrat and Chronicle)

3.  Home runs are down at the All-Star break, stats say.  (USA Today)

4.  Someone, please hire poor Barry Bonds.  Please.  (CBC Sports)

5.  How to become a superhero.  (Futurismic)

6.  Getting real with Anti-doping and anti-steroids: Don Hooton.  (The Chicago Sun-Times)

7. IPL league cricket star Asif doped with nandrolone.  (Howrah)

Does Dara Torres suffer from a double standard of doping scrutiny?

Interesting column from the normally logical Gwen Knapp today.  She wonders why a 40 year-old male like Barry Bonds received a free pass when he belted a home run every time he spit, meanwhile a successful 41 year-old female swimmer -- Dara Torres --  comes under the intense scrutiny of the doping-suspicions crowd. (Torres simply delivered a baby at age ~39, then records 5% faster times in her postpartum swimming years than she did in her college competitions; maybe she cut down on that college drinking).

We are going to suffer from the fallout after we deliver our opinion, however it is obvious where this is going: a double standard of men receiving the pass and women receiving grief.  Knapp might have added in the double standard between Euro and African genes -- some say African-American athletes suffer discrimination and thus are accused of doping more often than Euro athletes.  We can't keep up with all the double standards...

A 41-year-old woman did the impossible. Dara Torres swam faster than she ever did before, making her fifth Olympic team. As a result, she faced questions about doping, suspicions she fully expected and completely deserved.

But when Barry Bonds, at age 37, suddenly went from a great hitter to a supernatural one, increasing his home run output by nearly 50 percent, the media didn't put him on the defensive about steroids. It would take a lot more than 73 home runs in a single season to make that happen.

When Lance Armstrong returned from cancer treatment and transformed himself from a cyclist who barely could get through a Tour de France into the imperial master of the event, no American reporter dared challenge the authenticity of his accomplishment.

We've come a long way since the BALCO investigation schooled us on performance-enhancing drugs. But how far have we really come? Olympians are still held to higher standards than better-known jocks, and women somehow keep paying higher prices for doping awareness than their male peers.

A great deal of water flowed under the doping bridge since Barry Bonds lit up the night with steroid-fueled home runs in 2001.  BALCO. Operation Puerto.  The Mitchell Report. The Carolina Panther Superbowl Scandal.  More Tour de France scandals involving luminaries like Floyd Landis.  Of all these various doping and steroid scandals, only several women trickled out of the predominantly male scandals: Marion Jones, Chryste Gaines,  and cyclist Tammy Thomas to name several of BALCO fame.  Jones and Thomas exacerbated part of their plights: the simple doping truth would have saved their souls and actually their careers.  (And why is BALCO-linked swimmer Amy Van Dyken less notorious than Jones or Thomas?  Gender bias?)

Point is that the sporting public is much much more aware of steroids and HGH and insulin and modafinil now than in 1998 when McGwire and Sosa set personal bests in home run totals, not in the 50 freestyle.

Performance alone rarely triggers widespread suspicion in the media, but it sufficed for accusations against Torres and, 20 years ago, Florence Griffith-Joyner. The same scrutiny does not apply to men until they have a failed test on their record, federal investigators on their tails or a member of their entourage under indictment.

Oh really? Roger Clemens comes to mind.  How many dope tests did Roger Clemens fail?  The Rocket suffered more scrutiny than anyone since Bill Clinton over the past year.  Time and time again fans referred to Clemens rather mundane pitching numbers in his last years with Boston, and the sudden revitalization of the 34 year (that's right 34, not 41) at Toronto.  No doping positives there either.  Clemens doesn't even live with an endocrinologist, although wife Debbie is expert in HGH use.

Need some other names who never failed a test, yet are mentioned in doping: Brady Anderson and Luis Gonzalez come under scrutiny for storybook -- but unusually dubious -- sporting achievements.  None is admitting to cooking the books (or their looks), nor are Internet pharmacy receipts found for these males, yet the steroids-scrutiny continues on.

Is there some belief in male athletic accomplishment, perhaps its confirmation of masculinity, that does not surrender as easily to the realities of doping? Or is it simply that the most prominent women tend to be Olympians, and we expect greater purity from athletes who represent our country? Whatever the reason, men get to spin their fairy tales with less resistance.

Fairly tales with less resistance?  How about Usain Bolt, a young athlete setting the world record in the 100M?  In his 3rd or 4th 100M he was under scrutiny for doping, with nothing much known about the guy.  The Y chromosome sure didn't save his butt from the hot spotlight of doping suspicion.  Every remarkable achievement in sports henceforth will come under 'PED scrutiny'; such is modern life post-pharmacology.

(more controversy after the jump)

Feds target Greg Anderson's wife - Nicole Gestas; Steroid curse of Barry Bonds spreading?

ESPN came out with a piece saying that when Greg Anderson -- Barry Bonds's trainer -- was released form prison where he rotted away for a couple years keeping mum about Bonds, the Feds sent letters of inquiry to his wife.  Ouch!

For more than a year, Barry Bonds' personal trainer sat inside a federal prison in Dublin, Calif., refusing to testify about his knowledge of performance-enhancing drug use by his superstar client. Finally, last Nov. 15, the day Bonds was initially indicted on perjury charges, Greg Anderson was set free, seemingly ending a major squeeze play by local prosecutors.

Instead, even as Anderson was released, the government made a move on another member of his family. Within days of the trainer's release, his wife Nicole Gestas received a letter from federal prosecutors informing her that she is the target of a grand jury investigation, four people with knowledge of the BALCO steroids case told ESPN.

The sources asked not to be quoted by name because of the ongoing investigation. Since the initial target letter went out, two of the sources, both lawyers, say they have learned that the government's interest in Gestas stems from tax-related issues. The Internal Revenue Service has been the lead investigative agency in the BALCO case, and the sources said they believe the pressure on Gestas -- and possibly other family members -- is directed at getting Anderson finally to cooperate against Bonds.

Did the US Government target Anderson's wife (who knew he had one) in an effort to pressure the trainer to talk about Bonds?

Anderson had been viewed by prosecutors and investigators as someone who could make a case against Bonds airtight -- if the trainer were to testify. But Anderson steadfastly refused, earning a contempt of court citation that put him prison for a total of 13½ months. Now, though, his wife is in the government's crosshairs, presenting renewed issues for the trainer...Until now, Gestas' involvement in the case seemingly had been limited. On Sept. 3, 2003, the day the government launched raids on BALCO and the homes of Victor Conte and Anderson, court records show Gestas was interviewed for about 15 minutes by Jeff Novitzky of the Internal Revenue Service's Criminal Investigations Unit and three other agents. Novitzky had confronted Anderson at a gym near BALCO, then took him back to the Burlingame condominium the trainer shared with Gestas. Upon arriving, Anderson told his then girlfriend, "The BALCO thing has followed me here," according to a declaration by Novitzky. Gestas, also a personal trainer, told the agents she had "never heard that Anderson sells steroids," and she denied knowing there were steroids and syringes in a kitchen cabinet and the refrigerator of the condominium she shared with Anderson, according to a memorandum of interview. Asked how she never saw the drugs or syringes, she told investigators "it was Greg's area and she never looked," according to the document. Gestas also denied any knowledge of about $60,000 in cash found inside a safe in a kitchen cabinet, court records show. She told agents that Anderson paid her $1,000 in cash each month for rent.

Anderson and Gestas apparently were not very happy about the IRS intrusion, which led to more maneuvers, and then Anderson's extended stay in prison:

In an October 2004 declaration, responding to allegations by Anderson and Gestas that he and other agents had not acted within the law the day of the raid, Novitzky defended his actions and indicated he believed Gestas had lied during her September 2003 interview. The agent recounted Gestas' statement she had no knowledge of Anderson's involvement with steroids, and he wrote, "At one point, I told Gestas that I did not believe she was being truthful in this regard based upon steroids which had been found within the refrigerator inside the residence." Novitkzy also suggested that Gestas had lied in a 2004 court filing that was part of a motion by Anderson, Conte and the two other BALCO defendants to suppress evidence on the grounds of government misconduct. Gestas and Anderson both suggested the IRS-CI agent had purposefully refused to provide them with a copy of the search warrant, a charge Novitzky said was "untrue."

Anderson ultimately pleaded guilty to one count of distributing steroids and one count of money laundering. Prosecutors had sought to have Anderson name names of players to whom he provided the drugs during his plea agreement, but the trainer refused, according to court records. He was sentenced to three months in prison and three months of home confinement. Upon Anderson's release, in a move characterized by legal experts as unusually tough, the government turned around and subpoenaed the trainer in April 2006 to testify in the perjury probe of Bonds... Anderson ultimately served 413 days in prison in connection with the contempt citation, freed briefly twice during legal maneuvering. He had been in jail for nearly one year straight before his Nov. 15 release.

You wonder if Anton Chiguhr will head out to Odessa to get Anderson's wife...

Daily Steroid Dose

1.  Josh Hamilton's recovery. (Star-Telegram)

2.  The Chicago Tribune looks at baseball's best father-son combinations including the Bonds (ChiTribune)

3.  Despite HGH, fans still admire Andy Pettitte (NY Times)

Daily Steroid Dose

1.  Which juicer is more obnoxious: Clemens or Bonds?  (Deseret News)

2.  Saying Winstrol is used to enhance appetite in horse, Big Brown's vet dismisses steroid withdrawal (great logic; by this logic because Vioxx was used for arthritis, it cannot have caused heart attacks). (NY Daily News)

3.  Everyone is jumping on Big Brown, including the Toronto Star.

4.  Chicago bodybuilder -- steroids and booze -- on Real World. (Yawn, Chicago Sun-Times)

5.  Do vets understand steroid withdrawal?  (NY Times)

6. Article says to tune out juiced-up Hulk Hogan.  (Galveston Daily News)

Trevor Graham Trial Days One and Two

The Trevor Graham (pictured below with lawyer)trial started in San Francisco.  As background, Graham coached track stars including Tim Montgomery, and Marion Jones.  In the early 2000s Graham, irritated with his competition whom he believed used illegal anabolic steroids, mailed a mystery syringe to the USADA.  That syringe contained THG (The Clear); this began the steroid and PED scandal called BALCO.  Graham is charged with lying about his own history with steroids, to the BALCO Grand Jury  in the course of the investigation.

Day One consisted of opening arguments.  Day Two showcased ex-IRS, current FDA agent Jeff Novitzky, the star investigator of the BALCO probe, and Angel "Memo" Heredia, a steroids dealer well know to Graham.

Day Two Links are here: WaPo, USA Today, and San Francisco Chronicle here.

Heredia spoke to his relationship with Graham (WaPo):

A prosecution witness in a federal steroids investigation said he provided track coach Trevor Graham and his athletes with steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs over four years that began around the time Graham and two sprinters visited him in Laredo, Tex., in December 1996, and stayed at his apartment for four days.

The witness, Angel "Memo" Heredia, identified Graham, the former coach of jailed sprinter Marion Jones, in several photographs he said were taken in his house, or at a nearby track, during the visit, which Heredia said was intended to kick off a business relationship involving performance-enhancing drugs.

"He wanted to establish a connection . . . to get performance-enhancing drugs," Heredia said during the second day of Graham's trial in federal court in the Northern District of California. "And he didn't want me working with anybody else."

Novitzky also testified about Graham's involvement with steroids, however was tripped up at points (again the WaPo):

Jeff Novitzky, a former Internal Revenue Services special agent, testified Tuesday morning that he found Graham's name on various documents, including a file folder, discovered during the raid.

But under cross-examination from Keane, Novitzky admitted that he had been mistaken when he said he did not know Heredia's full name -- he said he knew him only as "Memo" -- when he interviewed Graham four years ago. Keane produced a memorandum of an interview with Jones's ex-husband, C.J. Hunter, in which Hunter gave Novitzky Heredia's name and even spelled it. The interview with Hunter occurred just hours before Novitzky's interview with Graham.

Novitzky also said under cross-examination he might have been incorrect when he interpreted a handwritten scrawl on a paper inside the Balco folder that contained Graham's name to say "two beans." Novitzky told the jury he had learned that "beans" was slang for oral testosterone.

Memo Heredia will continue of the stand for cross on Day Three.

Doper of the week: Big Brown

Keen competition this week for the coveted 'Doper Of the Past wEek' (DOPE) award.  We considered Barry Bonds for adding some indictment charges in his BALCO trial.  Dwain Chambers certainly deserves consideration for the amount and the scope of drugs he took during his BALCO days, and his bravado for taking on the UK Olympic establishment to worm his way back into the Games.  Barbie of the MMA, Carina Damm led a strong female component this week, when she peed male steroid hormones.

However, in terms of doping toward achievement, the Winnied-up winner of the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness wins the DOPE award this week.  Yes, Big Brown, whose trainer hands out Winstrol to all his steads like a hopped-up monthly supplement, raced into the DOPE winners circle with the PED use.

104 men out? Feds may subpoena 104 MLB players in Bonds/BALCO trial

Life could be very interesting for about 104 former and current MLB players.  Word comes from ESPN that the federal investigators in the BALCO/Barry Bonds perjury trial may be interested in talking all 104 players who tested positive in the 2003 pre-comprehensive testing policy 'steroid urine screens'.  (Actually the New York Times broke the story with the source)

Tucked away inside the United States attorney’s office in the Northern District of California are documents that link more than 100 major league baseball players to positive tests for steroids conducted in 2003...

According to a lawyer who spoke on condition of anonymity because the government’s plans are supposed to remain confidential, federal authorities will seek to question each of the 104 players about where and how they obtained the substance detected in their urine samples.

The authorities then intend to distribute the information they receive to federal prosecutors around the country.

Remember all the Fed-MLBPA fighting about the release and use of the information from the 2003 MLB preliminary steroid tests?  The MLB tested players for PED use.  If 5% percent tested positive, then the MLBPA and the MLB would institute PED controls.  That data was gathered by federal investigators, leading to a court battle of the use of the files obtained from testing labs.  The feds won the use of positive player results through several court proceedings.

The tone of the investigation and trial should send some chills through the MLB rank and file, perhaps more trepidation than generated by the Mitchell Report; the Gov't has the power of prosecution:

Distributors, not users, have been the focus of the government’s investigations into performance-enhancing drugs ever since the authorities began seriously looking into the issue in 2002. But the 104 players would be asked to provide testimony — to federal agents or before grand juries — to lead investigators to the distributors. The players’ identities could become public if their testimony is used in government documents to obtain search warrants or to charge individuals. The players could also be called as witnesses at trials.

Regardless of how many of the 104 names eventually become public, the notion of simultaneous drug investigations being conducted by various federal attorney’s offices around the country would be a significant setback to Major League Baseball, which has struggled to get control of the issues related to performance-enhancing drugs.

A very full and comprehensive history of the MLB testing, the Gov't raids, and the court proceedings with analysis can be found on the NY Times website.

One wonders how far this investigation would have gone if Barry Bonds simply admitted to PED use in the original BALCO trial; the entire episode might have stopped right there.

Daily Steroid Dose

1.  Giants owner Peter McGowen, went through Bonds era, retires.  (San Jose Mercury-News)

2.  The courts can contain drug-cheats (News-Observer)

3.  Problems with Jason Giambi's fat steroid-enhanced contract?  (NY Daily News)

4.  Jose Canseco to fight at Atlantic City?  (PressofAtlanticCIty.com)

5.   Middle schooler writes about steroids and sports heroes (Beacon News)

Daily Steroid Dose

1.  NFL officials meet with steroids dealer David Jacobs; asking for advice on HGH appearance enhancement.  (USA Today)

2.  SI in-depth review of the Bonds BALCO perjury case. (SI.com)

3.  Tony Mandarich continues to excel at professional photography.  (Mandarich web site)

4.  More on Psysops on steroids.  (TheRawStory)

Feds grow 10 new charges against Barry Bonds: 14 counts of perjury and a random obstruction of justice

Ya'all remember Barry Bonds, the MLB's career and single season home run record holder?  Barry's back and he continues to surpass old performances.  The federal attorneys in charge of indicted the slugger found 10 new perjury charges lying around.  Like an old syringe of nandrolone, they injected old material into the new upcoming court proceedings.  To the New York Times site:

Barry Bonds was re-indicted Tuesday by the federal authorities in an effort to fix the original indictment in his perjury case.

A federal grand jury in San Francisco indicted Bonds on 14 counts of making false statements under oath about whether he used performance-enhancing drugs and one count of obstruction of justice.

What do you do when you deal with steroids? You grow -- things like charges increase.

The indictment filed Tuesday came in response to a motion Bonds’s lawyers filed in January to have the case dismissed. United States District Judge Susan Illston ruled in February that federal authorities must either narrow the indictment or bring new charges to proceed with the case.

The government responded by filing the new indictment, but none of the counts concern different testimony than in the original charges.

In November, Bonds was indicted on five felony charges — four for perjury and one for obstruction of justice — for testifying before a federal grand jury in 2003 that he had never used performance-enhancing drugs.

 

Daily Steroid Briefing

1.  Ole Miss Quarterback recruit Jared Foster indicted for steroid sales (Sun Herald)

2.  Barry Bonds to be a Tiger?  (MLive)

3. Chris Bell (Bigger Stronger Faster) "What's the big deal about steroids" (Fighthype)

4. Goose Gossage at Cooperstown (Democrat and Chronicle)

5.   A Greek swimmer tested positive for doping (IHT)

Floral Park Mayor assures us Babe Ruth would have taken steroids. Would Babe be ahead of Barry today?

The mayor of Floral Park NY tells us Babe Ruth would have taken steroids, had the drugs been available.  From the Floral Park Dispatch:

Lance Williams, an investigative reporter and co-author of the exhaustively researched Game of Shadows, reports that as many as 80 percent of all baseball and track and field athletes have used performance enhancing drugs. Some have argued that performance drugs are so widespread in professional sports that the competitive balance remains unaltered. But this is besides the point; the tragedy is that the cultural bias toward success complete with its rewards of riches and fame has claimed, degenerately, a generation of stellar athletes seen as role models for maturing athletes.

This is not a moral indictment of the modern athlete who often sees doping not only as not cheating but necessary in order to be competitive. The temptations are frightfully seductive since these drugs are extremely effective, the payoffs staggeringly high and the prospect of getting caught, despite recent revelations, generally low. I have little doubt that if steroids had been around when Babe Ruth was playing, the Babe, phenomenal ballplayer though he was, would have been chugging the stuff down in his beer.

A good history of anabolic steroid development can be found at Steroid.com:

Later, in 1929 a procedure to produce an extract of potent activity from bull's testicles was attempted, and in 1935 a more purified form of this extract was created. A year later, a scientist named Ruzicka synthesized this compound, testosterone, from cholesterol, as did two other scientists, Butenandt and Hanisch (3). Testosterone was, of course, the first anabolic steroid ever created, and remains the basis for all other derivations we have currently being used in medicine today. Testosterone was then used in 1936, in an experiment demonstrating that nitrogen excretion of the castrated dog could be increased by giving the dog supplemental testosterone, and this would increase its body weight. (4) Shortly after this time, the Nazi´s were rumored to have given their soldiers anabolic steroids, but that rumor seems to be largely undocumented...

In 1934 and 1935 Ruth's baseball career and his physical condition started failing.  The Babe might have sought out some anabolic aids to push his career more.  Here are the last 3 Ruth years at ages 38, 39, and 40.

Year Ag Tm  Lg  G   AB    R    H   2B 3B  HR  RBI  SB CS  BB  SO   BA   OBP   SLG *OPS+  TB   SH  SF IBB HBP GDP 
1933 38 NYY AL 137  459   97  138  21  3  34  103   4  5 114  90  .301  .442  .582  176  267   0           2     AS
1934 39 NYY AL 125  365   78  105  17  4  22   84   1  3 104  63  .288  .448  .537  161  196   0           2     AS
1935 40 BSN NL  28   72   13   13   0  0   6   12   0     20  24  .181  .359  .431  118   31   0           0   2

Now, lets look at the Bonds, Barry Bonds from age 38 on.  Examine the numbers closely: despite about the same number of at bats and interestingly the same number of hits, Bonds's SLG blows Ruth out of the water.  After 40, the rest of Bonds's career is frosting.  If Ruth broke down more than Bonds, then someone explain the stolen bases Ruth racked up, comparable to Bonds.  (also think of Ruth as a DH)

Year Ag Tm  Lg  G   AB    R    H   2B 3B  HR  RBI  SB CS  BB  SO   BA   OBP   SLG *OPS+  TB   SH  SF IBB HBP GDP 
2003 38 SFG NL 130  390  111  133  22  1  45   90   7  0 148  58  .341  .529  .749  231  292   0   2  61  10   7 SS,MVP-1,AS
2004 39 SFG NL 147  373  129  135  27  3  45  101   6  1 232  41  .362  .609  .812  263  303   0   3 120   9   5 SS,MVP-1,AS
2005 40 SFG NL  14   42    8   12   1  0   5   10   0  0   9   6  .286  .404  .667  174   28   0   1   3   0   0
2006 41 SFG NL 130  367   74   99  23  0  26   77   3  0 115  51  .270  .454  .545  156  200   0   1  38  10   9
2007 42 SFG NL 126  340   75   94  14  0  28   66   5  0 132  54  .276  .480  .565  170  192   0   2  43   3  13 AS

As one can see, Barry Bonds's "fitness routine" in his late career propelled past the Babe.  Indeed, had the Babe sought out someone like Greg Anderson or Victor Conte, he would not be sitting on 714 home runs today.

Daily Steroid Briefing

1. More cops on steroids in Tennessee. (MSMV)

2.  Brian McNamee's lawyers sending investigator to Houston to probe the Rocket. (NY Times)

3.  Here is why Barry Bonds was benched.  (Newsweek)

4.  Squeezing juiced horse in PA. (Erie Times-News)

5. Canadian horse doped up on Alzheimer drug. (Toronto Sun)

6. Newspaper in Oklahoma says steroid use on the rise.  (NewsOK)

Superstar steroid investigator Jeff Novitzky traded from the IRS to the FDA

Superstar steroid investigator Jeff Novitzky, the investigative heavyweight behind the BALCO probe, appears to be traded from the IRS team to Team FDA.   The New York Times covers this story:

Jeff Novitzky, the federal agent whose investigation into performance-enhancing substances has exposed cheating in professional sports, left the Internal Revenue Service recently and joined the Food and Drug Administration to focus on the distribution of illegal drugs, according to an F.D.A. official and two lawyers who were briefed on the change.

Novitzky has joined the F.D.A. Office of Criminal Investigations as a special agent with all the same investigative powers he had during his 15 years with the I.R.S., the lawyers said.

Novitzky will remain based in the Bay Area and continue to work closely with the United States attorney’s office in the Northern District of California, the lawyers said. One of the lawyers said the F.D.A., which has fewer agents than the I.R.S., had been courting Novitzky for some time because of his work as the lead investigator on the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative case. So far, eight people have pleaded guilty in connection with the Balco investigation, including the track star Marion Jones.

Despite the trade, Novitzky will remain in the Bay Area.  Already in the FDA lineup, Novitzky was swatting at Jose Canseco:

Novitzky and two other federal agents were in Los Angeles on Tuesday to interview José Canseco in connection with their investigation into Miguel Tejada and Clemens, who are suspected of making false statements as part of separate Congressional investigations into the use of performance-enhancing drugs.

Canseco was questioned for three hours, his lawyer, Greg S. Emerson, said in a telephone interview. He said Canseco was questioned about “the things we expected.”

Why did Novitzky jump teams from IRS to FDA.  Appears that a career advancement might be one issue, as well as joining a team with more talent, and better hitters in the lineup.

“I think it would give him more exposure to just doing that type of work,” Sparlin said by telephone Tuesday. He added: “For Jeff to go as far as he did in Balco was a stretch for the I.R.S., too. I think he was allowed to go a lot further than he would otherwise because of the impact.”

F.D.A. investigators work with grand juries and use subpoenas. False statements to an F.D.A. agent are no different under federal law from false statements to an I.R.S. agent; the track coach Trevor Graham, who is charged with three counts of making false statements to Novitzky, goes on trial May 19.

The F.D.A. office was involved in Operation Raw Deal, which resulted in 124 arrests in September. That case focused on human growth hormone and steroids coming from China to underground labs in the United States.

There are no reports about salaries, arbitration, trade details, or contracts.  We expect Novitzky to hit cleanup for the FDA.  There were some rumblings that Novitzky was using HGH to increase his power, however these should be quickly dismissed...

 

Daily Steroid Briefing

1.  Questions about David Ortiz's huge increase in production when he came to Boston (Staten Island Advance)

2.  Barry Bonds legal woes not so bad (Times Herald-Record)

3. Iowa coach Mike Zadick responds to reprimand (Great Falls Tribune)

4.  Ex-TCU sprinter, Olympia, and Jamaican coach Raymond Jackson denies steroid rumors. (Jamaican Observer)

Daily Steroid Briefing

1.  Marion Jones's teammates to lose Sydney medals; whose crying now.  (AFP)  (How about the San Francisco Giants?)

2.  Michigan's Mario Manningham played 'high'.  The state of NCAA drug testing.  (Freep)

3.  It's all about winning in the USJCA  (US Jock Culture of America)(USA Today)

4.  Scientists admit to cerebral bench-presses and brain PEDs.  (Breitbart)

5.  Cockfighters bribed lawmaker.  [post your own pun here].  (Knoxnews)

6.  New York City cops to submit to steroid tests.  Start boning up on those Tyler Hamilton excuses.  (NY Daily News)

7.  Which celebrities juice? (Cracked.com)

Daily Steroid Briefing

1.  Topps predicted baseball's steroid era with 'Big Head' Bonds, Clemens, Palmeiro...  (Fan IQ)

2.  Victor Conte again says Shane Mosley took 'roids.  (LA Times)

3.  Plano TX man says Saints lineman Matt Lehr distributed steroids.  (KFAA-TV)

4.  University of San Diego reporter considered steroids to improve softball home run swing (Volante Online)

Barry Bonds: Willie Mays the 'honorary' Godfather

We came across a Forbes story from San Francisco, again about the absence of slugger Barry Bonds from the Giant's lineup.  The story carried this line:

Willie Mays, the Giants' greatest player, has streets and statues dedicated to him across the city of San Francisco, but he was already an MVP and World Series winner with the New York Giants before he came to the Bay area. Barry Bonds, Mays' godson, who came up in San Francisco, was our great hope--that explains our unconditional support through the steroids scandal.

How many times have you read that Barry Bonds's godfather is Willie Mays?   Well, does anyone check references on this.

From the Encyclopedia of Fun and Trivia:

Who is Barry Bonds' godfather?

Barry Bonds Bonanza (areidcowell)

Willie Mays. Mays, Banks, and Paige are all in the Hall of Fame.  Bobby is Barry's father.

 

Typical.  Do a Google search on "Barry Bonds" and "Godfather"  You will find over and over again that Willie Mays is the 'godfather' of Barry Bonds.  Check the facts.

Barry Bonds was born on 24-July-1964 in Riverside, CA.  His father Bobby Bonds (to the left) just graduated from Riverside Polytech High School (with Dusty Baker) where he was an 1964 All-American in track, and an All-State baseball player and All-State football player (drafted in 1965 by the NFL).  Bonds spent the summer of 1964 in the Carolina League where he was player of the year.

Bobby Bonds first MLB game with the San Francisco Gaints was June 26, 1968, in which he hit a grand slam home run.  Bonds probably became closer to Willie Mays in the 1969 season, when he consistently played left field next to Willie, who was in center.

According to Jeff Pearlman in "Love Me Hate Me, Barry Bonds and the Making of an Antihero" (on Page 26), Willie Mays was not actually Barry Bonds's godfather, but his "honorary" godfather.

Barry Bonds was born to a freshly graduated Riverside CA athlete.  Bobby Bonds -- Barry's father -- didn't break into the major leagues until 1968 when Barry was almost 4; Bobby was in the minor leagues when Barry was born.  Likely Bobby Bonds didn't meet Willie May until he spent some time in San Francisco with the major league team.  However, it is universally written that Willie Mays is Barry Bonds 'godfather'.  Willie Mays would be Barry Bonds 'honorary godfather' and from what we can tell, not the man who 'stood' for Bonds at his baptism (unless he was baptized at age 4 or later).

This might be like the Italian 'godfather' and 'cousin' in the Mafia sense.

Late Daily Steroid Briefing

1.  The San Francisco Giants take stock of loss of Bonds  (NY Times)

2. Interview with ex-Senator George Mitchell, of the infamous Mitchell Report.  He delayed treatment for prostrate cancer until after the MLB steroid report was published (Trading Markets)

3. New Jersey pumps up steroid testing for kids (1010 WINS)

4. A Utah station says high school use of steroids is epidemic (CDC disagrees) (ABC 4)

5.  Duke newspaper says good riddance to old athletic director Joe Alleva, who resigned to take the position at LSU.  Sites failure to be honest about steroid abuse on Duke baseball team.  (Duke Chronicle)

6.  Ibuprofen and Tylenol as PEDs?  Study says yes. (Physorg)

Daily Steroid Briefing

1.  New York City cops get lecture on steroids.  (NY1 News)

2.  Gilbert Arenas does not have freedom of speech about Roger Clemens and steroids (AOL Sports)

3.  Barry Bonds might still be swatting at balls this year.  (Trading Markets)

4.  WADA plans on testing for HGH during the Olympics in China.  (ESPN)

5. Rafael Nadal, looking really buff for a tennis player in Florida tournament.  (Palm Beach Post)(Go out and hit)

Tammy Thomas trial goes to jury

The Tammy Thomas trial goes to jury in San Francisco.  (Bloomberg)

``This case is about holding Ms. Thomas responsible for those false statements,'' Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeff Nedrow told a San Francisco federal jury today. ``This prosecution is not about steroids, it's not about sports. You cannot go into the grand jury and make false statements.''    

Thomas is also charged with obstructing the federal probe. Prosecutors said Thomas was the link between Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative, a lab known as Balco, and Patrick Arnold, an Illinois chemist who made drugs for the lab.    

Her lawyers say she testified truthfully, any substances she took were legal at the time she took them and her testimony wasn't material to the grand jury probe.

To convict her, jurors have to agree that her testimony was material, or could have influenced the grand jury, according to the judge's instructions.    

``The government has miscast this case. They told you that the Balco grand jury was investing Patrick Arnold,'' Thomas lawyer Ethan Balogh told the jury. ``We know the Balco grand jury wasn't investigating Patrick Arnold'' because prosecutors already had evidence against him...

Thomas faces as much as three years in prison and a $250,000 fine for the false statement charges and 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for obstruction of justice.

Interesting the burden of proof placed on prosecutors.

Also interesting that the prosecutors argued the drugs were legal.  THG was nowhere near legal at that time.  Patrick Arnold -- who synthesized the steroid -- never went through a single phase of testing from basic animal studies, to animal and human toxicology, to pharmacokinetics, to human clinical trials.  Not one phase.  That is ludicrous to say this drug was legal.   It irritates this writer that a lawyer would argue that point in court without his tongue turning black and his eyes bleeding out.  As ludicrous as a woman shaving every morning, not thinking she is taking an anabolic androgenic steroid.

However, juries do not hinge deliberations on the issue of ludicrous statements.  We await the verdict.  So does Barry Bonds.