Steroid Nation

Miami New Times claims widespread doping in baseball

In a huge revelation, a site from Florida the 'Miami New Times' obtained insider information about a local anti-aging clinic that appears to have enlightened several baseball stars with PEDs.

...you'll find more than a dozen other baseball pros, from former University of Miami ace Cesar Carrillo to Padres catcher Yasmani Grandal to Washington Nationals star Gio Gonzalez. Notable coaches are there too, including UM baseball conditioning guru Jimmy Goins.

The names are all included in an extraordinary batch of records from Biogenesis, an anti-aging clinic tucked into a two-story office building just a hard line drive's distance from the UM campus. They were given to New Times by an employee who worked at Biogenesis before it closed last month and its owner abruptly disappeared. The records are clear in describing the firm's real business: selling performance-enhancing drugs, from human growth hormone (HGH) to testosterone to anabolic steroids.

Interviews with six customers and two former employees corroborate the tale told by the patient files, the payment records, and the handwritten notebooks kept by the clinic's chief, 49-year-old Anthony Bosch.

This operation has been called the East Coast Balco Operation, which has been heard before in conjunction with other schemes.

THis operation appears to dispense HCG, HGH, anabolic steroids, IGF-1,   Names include A-Rod, Melky Crabera, Nelson Cruz, Gio Gonzalez and others.  MLB players just need that extra edge of doping.

Remember that name: Biogenesis.  Starts with 'B' like BALCO.

 

Should Barry Bonds be immortalized outside of ATT Park? Holding a syringe?

From the Sacramento Bee, comes this item on the possibility of a Barry Bond statute outside of AT&T Park:

It's safe to say Roger Clemens won't have a statue of his likeness outside Fenway Park.

Not just because of his link to steroids and legal troubles, but because Clemens went on to win two championships with the New York Yankees. In Boston, that's unforgivable.

A statue of Sammy Sosa outside Wrigley Field? Not going to happen.

A statue of Mark McGwire outside Busch Stadium? We're not here to talk about the past, sorry.

A statue of Barry Bonds outside AT&T Park? Hold the phone a second.

Does Bonds deserve to be immortalized with a statue of his likeness – his arms raised as he watches home run No. 756 sail over the center-field wall? Should he join other Giants greats – Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Juan Marichal and Orlando Cepeda – who have statues?

Some Giants fans will say that while they cheered for Bonds before his arms, chest and head made him look like a cartoonish figure, he disgraced the game by using performance-enhancing drugs.

Others will say none of that matters; he provided them with memories that will last a lifetime. Besides, how can the Giants not honor a Bay Area son who is baseball's all-time home run king (wink, wink)?

Though the Giants benefited from Bonds' home run era, they are in no hurry to decide on a statue, and they will continue to keep a polite distance from their former star for now.

The Giants most likely will wait to see if Bonds is elected into the Hall of Fame in his first ballot later this year. If he is, it's just a matter of time before a statue is unveiled.

Why not put a bronze Bonds outside the park?  Maybe a statue of Bonds holding a syringe?  Or Bonds with gynecomastia from 'roiding?  How would you pose Bods to immortalize the career home-run leader?

Early takes on the Roger Clemens indictment: Oath and narcissim

Numerous comments followed the Roger Clemens indictment accusing him of perjury in a congressional hearing.  Some hit the mark, some miss.

One illogical column in the Detroit Free-Press reasoned Congressmen are liars, and therefore should indict themselves rather than Clemens.

Congressmen of all party affiliations can blatantly lie to their constituents and often the only crime committed is their re-election. But if you lie to them, your address could change to Leavenworth.

Ah ... the sweet elixir that is hypocrisy.

There's no defending Roger Clemens if he indeed lied under oath to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee during his nationally televised testimony in January 2008.

If he's that stupid, voluntarily putting himself in this mess, he deserves all the humiliation he gets. I suppose he's employing the George Costanza Principle -- "It's not a lie if you believe it's the truth."

But Congress' relentless pursuit -- a six-count indictment against Clemens for obstructing justice and perjury -- nonetheless comes across as arrogant for a legislative body that has a hard enough time holding itself accountable.

Sigh.  The principle here is that under oath, a witness shall not lie in a congressional hearing.  How does pursuing truth amount to egotistical?  Does the writer not understand that the justice system is based on veracity under oath.  It continues:

These political hacks can't understand that Clemens' and Bonds' career legacies and personal reputations already are shot regardless of what Congress says or does. Nobody really cares if Clemens and Bonds spends a second in federal prison, because the court of public opinion already has tried and convicted them, sentencing them to a life of open scorn and ridicule.

OK dude, the world is not all a sports driven event.  Because Barry Bonds will not make the Hall of Fame, justice is not served under oath.

The message is that when sworn in a court or a hearing that the truth needs to come out -- or simply shut up.  Clemens was not compelled to testify; He could have declined the opportunity.

Journalists speculate why Clemens might have distorted the truth (which we don't really know that he did). The Rocket is NOT delusional.  Clemens knows reality; he does not think green men are bugging his cell phone.

However like other powerful men, acclimated to power and adulation, the narcissism comes out.  This is a man who didn't attend spring training, who flew in his own plane to games.  He didn't play by team rules, and thus why should he play by the usual rules common non-VIPs observe?  (who would pose with his wife for skimpy photo shoots without a huge measure of narcissism?)

Bonds too, suffered from the VIP-adulation-power narcissism where he demanded public attention and worship.  Rules are for mortals, not gods like Clemens and Bonds.  Same reason that John Edwards, Tiger Woods, Bill Clinton, George Bush etc etc.  Power, Visibility, Sex...

Imagine if John Edwards were President today...

Cheating be it like Tiger Woods or John Edwards infidelity sense, or with PEDs in the Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens sense is understandable when you look at the aggressiveness of these men.

The cheating may lead to certain consequences, however the cover-up really torpedo these guys.

Should Clemens be indicted?  IDK, however one could predict that Congress will protect the matter of truthfulness under oath.

Roger Clemens indicted for obstruction of justice during Congressional steroids hearing in 2008

In a House of Representatives chamber in 2008, Roger Clemens assured the gathered congressmen that he never took steroids.  US federal attorneys are accusing Clemens of not representing the truth in his testimony.  (from the AP)

Roger Clemens was vehement: "Let me be clear. I have never taken steroids or HGH," he told a House committee in 2008. Now, instead of the Hall of Fame, baseball's seven-time Cy Young winner could go to prison after being indicted by a federal grand jury Thursday for allegedly lying to Congress.

The case writes a new chapter in one of baseball's worst scandals, the rampant use of performance-enhancing drugs in the 1990s and early 2000s, and leaves Clemens' legacy in jeopardy.

The six-count indictment alleges that Clemens obstructed a congressional inquiry with 15 different statements made under oath, including denials that he had ever used steroids or human growth hormone.

Virginia Congressman Tom Davis relates this about the Rocket:

"Clemens was not under subpoena. He came voluntarily," Davis said. "And I sat there in the office with (committee chairman) Henry Waxman and said, 'Whatever you do, don't lie.'"

Clemens was sticking to his story Thursday. He insisted he was telling the truth, again denying any wrongdoing on or off the field.

Through his lawyer, the veteran Rusty Hardin, Clemens claims  he neither lied, nor took HGH or steroids.  Clemens turned down a plea bargain.

Clemen's ex-trainer Brian McNamee reports he administered PEDs to the Rocket.  One would think that the Government has ascertained other witnesses or other evidence to Clemens' PED use.

Baseball's Mitchell Report mentioned Clemens a few times -- like 82.

Jose Juiced Canseco injected into Texas minor league team

Juiced author and broke entrepreneur Jose Canseco will report to a Texas minor team -- the Laredo Broncos.  Apparently Canseco cannot sell enough steroid books to cover his  bills.

Note the comment by the league president.  He thinks that having a washed up irresponsible ex-major league All-Start is a league highlight.  Celebrity once again trumps intelligence.

LAREDO, Texas -- Jose Canseco has signed a contract with an independent minor-league team in south Texas.

The 46-year-old Canseco, a central figure in baseball's steroid era, was introduced Monday as a member of the Laredo Broncos -- one of six teams in the United Baseball League.

Canseco says he'll play designated hitter, serve as a bench coach and pitch for the team. He'll play in Laredo's remaining six home games this season.

The former slugger named names and detailed steroid use around major league baseball in two memoirs. In one, he admitted using steroids and claimed that up to 85 percent of players also did.

Canseco hit 462 home runs in 17 major league seasons. He was the AL Rookie of the Year in 1986 and MVP in 1988, after he hit 42 home runs and stole 40 bases.

"My first step was getting back into the game, in whatever way, shape and form," Canseco said. "I don't know how I'll perform physically, since I'm 46 and haven't played at this level in a long time. We'll see what happens."

Byron Pierce, the UBL president, said luring Canseco was "one of the highlights of our league."

In the 1960s there was a TV series about Texas Rangers called 'Laredo' staring William Smith.  Smith looks like he could have taken Canesco. 

PED using Olympian Antonio Pettigrew found dead at 42; PED use involved?

Forty two year-old former Olympian and admitted PED user/drug cheat Antonio Pettigrew was found dead at age 42.  Pettigrew served as a track coach at The University of North Carolina.

ANTONIO Pettigrew, who was stripped of a 2000 Olympic 4x400m relay gold medal for doping, has been found dead at the age of 42.

There was no word on the exact time or possible cause of death for Pettigrew, whose body was discovered on Tuesday according to a spokesman for University of North Carolina, where Pettigrew was an assistant athletics coach.

Pettigrew, who won the 1991 400 metres world title in Tokyo, was a member of the 4x400 metres American relay team that won the gold medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

But the International Olympic Committee (IOC) stripped Pettigrew and his teammates - including Michael Johnson - of their medals after he admitted, during a trial against former coach Trevor Graham, to doping.

Pettigrew qualifies as a "non-analytic" PED user: He never tested positive for PEDs, however he admitted to use under oath in court.

Pettigrew used at least EPO and HGH. Studies have shown HGH enlarges the heart muscle.  EPO is related to sudden death in cyclists -- it changes hemodynamics.

Could HGH and EPO use have lead to a cardiac problem in Pettigrew produced sudden cardiac death? No one will know exactly, but it's intelligent speculation.

It is reported Victor Conte thought EPO was one of the best PEDs.  Will we now start to see 40+ former athletes drop dead from PED side effects?

BALCO investigator Jeff Novitzky aims scope at Lance Armstrong

The AP reports BALCO investigator and Barry Bond's good buddy Jeff Novitzky will lead the investigation of Lance Armstrong's cycling antics in the near future.  Armstrong would likely rather have the IRS invite him to a weekend picnic at Alcatraz.

He's been called high-minded, a trailblazing lawman and "America's top steroid cop."

For someone who does his best work behind the scenes, federal agent Jeff Novitzky is hardly a stranger to the spotlight. And depending on the results of an ongoing investigation into the sometimes-shadowy world of pro cycling, he could soon become better-known still.

After hounding home-run king Barry Bonds for years and wringing a confession from Olympic sprinter Marion Jones, Novitzky is leading an investigation that has questioned sponsors and examined claims from former teammates of Lance Armstrong, the seven-time Tour de France champion. A grand jury has been seated in Los Angeles to hear evidence in the investigation over the coming weeks and months, and Armstrong sponsors Trek Bicycle Corp. and Nike each said Friday that they've been contacted by federal agents.

"I'm just glad he ain't after me," said attorney Richard Emery. "He is a nightmare for anyone that's he's focused on."

With home run #600, A-Rod becomes A-Fraud?

Everyone knew it was coming...Alex Rodriguez's 600th home run.  Following the revelation of his steroid and PED use, among other bad behaviors, time provided sufficient opportunity to discuss his achievements and his misadventures.  Why then does the Boston Herald declare this a controversy?

On Wednesday, Alex Rodriguez became the seventh player to reach the 600-home run level. He was the youngest to do it and is on a path that easily could give him another 163 homers, and the all-time record, before his contract ends in 2017.

Yet Rodriguez’s milestone home run wasn’t a big event outside of New York. It was more of an interruption in stories about the start of NFL camps and the deterioration of Tiger Woods’ short game.How would this have been played if Rodriguez had not wound up on the list of players who tested positive for steroids in 2003?

Why should anyone be surprised about A-Rod as the youngest player to meet the 600 HR platform?  He likely was more exposed to PEDs and at an earlier age.  He was banging out 50 home runs a year in Texas and Seattle as a young player during the apex of baseball's steroids era.

Can anyone quantify the boost PEDs put into A-ROd's bat (a few years ago writers were suggesting that there was no evidence that 'roiding even helped power hitter, a bit like suggesting Hurricane Katrina really wasn't all that devastating).

Someone could develop regression equations to pare down A-Rod's home run totals to speculative HRs without juice.  Why bother when your lifetime home run leader-- Barry Bonds -- awaits trial on steroids charges in the BALCO scandal.

Obviously A-Rod reached the plateau by cheating, cheating the game the fans, the pitchers, and his fellow players.  Does anyone really have anything to add beyond that?

Padres acquire 'roider Tejada

In an interesting twist, the San Diego Padres (remember a Padre is a priest) acquired Miguel Tejada, the juiced, who lied in front of Congress about the issue.

Padres eh?

Must need a team leader there...imagine if your employer hired a person who lied to Congress about anything.

The NL West-leading San Diego Padres obtained infielder Miguel Tejada and cash from the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday in exchange for Double-A right-hander Wynn Pelzer. Tejada was scratched from the Orioles' lineup before their game Thursday night at Kansas City. The trade was announced a short time later. Tejada is hitting .269 with seven homers and 39 RBIs. The former AL MVP can play shortstop and third base. He has appeared in 93 games in the field this season, all at third base, after having played shortstop in each of his previous 1,846 games.

Hall of Famer Whitey Herzog: MLB allowed stroids to juice the game

In the Daily Herald Barry Rvvner quotes new HOFer Whitey Herzog on steroid and PED use in baseball.  Herzog discusses the attendance factor, the envy factor, and the cheat the old timers factor (assuming they were clean.

Back in the early '90s, it was always amusing when the Athletics got off their team bus in spring training and walked past the Cubs' dugout.

Inevitably, at least one Cubs player would say, "There goes the Oakland Raiders again."

That's how big the Mark McGwire/Jose Canseco Athletics were, and it wasn't just the big boppers.

It was a monstrous team, one that didn't go unnoticed by Hall of Famer Whitey Herzog, who had his own take on steroids this past weekend and remembered when several NFL and MLB teams inhabited the same facilities.

"I think you have to look at the baseball teams that shared stadiums with the football teams," Herzog said, while not specifically naming the Athletics, since the Raiders were in L.A. from 1982 to 1996. "There's a lot of cities where they worked together in the training rooms. The football players were going from 250 to 335 and they got faster.

"Baseball players watched that and next thing you know they had something going.

"I was fortunate I didn't have to manage during the steroid era. I managed during the drug era. I had players with problems. Everybody knows that.

"I often wonder how many games we lost as managers in the '80s because of drugs. But by the same token I wonder how many victories managers got in the '90s because of steroids."

Herzog pointed to the work stoppages of 1990 and 1994 as another factor in the performance-enhancing explosion.

"Baseball was down after the strike and McGwire gets all those home runs (in 1998) and it brought baseball back," Herzog said. "Everybody goes back to the ballparks. So maybe that's where the mistake was made.

"If they stopped it then, maybe we wouldn't have the situation we got. I don't know the answer to that.

"Baseball looked the other way because they didn't want attendance to fall. I don't think it was right, and I don't like that a lot of records were broken. It's hurt a lot of retired players trying to get here (to Cooperstown), and I think it's just plain wrong.''

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...

Why no positive for 'boli' (primobolan) in MLB testing for A-Rod?

Newsday wonders why Alex Rodriquez who admitted to using primobolan for at least 3 years, did not test positive for the anabolic steroid?

The MLB and MLB Players Association agreed to the 'screening' test in 2003.  As we know Sports Illustrated found credible information that A-Rod was among those players who tested positive.  However, according to the Mitchell Report, no MLB player tipped the scales with primobolan.

On Feb. 17, Alex Rodriguez held a news conference at the Yankees' spring training complex in Tampa intending to set the record straight about his steroid use, which had been reported by Sports Illustrated the previous week.

Nearly a month later, many of the questions raised by the original story have been answered...

If A-Rod really was taking Primobolan from 2001 to 2003, why didn't he test positive for that specific drug during the random survey in 2003? There may be a perfectly innocent explanation. Baseball needs to provide it...

...according to a breakdown of the drugs the players tested positive for in the 2003 survey released along with the Mitchell Report, not a single player tested positive for Primobolan.

According to the breakdown that was made public, 73 players tested positive for nandrolone, a hardcore oil-based injectable steroid also known as Deca-Durabolin; 26 for stanozolol, also known as Winstrol; eight for elevated levels of testosterone; five for boldenone, also known as Equipoise; three for methandrostenolone, or Dianabol, and one for clenbuterol, technically not a steroid at all but a bronchodilator used by athletes to cut fat.

Interetesting that no player tested positive for primobolan.  Also interesting that only 8 players tested positive for 'elevated testosterone'  Do we have any information that MLB looked at T:E ratios?  Onlny 8 positive for the most popular PED?

Consider A-Rod himself: Does this cast credibility on his story... or the man responsible for the testing?

Right now, baseball does its own in-house testing, by a lab contracted to work for Major League Baseball, and all results are evaluated by one man, Dr. Bryan Smith, who of course is paid by Major League Baseball.

(Dr. Smith also is the man who signed off on 106 therapeutic exemptions for players diagnosed with ADD, allowing them to use drugs such as Ritalin, a powerful stimulant, without penalty.)

This is not to impugn the integrity of any of those entities or individuals, simply to ask how much more reliable the data coming from them would be if the testing were administered by an entity entirely independent of the people it is testing.

Dwain Chambers still hanging with Victor Conte, despite BALCO history

In the 'They never learn' category', it appears ex-BALCO client and current comeback sprinter Dwain Chambers continues use ex-BALCO boss Victor Conte as his go-to expert in performance enhancement.

You would think Chambers, now trying to work his way back into track, would refrain from association with the man who supplied him with illegal steroids and PEDs.  Apparently not the way he thinks.

Athletic's world governing body has admitted it is shocked that Dwain Chambers has reunited with controversial coach Victor Conte.

Conte spent four months in jail for his role in the Balco Laboratory scandal that rocked athletics.

Chambers tested positive for the banned substance THG in 2003 and served a two-year ban.

But the sprinter is using a hi-tech breathing device to boost his oxygen capacity under the supervision of Conte.

The IAAF said the disgraced sprinter, who won the 60 metres title in the European Indoor Championships last week, should distance himself from Conte.

"We're very surprised that he's still associating with people like Mr Conte," an IAAF statement said.

"And if he's looking forward to a career and claiming that he's doing that in all legality, it's probably wise to disassociate yourself with people with a reputation for being involved in doping in sport."

The device simulates high altitute.  And Victor Conte simulates a coach

Dwain Chambers names track athletes, coaches, and contradictions in new book

The AP discusses UK sprinter Dwain Chambers's new book as more of the text is revealed.  Not surprisingly Chambers names more track athletes who used BALCO for doping including Kelli White.
British sprinter Dwain Chambers names several doping-tainted American athletes in his autobiography chronicling his use of performance-enhancing drugs.

Sprinters Kelli White, Chryste Gaines and Alvin Harrison, all of whom were busted for doping and served suspensions, are all mentioned when Chambers recounts his ties with BALCO founder Victor Conte.

"He kept telling me to talk to the other athletes, talk to my coach Remi (Korchemny), Chryste Gaines and Kelli, Alvin Harrison to name a few. I told him I would," Chambers writes in the book "Race Against Me: My Story...

"In time I became fully aware of Victor's role and his purpose in recruiting the best athletes in the world," Chambers writes. "Victor was a pharmacologist with a living to make."

Chambers says he started taking THG, also known as "The Clear," and other drugs such as HGH and EPO, in 2002 after meeting Conte in the United States while training.

"As time went on, I became more and more familiar with associating certain athletes with certain drugs. ... I made Kelli White my main confidante and the attraction grew by the day," writes Chambers, who says he dated White for more than a year.

White won the 100 and 200-meter races at the 2003 world championships in Paris, but both her medals were stripped after she tested positive for modafinil

Chambers, who admitted using 300 combinations of illegal PEDs assumes a strange and paradoxiacally moral attitude toward illict drug doping:

Although Chambers says both he and White "agreed that we hated having to cheat to win," he later says he didn't know THG was on the World Anti-Doping Agency's list of banned substances.

"If THG was on there I was out of America on the very next flight and Victor Conte was history!" Chambers writes, but then later in the book adds, "I printed the list off. It ran to nearly eight pages. I went over it three times and found no reference at all to THG. Victor was right: it wasn't on the banned list."

"In my own mind, I wasn't cheating."

In earlier excerpts from the book printed in the Daily Mail, Chambers says he was a "walking junkie" and took "more than 300 different concoctions" of performance-enhancing drugs that cost him $30,000 a year.

"It wasn't a problem. I was earning big money at the time," Chambers writes.

White (photo right) who to her credit confessed to all the doping, is an example of how the drugs produce an incredible physique.  Once again, consider all records in the 'steroids era' to be at risk of PED taint. 

Chambers also hits the syringe on the head in the last statement.."The money..."

Also note the irony of calling Conte a 'pharmacologist'.

UK Sprinter Dwain Chambers lays out chilling inside look at track doping via BALCO

Carrying excerpts before the mid-March publication of Dwain Chambers new book "Race Against Me", The Daily Mail shows the chilling (and expensive) world of big time track doping.  Chambers admits to more than 300 drug cocktails from BALCO (and other sources).  To Earth Times:

London - Disgraced British sprinter Dwain Chambers admits in his forthcoming autobiography "Race Against Me" that he took a concoction of over 300 performance-enhancing drugs. In an installment published in Tuesday's Daily Mail ahead of next Monday's release, Chambers, who served a two-year ban after being found guilty of doping offences in 2003, said he had paid out 30,000 dollars a year for doping substances.

"I wasn't just on THG, EPO and HGH, but testosterone to help with sleep and reduce cholesterol," he said. "On Christmas Day (in 2002), as I sat in the bathroom with 'The Clear' (THG), I realized I had been taking drugs - more than 300 different concoctions - for 12 months.

During that time, Chambers says he passed 10 doping tests as well as winning the 100-metre gold medal at the 2002 European Championships. However, his times hadn't improved that dramatically and he was also often troubled by stomach cramps.

"When I was clean, my personal best was 9.97 seconds. A year on, after the sleepless nights, the anxiety, the pain of the cramps, the blood draws to make sure I wouldn't suffer a stroke, or worse, the inconsistent races and the disappointment of missing events, my PB (personal best) was 9.87 seconds," he wrote.

Some of the drugs: The clear (THG), testosterone, insulin, HGH . Provigil, T4, and EPO.  Dangerous...Yes.  Effective...apparently.  Chambers says his time went for a PB of 9.97 to 9.87, nice gains.  The cost, you can see above the price.

The discussions?  This discussing with Tim Montgomery about Conte and BALCO:

I  (Chambers)should have seen the danger signals when Montgomery snarled at me one day: ‘Yo, Dwain! You wit that n***** Conte? Don’t go anywhere near that c********r. Let me tell you, Chambers, he’s bad news.’

I was unnerved, but he didn’t elaborate. I didn’t know there was a huge row brewing between Montgomery and Conte. Tim had probably taken a well-educated guess that I was clean and didn’t want me dragged down. I just wish he had been more constructive, instead of hurling obscenities in the direction of Victor.

And a discussion with Conte:

Conte had convinced me that a new drug meant I could train harder and more often. He called it The Clear (THG) and The Cream.

‘Is it illegal?’ I asked.

‘It’s undetectable.’

‘Is it banned?’

‘The Clear is not on the prohibited list and neither will cause a positive test.’

‘Isn’t that cheating?

‘They’re cheating you, Dwain. You’re a talented athlete and you’re not competing on a level playing field. Most of the top sprinters are on steroids. Every time you race you’re at a disadvantage.’

Ah, rationalizations...

GBR sprinter Dwain Chambers calls himslef a 'walking junkie', more like a sprinting one

The UK's best sprinter Dwain Chamber's calls himself a 'walking junkie' in his new book, about to be published.  The Seattle Times carries the story:

British sprinter discusses his drug use in autobiography: British sprinter Dwain Chambers says in his autobiography he was a "walking junkie," with so many drugs in his luggage he feared being arrested while going through airport security in Miami.

Chambers, who from 2003 to 2005 served a ban for doping, details his drug use in the book "Race Against Me: My Story," which is to go on sale next week.

The 30-year-old Chambers wrote that in his luggage in Miami "there were enough drugs in there to kill an elephant and I didn't have a clue whether they were legal or not. I was a walking junkie. I had tubes of stuff that were known only to me as 'The Clear' and 'The Cream,' along with a few bottles of EPO and HGH, which were in ice packs, as they needed to be kept cool."

Chambers, the first athlete with connections to BALCO founder Victor Conte to test positive for the previously undetectable steroid THG, says he started using "The Clear" and other drugs after meeting Conte in 2002.

"He said I had the potential to be a gold medalist, he could make me the fastest man in the world," Chambers wrote.

Chambers could well have come up with a more sexy name for his book:  "Race Against Me: The Toxic Dump"...except that his drug regimen was likely a common prescription for world class sprinters.  Chambers certainly had to compete against other elite sprinters.  You wonder about those who beat him, what their PED regimen included.  You also wonder how many clean sprinters didn't make it because Chambers doped?

Steroid-using ex-cyclist Tammy Thomas files for retrial

Steroid using cyclist Tammy Thomas filed for a retrial in her perjury case, a BALCO-related conviction of lying to a Grand Jury.  Thomas, through her lawyer -- says that IRS investigator Jeff Novitzky planned on writing a book about doping.  Man, that seems really relevant to perjury charges... (???)

Former elite cyclist Tammy Thomas has asked for a new trial because of a newly disclosed report about the government's top sports doping investigator.

Thomas was convicted last year of lying to a grand jury when she denied using steroids. On Friday, her lawyer, Ethan Balogh, told a judge the cyclist deserved a new trial.

He said prosecutors failed to turn over the complete report that cleared IRS agent Jeff Novitzky and several other agents of being responsible for $600 in money missing from the more than $60,000 seized in the September 2003 raid of the apartment of Greg Anderson, Barry Bonds' personal trainer.

Balogh complained he wasn't given the part of the report discussing allegations that Novitzky planned to write a book about doping in sports.

As you all remember Thomas was convicted on a 'close shave'.  A dope tester noted that Thomas appeared to have shaving cream on her face when she was surprised at an out-of-competition testing visit.

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 -- Alex Rodriguez -- admits to A-Roiding

Baseball slugging icon Alex Rodriguez, aka A-Rod, admitted today he gained some of his extraordinary power from A-Roiding.  A-Rod's admissions add one more piece of evidence to the baseball power era known as The Steroid Era, when sluggers went 'roid wild, toppling gravity with immense feats of power hitting.  It will also be known as an era when the top MLB talent simply cheated the game, the fans, and in the end themselves.

Some say events occur in threes; A-Rods confession coincides with Barry Bonds's BALCO/steroid legal battles firing up again this year, and Mark McGwire's brother pulling open the curtain on his juiced slugging career. The vintage sluggers of just 5-15 years ago now appear to have cheated past sluggers like the Babe with a ptoent mix of anabolic PEDs like testosterone, nandrolone, HGH, and other more exotic drugs.

A-Rod admitted in an interview with Peter Gammons (was this staged?) to roiding (blast magazine):

New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez has admitted to taking performance enhancing drugs from 2001 to 2003.

ESPN is reporting that Rodriguez, in an exclusive interview with Peter Gammons, has admitted to allegations that surfaced in a recent Sports Illustrated report online.

“I felt an enormous amount of pressure,” Rodriguez told Gammons. “Back then it was a different culture. It was very loose. I was young. I was stupid. I was naive. I wanted to prove to everyone that I was worth, you know, being one of the greatest players of all time, and I did take a banned substance.”

Rodriguez did appear apologetic in talking to Gammons.

Reports indicated A-Rod tested positive for testosterone and primobolan.  His 3 year run from 2001 to 2003 included 52, 57, and 47 home runs.  And who says anabolic steroids don't benefit sluggers?

The drug Rodriguez allegedly tested positive for, Primobolan, is less detectable than many other steroids because its markers stay in the body for less time than other drugs. It is also expensive, costing about $500 per week, SI reported.

Rodriguez called the time a “loosey goosy” era, saying he didn’t “know exactly what substance” he “was guilty of using.”

Rodriguez hit 47 home runs in 2003, good enough for his third consecutive home run title.

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.

Roger Clemens exploding: The Rocket getting blasted from all sides

Interesting juxtaposition of events this week.  As the Baseball Hall of Fame announced honorees, one sure-fire future Hall of fame candidate -- Roger Clemens (now pictured more frequently in court than on the mound) -- must feel a tightening noose around his legal neck...and must also feel the HOF slip away too.

Jim Rice, whose numbers looked pedestrian compared with the steroid era sluggers, found his way into the Hall when voters regrouped to look at the average achievement of Rice's contemporaries  However Clemens, who numbers appear arguably inflated in his late career flourish, seems pale and vulnerable.

Reports this week indicate that Jeff Novitzki is participating in the Grand Jury investigating Clemens.  Considering Novitzki's expert in BALCO, that is not good news for the Rocket. To the Examiner:

Jeff Novitsky, the investigator who gathered most of the evidence in the BALCO cases has now been asked to provide assistance in the Clemens matter. All Roger has to do is call Marion Jones, Barry Bonds, Trevor Graham, Tammy Thomas and others who Novitsky nailed after they gave statements under oath or to prosecutors about their knowledge of the steroids distributed by BALCO.

Today, Metboy and steroid dealer Kirk Radomski showed up at the Grand Jury.  Ex-Clemens trainer Brian McNamee claims that he scored steroids and HGH from the former Met clubhouse boy who copped a plea deal last year to avoid big time in the big house.  (New York Daily News)

Steroid supplier Kirk Radomski testified before a grand jury investigating Roger Clemens for perjury for just over two hours Thursday morning at a federal courthouse in Washington. Wearing a black windbreaker, the burly Radomski entered the grand jury room just after 10:15 a.m. and left accompanied by a Capitol security officer.

Radomski  began reviewing previous testimony that he sold and shipped drugs to dozens of Major League Baseball players, as well as Clemens' former trainer Brian McNamee, who told prosecutors that he injected Clemens with steroids and human growth hormone over a period of several years. McNamee also cooperated with former Sen. George Mitchell in his explosive report on drug use in baseball. Radomski pleaded guilty to one count of distribution of a controlled substance in 2007 and has cooperated in the government's ongoing steroid investigation.

Radomski awes the Gov't prosecutors favors after they went lightly in his conviction and sentence.  The Metboy may be a key witness is several on-going prosecutions of MLB players.

The testimony of both Radomski and McNamee will be crucial to the government's  investigationon into whether Clemens lied to Congress when he denied using performance-enhancing drugs during a congressional hearing on the Mitchell Report last February.

Radomski is among the first of the witnesses who will appear before the grand jury and he could be asked about his dealings with Houston Astros shortstop Miguel Tejada, who is also under investigation for allegedly lying to Congress, as well as about  his dealings with McNamee.

Minutes before Radomski arrived at the third floor of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, assistant United States Attorney Daniel P. Butler appeared and made his way to the same room. Butler returned to his Capitol Hill office after Radomski's appearance ended.

McNamee is expected to meet with Butler and other federal officers on Friday.

Lastly ex-trainer Brian McNamee says today that Clemens will end up in Jail.  that remains to be seen, as Clemens has never been charged with a felony.  It is also clear that steroids and PED convictions are difficult to obtain, and that sentence are light.  (New York Daily News, again)

Brian McNamee predicts he'll see Roger Clemens in uniform again - but this time his old boss won't be wearing pinstripes.

McNamee says the Rocket's 2009 uniform will be an orange jumpsuit, with a serial number across the chest.

In a video on the Web site Sportsimproper.com, McNamee tells host Mai Tran he believes Clemens will be sent to prison for his repeated denials of steroid use during the Feb. 13, 2008, congressional hearing on the Mitchell Report.

"Let me ask you this," Tran asked McNamee. "Do you foresee seeing Roger Clemens in a uniform next year?"

"He'll probably be wearing a uniform, but it will be one of those orange jumpsuits with a serial number on it," McNamee replied.

"Sounds like a prison uniform to me," Tran said.

McNamee told Tran that he was told the evidence that federal investigators have been compiling against Clemens is "overwhelming."

McNamee may be angry at Clemens's intemperance, however he should be very careful in venting his frustration in public.  Never know what will come back to bite...

Bill Romanowski just spitting to get Denver Broncos on steroids

Spitting Bill Romanowski says he is in training for the head coaching position of the Denver Broncos.  What does he offer:

• A fine understanding of steroids, HGH, and every other faddish nutso training gimmicks guaranteed to advance NFL careers;  great connections to BALCO
• A great mentoring with the NFL's most successful franchise -- the Oakland Raiders
• Prior experience as a coach of his son's pee wee football team where he assaulted the other team's coach.
• Experience with using a spouse as an excuse to get out of a drug charge
• Beating hell out of a teammate (see photo, below right)

The Sporting News carries the story:

Bill Romanowski has the perfect coaching candidate in mind for the Denver Broncos, a dark horse, somebody out of the blue who's on nobody's radar -- himself.

The former Pro Bowl linebacker who spends his post-playing days running a nutrition company and dabbling in broadcasting and acting told The Associated Press on Thursday night that he's serious about wanting a chance at coaching his old team.

He said he sent Broncos owner Pat Bowlen a lengthy PowerPoint presentation touting his credentials and outlining the fresh ideas he would bring to the job that Mike Shanahan held for 14 seasons before his stunning dismissal last week.

"I can't stop thinking about this," said Romanowski, who played for San Francisco, Philadelphia, Denver and Oakland during a standout 16-year career in the NFL that was marred by a bad temper and his admitted use of THG, the designer steroid at the center of the BALCO scandal.

"This may be a complete fantasy and that's all right ... At the end of the day, nothing may happen from it."

Fantasy is right.  Fantasy on steroids.

Romanowski has no official NFL coaching experience, just a knowledge from the players' perspective.

"For Pat to do something like this, it would take him being a visionary, thinking outside the box," said Romanowski, whose coaching experience includes helping with his son's football team. "Him hiring me, it's a long shot. I understand that. I know that."

The Broncos met with Miami Dolphins secondary coach Todd Bowles on Thursday, the seventh candidate to interview for the job. All are current NFL assistant coaches. Team spokesman Patrick Smyth said there were no other candidates scheduled to interview for the vacancy, one of the most coveted in all of football.

The Broncos had no comment on Romanowski's interest in the coaching vacancy.

Romanowski is hopeful that Bowlen gives him even a courtesy call because he's certain he can win him over.

"I truly believe that I'd be the best person in the country for the job. That's me being confident in my abilities," Romanowski said.

Romanowski does have a plan.  Wonder if that plan includes steroids and Star Caps supplements?

In his more than 30-page presentation that he zipped off to Bowlen, Romanowski outlined how he'd run things if he were in charge. He would hire a new defensive staff.
and revamp the player personnel department, analyzing the college scouting system in a new way, he said.

"I'd take the top 60 colleges in the country that produce pro prospects and I would treat those 60 like they were their own league and start looking at freshmen when they come in," Romanowski said. "When 80 percent of your talent comes from 20 percent of the colleges, I think you ought to have a pretty strong focus on those colleges."

Romanowski would also hire a full-time nutritionist and recruit some of the world's elite strength and conditioning coaches, he said.

"I'd have literally a full-time person mixing up protein shakes every day," said Romanowski, who is president and CEO of a nutritional company called Nutrition53. "The business is football, which is having fast, strong, explosive players."

He'd also have on staff someone to keep an eye on the emotional well-being of the players, he said.

"In the NFL now, nobody touches (that)," Romanowski said. "They only try to fix it when it breaks, when someone ... has trouble with alcohol or drugs. How about a performance coach?"

Bowlen fired Shanahan after the Broncos blew a three-game lead with three weeks left in the season and finished 8-8, missing the playoffs for the third straight year, something that hadn't happened in Denver since 1980-82.

Romanowski thinks he can help get the team back on track.

"I laid out a whole game plan on how I'd do these things," he said. "I love what I do now. It's not like I have to have the head coaching job for the Denver Broncos. I happen to be pretty confident in my abilities and I know what I could do there."

A coaching plan on steroids.  Great.  This sicko should not be allowed anywhere near an NFL team.

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.

Dwain Chambers threatens to quit unless someone hires an ex-drug cheat

Dwain Chambers, fastest man in England, says he needs money, and he needs it now.  The UK's top sprinter who feasted on a BALCO regimen of steroids, HGH, and the other BALCO PEDs now cannot run in international track meets due to bans on ex-drug users.  Seems it isn't fair to ban a guy who cheated once, and may still benefit from the long term effects -- although it has been some time since he used PEDs.  Chambers also owes payback for earnings during his doping days.

To the Sporting Life:

Former drug cheat Dwain Chambers admits he could quit athletics if he cannot make it pay financially in 2009.

As a result of his two-year drug ban, Chambers is currently barred from competing in over 50 meetings organised by the Euro Meetings Group including those staged in this country.

The 30-year-old is also burdened by having to repay to the International Association of Athletics Federations over £100,000 pounds he earned during the period he was using the banned substance THG, beginning in 2002.

UK Athletics (UKA) have now welcomed the sprinter back into the fold after unsuccessfully preventing him competing in a British vest at last year's World Indoor Championships where he shared the 60metres silver medal.

That will see the Londoner initially bid for a place in the national side for the European Indoor Championships in March and then the World Championships in August.

But Chambers is hard up and must start earning cash in the next few months, otherwise he will have to retire from the track.

"I'm able to continue competing as long as my lady is still in a job," Chambers told PA Sport. "I have no one other than Leonie supporting me."

Chambers is currently searching for money paying races, particularly in Europe, and continued: "The duration of my career will depend on how well I'm treated by the meet promoters.

"But it's not going to be easy. If I can't earn anything next year then I'll have to seriously consider finding some other kind of living."

Sorry about that Dwain, we all have to earn a living at some point in time.

However, he insists that although he is banned from competing at Olympic level after his drug offence, he will try every possible avenue to continue.

Chambers was Europe's quickest 100m sprinter last summer and he has been hammering out the training in his bid to bring more medals home for the Norwich Union GB side at next year's major championships.

Chambers said: "I plan opening my season at the Birmingham Games in January, then the trials as I want to run in the European Indoors and at the World Championships in the summer.

"I'm the man - I want to win medals for my country. I can achieve that and get the job done."

Meanwhile he is hoping to have a meeting with UKA chief executive Niels de Vos and see if there is any possibility of competing in the Aviva-sponsored British meetings.

"I'll try and arrange a meeting with Niels de Vos in the New Year and we'll see what happens."

Too bad 'the man' was a drug-cheat, huh?

 

The World Boxing Council (WBC) opens steroid probe on Sugar Shame Mosley

Following Sugar Shane Mosley's admission of EPO and steroids use, the WBC will investigate the boxer's doping prior to the De La Hoya fight.  Mosley, who claimed he worked with Victor Conte, says he was unaware the drugs were bad.  To the AP:

The World Boxing Council has opened an investigation of Shane Mosley following recent reports that Mosley testified under oath to taking performance-enhancing drugs in the lead-up to his 2003 title fight against Oscar De La Hoya, the New York Daily News reported in Tuesday's edition.

Nearly three months after winning the WBC junior middleweight title with his victory over De La Hoya, Mosley told a grand jury he used steroids and EPO as part of his training regimen for the fight.

Mosley insists he didn't know the drugs he took were banned or illegal.

"It was a real surprise to read that Mosley has confessed that he did take those medicines, those drugs that are totally prohibited by the WBC," said the Council's president, Jose Sulaiman. "The WBC rules state that we must have a hearing. This is a matter of serious concern to us."

Sulaiman has ordered the WBC's legal counsel to gather evidence on Mosley to present to the Council's 29-member board of governors. The board has the authority to vote on sanctions and can issue disqualifications or severe fines, even after the conclusion of a fight.

"Thus far the WBC has seen only press reports, and must therefore investigate any available evidence and review it, in terms of the WBC rules and regulations' anti-doping provisions," said Robert Lenhardt, an attorney for the WBC.

The investigation will coincide with a defamation lawsuit Mosley filed against BALCO founder Victor Conte. The suit claims Conte told newspapers he watched Mosley inject himself with EPO and that the boxer knew what he was taking.

Conte, who is in possession of the grand jury transcripts because he was a defendant in the BALCO case, said he is "more than willing to cooperate with any investigation of Shane Mosley's use of performance-enhancing drugs."

The WBC rules include a prohibition that no boxer "shall be under the influence of any drug during the contest that will in any manner affect their performance in the ring."

Mosley, a four-time world champion, is scheduled to meet current WBA welterweight title holder Antonio Margarito on Jan. 24 at Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Sugar in the morning, steroids in the evening, EPO at super time

Sorry about the antiquated title, but that's what you get to sweeten this pot, as Sugar Shane Mosley tells the grand jury he used anabolic steroids and EPO to prepare for his title match with Oscar De La Hoya in 2003.  Of course Mosley was lost in the steroid ozone had no idea that any of these illicit substance were illegal. To the New York Daily News I-Team:

Boxer "Sugar" Shane Mosley testified in 2003 that he injected himself with the notorious doping agent EPO as he prepared for his light-middleweight title fight against Oscar De La Hoya, according to grand jury transcripts and doping calendars reviewed by the Daily News.
 
The Mosley transcripts are part of a massive BALCO file that was under a protective order from March of 2004 until last week, when U.S District Court Judge Susan Illston vacated the order at the request of prosecutors who are preparing for the March 2 trial of Barry Bonds on perjury charges.
 
In the testimony, recorded on Dec. 11, 2003, at the federal courthouse in San Francisco, Mosley also said that BALCO founder Victor Conte explained in detail how the drug was used and what its effects would be, including the potential harmful effects of the highly-regulated endurance booster. Mosley has admitted publicly and under oath that he used steroids and EPO, but has denied knowing that the drugs were banned or illegal.

Gee officer, I didn't know the speed limit here in the school zone was only 20...I thought it was 75....  Mosley also admitted to obtaining his stash from the erudite Victor Conte and his mates at BALCO.  And how does one inject EPO?

"And that's something you actually inject into yourself?" he (Sugar Shane) was asked by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeff Nedrow.

"I think it's right by your stomach, yes," Mosley said, indicating where the drug is often injected.
 
Conte has said he instructed Mosley on techniques for drawing EPO from a bottle with a syringe and injecting it in each side of the belly button in what is known as "double-saturation" injections.

Conte's organization produced wonderfully organized and detailed records,probably better than most hospital charts:

At one point in the questioning, Nedrow produced a calendar seized from the BALCO lab showing Mosley used a potent cocktail of steroids and EPO right up until a few days before his victorious fight with De La Hoya on Sept. 13, 2003. The calendars denote which days Mosley was supposed to take which substances.

Mosley acknowledged that the calendar, marked "S.M.," contained instructions for him, and that the prices scribbled on the margins corresponded with the money he owed Conte for the treatments. (Conte, who estimates Mosley injected himself 20 times on each side of his belly button in the month before the fight, says he drew up the calendar while Mosley watched.)

Nedrow then pointed to the letter "E," which appears on the calendars at regular intervals in July and August.

"E, are those the injections of the EPO?," Nedrow asked Mosley.

"Yes, those would be the days," Mosley answered.

And the legal aspects of the case:

Conte is embroiled in a bitter defamation suit filed against him by Mosley, who claimed in U.S. District Court in California that the BALCO founder had defamed him when he told reporters, including the Daily News, that Mosley had knowingly used performance-enhancing drugs. Mosley withdrew that suit in August, refiling immediately in New York state court. Mosley also threatened to sue the publisher of Conte's book, and Conte's lawyers received an e-mail today from Skyhorse Publishing saying they no longer plan to publish the book because of the lawsuit threat.
 
As a result, Conte is now looking for a new publisher for his controversial book.

More on how Mosley doesn't know his arse hemoglobin from a hole in the ground hematocrit after the jump, but he knew just enough to dope up for a fight, huh?

Tim Montgomery outlines doping and steroid use that led to Olympic gold medal in Sydney

HBO interviewed Tim Montgomery -- once the world's fastest human -- who admitted to the doping and steroid protocol that promoted him and his teammates to Gold in the 2000 Sydney Olympics.  (Sydney Morning Herald)

ONCE, he was the world's fastest man. Now, in jail for laundering more than $US1.7 million and separately for dealing and supplying heroin, disgraced sprinter Tim Montgomery has been exposed as a golden fraud on the track.

Montgomery, 33, has revealed that at the time of the Sydney Olympics, where he was a member of the triumphant US 4x100 metres relay team, he had been taking a cocktail of banned drugs, including human growth hormone and steroids.

"Prior to the 2000 Olympic Games in Australia, I broke the rules," Montgomery told US television network HBO. "I used testosterone, and then I used GH [human growth hormone] four times a month. I have a gold medal that I'm sitting on that I didn't get with my own ability."

Montgomery focused on that 4x100M relay team, which caused so much controversy in 2000.

But he has now put the international spotlight on that 4x100m relay team - at the time notorious for their posturing, removing their shirts and bragging with their medals - and Montgomery and his teammates are likely to be stripped of their medals, even though the normal seven-year retrospective window has closed. Those who witnessed that bizarre, brash celebration by Jon Drummond, Bernard Williams, Brian Lewis and Maurice Greene - the four who ran in the final - might think the reallocation of the medals would be poetic justice.

Montgomery lost his 100M world record, and now may be losing much much more (his freedom is gone too).

Montgomery has already had his world record 100m time of 9.78 seconds expunged from the record books after his drug links were exposed during the BALCO investigation. But the officials only went back to March 31, 2001. Now, they will go back much further. The US Olympic Committee has already urged Montgomery to return the medal voluntarily. USOC spokesman Darryl Seibel said: "He owes it to his sport and to the athletes against whom he competed."

The ex-sprinter knows the consequences of his words...perhaps the loss of one more compliment of medals: Marion Jones and her teammates lost the 4x100 Sydney Olympics relay medals due to PED use, and Michael Johnson's Sydney 4x400 relay team lost medals after Antonio Pettigrew admitted to doping.

(more after the jump, including Montgomery's  words on Conte)

Ex-world record holder Tim Montgomery will be running in place in jail a long time: Given 5 more years on drug charges

Once the world's fastest man, Tom Montgomery today will be facing 5 more years in a US federal penitentiary for drug charges related to heroin distribution.  This should slow him down considerably.  To the BBC:

Disgraced US sprinter Tim Montgomery has been jailed for five years by a court in Virginia for heroin dealing.

The former 100m world record holder had previously pleaded guilty to possessing more than 100 grammes of the drug with intent to distribute it.

He is already serving four years in prison for fraud and conspiracy offences.

Montgomery, 33, was banned from athletics three years ago after he was found to have used steroids.

That ban also saw him stripped of his 100m world record.

Another former sprint champion, Marion Jones - Montgomery's former girlfriend - was implicated in the cheque fraud.

She was sentenced to six months in jail for misleading investigators over the fake cheques.

Montgomery, once Marion Jone's spouse -- father to one of Jones's children -- continues his run through the underworld.  The IAAF stripped Montgomery of the world 100M record after his involvement in the BALCO doping scandal.  And, as mentioned, he is already serving a prison sentence for fraud.

Former high school QB pleads guilty to steroid distribution; Five year suspended sentence

The wheels of justice turn don't they...and sometimes wobble.  A former Mississippi quarterback, who played in JuCo too pleaded guilty to steroids distribution today in a Mississippi court.  He was given a 5 year suspended sentence.  (In contrast, the perpetrator of the largest steroids/doping conspiracy --BALCO -- in the USA received 4 month jail/4 months home arrest) (from the Clarion-Ledger)

A former Madison Central quarterback who lost a chance to play for the University of Mississippi amid accusations he sold steroids pleaded guilty this morning.

Jared Foster was indicted on charges that he sold the anabolic steroid, nandrolone decanoate, to an informant in Madison County on Oct. 5.

Foster was sentenced today to five years at Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, with the five years suspended.

He will have to report to Parchman for its Regimented Inmate Program, a six-to- eight-month rehabilitation program. If Foster does not complete the program, his suspended sentence will be reversed, Madison County Circuit Court Judge Samac Richardson said. Foster also was ordered to pay $374 in court costs and a $5,000 fine.

He and his family would not comment this morning.

Five years, although suspended.  Compare that sentence from the state, with Victor Conte's federal sentence.  The mastermind of the largest doping and steroid conspiracy (BALCO) in United State history was given a 4 month prison sentence with 4 months confinement to home, and 2 years supervision.

That's justice...right?  No, it seems more like injustice.  Any thoughts?

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.

Saturday Steroid Injections: Florida Internet steroid dealers freed; NASCAR OK with Hornaday's steroids

1.  Signature Pharmacy, home to Internet steroid and HGH orders, home free: judge dismisses charges.

• USA Today
• Orlando Sentinel "The system worked"  (Who are they kidding?)

2.  A short history of doping.  (ASAHI.com)

3.  NASCAR says it's OK to use testosterone and turn left.  (Ottawa Sun)

4.  Cycling world race champ Maria Bastianelli may be banned for 4 years for doping.  (The Hindu)

Victor Conte's new book on BALCO and steroids not quite ready for injection

Victor Conte's new book promises to be an 'inject and tell' thriller about his BALCO days.  Called  "BALCO: The Straight Dope on Barry Bonds, Marion Jones and What We Can Do To Save Sports"  Conte plans to expose athletes like Marion Jones and Barry Bonds, as only he can.  Soon to be a major motion picture.  However, the New York Daily News reports a glitch in the Conte  mix.

Nasty legal warfare has broken out over Victor Conte's forthcoming tell-all book about his leading role in the world's biggest steroid conspiracy.

Skyhorse Publishing originally hoped to release "BALCO: The Straight Dope on Barry Bonds, Marion JonesTony Lyons. and What We Can Do To Save Sports" in September, but Conte's book may not hit shelves until 2009, said Skyhorse president

Conte has submitted the manuscript, but the imminent presidential election and other intervening factors have led Skyhorse to reconsider the timing of the book's release.

Intervening factors like defamation suits from athletes who might be named in the book:

Among the factors is an expensive barrage of defamation litigation launched against Conte by boxer Shane Mosley, one of the athletes whose BALCO doping regimens Conte promises to describe in detail, and Mosley's threats to sue the book's publisher.

Mosley's defamation suits have been a "distraction," says Conte, who has promised to retell anecdotes proving Mosley knowingly used performance-enhancing drugs, including steroids and EPO. (Mosley has said he thought BALCO's products were legal.)

Sugar Shane wasn't so sweet on the legal challenge:

In Mosley's corner is the aggressive New York attorney Judd Burstein, who narrowly escaped a hefty court sanction eight years ago for what a federal judge called "Rambo lawyering."

The most recent of Burstein's actions against Conte is a motion filed Wednesday asking a U.S. District Court in California to sanction Conte's defense attorney for submitting what Burstein called an "outrageous and entirely frivolous" motion to recover $75,654 in attorney fees from a defamation suit that Burstein initiated and withdrew.

Burstein showed the Daily News an Aug. 14 e-mail from Lyons in which the publisher floated the idea of canceling Conte's publicity tour and giving Mosley two or three pages in the book to "explain his side of the story."

"This is NOT a firm offer," Lyons wrote.

Burstein rejected Lyons' overtures. He has promised to sue Skyhorse and its insurers.

And you can take all this to the bank.

Greek athletes tried to cheat system with methyltrienolone: M3 Olympic conspiracy?

News from the AP today says that Greek athletes thought they could cheat the Olympic anti-doping system by using a little known -- but dangerous -- anabolic steroid called methyltrienolone or M3.  Early reports indicated Greek weightlifters used M3 to dope.  Later track athletes tested positive for the liver-toxic steroid (Halkia, Regas, and Gousis).  Although the Greek athletes thought they were cleverly cheating the system, they were really destroying their livers.

Over a dozen Greek athletes who failed doping tests prior to and during last month's Beijing Olympics thought a rare anabolic steroid would help them elude tests, a leading anti-doping expert said Monday.

But the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had been on the lookout for cheats from Greece ever since the drug, methyltrienolone, turned up in the results of 11 Greek weightlifters in April, Don Catlin, a member of the World Anti-Doping Agency's committee for science and medicine, told Ta Nea daily.

"The Greek case...involved the use of a particularly rare and dangerous anabolic whose use had not been officially recorded before," Catlin said.

"Whoever marketed it in Greece undoubtedly argued that it is not harmful and could not be traced, as only small quantities are needed for it to act."

In all, fifteen Greek athletes in three disciplines -- weightlifting, swimming and athletics -- have tested positive for methyltrienolone, severely embarrassing Greek authorities which on Monday tabled tougher anti-doping legislation in parliament.

Catlin is the UCLA endocrine wizard whose lab caught Victor Conte and the BALCO threat in the USA.  The Greek system appears to be acutely embarrassed, which may lead to reform.

"The (Greek) state wants clean athletes," Michalis Liapis, the Greek culture minister responsible for sport, told reporters.

The new regulations cut rewards for successful athletes to discourage drug cheating and toughen sanctions against providers of banned substances, corrupt anti-doping officials and sports officials.

The doping outbreak has already sparked a preliminary judicial probe here.

Among those caught is Fani Halkia, the women's 400m hurdles at the Athens Olympics, whose coach George Panagiotopoulos has now been sued by the IOC for causing damage to its reputation.

Can the athletes and coaches be this naive about the side effects of the drug, and the ability of the anti-doping effort to detect at least the more obvious of the steroids?