Barry Bonds and Steroids

surprise surprise lol

 

In 2003 and 2004 nobody hit more than 50hrs .... after all those 50+ ... 60+ ... 73hr seasons from 1998-2002



wonder why?


There is no way Giambi, Marion Jones, Bill Romanowski used steriod from the same guy and Bond didnt.

Caminiti/ Canseco admitted to using it, I bet you Mcguire/Sosa used it too.

 

Is the clear the one they take under the tongue?

 

about damn time... bonds sucks and now he's just trying to cover up his stuff... I will never look at the man the same.

 

Here is a story Victor Conte, the guy who founded BALCO, wrote that confesses a lot of what has been going on with sports and steroids. It covers Bonds and a numer of other athletes.

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/news/story?id=1937513
BALCO Owner Comes Clean

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That was the beginning of BALCO.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It was about Victor making history.

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

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

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

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

Back around the same time, C.J. asked me to work with Marion, I also heard from her training partner, Tim Montgomery. Tim was 5'10'' and weighed 148 pounds when I met him; that's why they called him Tiny Tim. He told me he had more potential than anybody, but didn't have the support. He'd just come through an awful year and was very upset with his coach, Trevor Graham, who also was Marion's coach.

As soon as I found out what Tim was taking, I said: "You're oversaturated with performance-enhancing drugs. Too much is just as bad as not enough." I first met Tim when I gave him some of "The Clear" in Sydney, and he visited BALCO in November. I'd assembled a team -- Project World Record -- that included Milos Sarcev, a brilliant bodybuilder, and Charlie Francis, who coached Ben Johnson when he won gold in the '88 Games. Milos developed Tim's weight-training program. Charlie developed his track-training program. And I developed his pharmacology and nutrition program. Graham was the front man.

Want to hear something amazing? There's a BALCO calendar for Tim that shows he was taking insulin, EPO, growth hormone, "The Clear" and adrenaline -- five different performance-enhancing agents -- through 2001. At the end of June, Tim won the United States Championship. Soon after, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency sent him a post-competition letter that said: "Congratulations, Tim. You've tested negative for all performance-enhancing substances in the sample that was collected." He was using all these drugs and [the] USADA couldn't detect any of them. So how easy is it to beat the USADA test? It's like taking candy from a baby. The results of Project World Record, by the way, were phenomenal. Tim made $600,000 in 2001.

Tim and Marion had started dating. If you ask me, the worst thing that ever happened to Marion's career was leaving C.J. He was hugely responsible for making sure she did what she was supposed to. I told her as much on June 9, 2001, at a track meet at Stanford. I had to reprimand her for getting careless. She'd left a cartridge injector in a refrigerator in a hotel room in Edmonton while she was on a promotional tour in May, and had to go back and get it. Then she left it again at a hotel in Eugene, Ore., a few days later. After the first time she forgot it, she said she'd put it in a sneaker and lean the sneaker against the refrigerator so she wouldn't forget it. Then she forgot the shoe. That injector had a thousand dollars worth of growth hormone in it!

I couldn't afford the risk. My ZMA track team was having a big year. Tim was the U.S. men's champion in the 100 meters and about to become the fastest man in the world. Chryste was the female 100-meter champion, and Kelli White was her runner-up. I couldn't afford to have Marion leave a growth-hormone injector in a room registered in her name. I was also having some financial problems with Tim: he owed me $25,000 from a personal loan. So that August, I ended my relationship with both of them. Soon I was working with their rivals.

One was British sprinter Dwain Chambers. I met Dwain at a track at the U of Miami in January 2002, and eventually gave him the full enchilada: "The Clear," insulin, EPO, growth hormone, modafinil and a testosterone cream I'd started using that didn't show up on standard drug screens. By August, he was the European 100-meter champion. I took it to the next level with Kelli White in Paris in 2003, when she became the first American woman to ever win the 100- and 200-meter titles at the same world championships. She became a very disciplined student. Besides the same things Dwain was on, she also was taking a new drug I'd started using, thyroid hormone T-3. It makes all the other drugs work more effectively by accelerating metabolic rate. You feel light as a feather. What amazes me is that all through the championships, the only thing the testers caught Kelli using was modafinil, a drug for narcolepsy.

Before I go any further, let me get to what I'm sure is on your mind: baseball. I was almost completely out of the loop on baseball at BALCO. All the blood and urine testing we did for baseball players was coordinated through my partner, Jim Valente. I've talked to Barry Bonds about nutrition. Gary Sheffield, too, who Greg Anderson brought in to see me. But not only have I never given either of them a performance-enhancing drug, I've never even discussed the topic with them.

Now, did Barry's trainer, Greg Anderson, ever get "The Clear" and "The Cream" from me? Yes, he did. On about half a dozen occasions, I gave him some. There were never any questions. We never discussed who it was for. I assumed it was for Greg, OK? That's all I know about performance-enhancing drugs and baseball players. What I do know is that the amount of performance-enhancing drugs the feds found at Greg's house was minuscule. The feds built it up as, "there were 800 items found and blah, blah, blah." Are you kidding me? When you go through the list and distill it down -- one pill of Andriol, five Dyazid, one vial of depo-testosterone; well, you get the idea -- they found practically zero. Do I think a majority of baseball players use performance-enhancing drugs? Yes. What do you think is going on as we speak? Until training camp in March, it's open season for steroids and other performance-enhancing agents. Major League Baseball still doesn't have year-round random testing 365 days a year. Baseball's anti-doping program is ridiculous.

I knew the Sept. 3, 2003, raid on my lab was coming.

My mailman told me the feds had been opening my mail for about a year. Plus, I'd learned someone was going through our trash. The owner of a business near BALCO called to accuse us of dumping my trash in his bin. When we got it back, we saw every bag we'd tied shut had been opened. The feds were too dumb to throw my trash back where it belonged.

What surprised me was the way the raid came down: Seven black cars screeching into the parking lot. Twenty-six IRS and San Mateo Narcotics Task Force agents in flak jackets pouring out, screaming and waving guns. A helicopter hovering overhead. A half-dozen news trucks filming it all. They were using a tank to kill a mosquito.

And for what? For a turf war. The feds stumbled into a turf war.

Before the 2003 US Track and Field Championships, Trevor Graham called the headquarters of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency in Colorado to say that he had a syringe that came from Victor Conte. Then he forwarded it to the agency, which in turn sent it to the Olympic testing lab in Los Angeles. Now, I've given packages of performance-enhancing drugs directly to Trevor. And I've heard from more than one very good source that he anonymously sent a sample of "The Clear" to the Olympic drug testing lab at UCLA a year earlier, in 2002, but the lab didn't have a big enough sample to identify it. Well, it worked this time. The guy who runs the Olympic lab, Don Catlin, finally figured out what "The Clear" was, and sent his results to USADA. A month after the raid on BALCO, it was announced that USADA had uncovered a "conspiracy involving chemists, coaches and athletes."

It's been widely publicized that I confessed. I want to say, straight up, that's a lie. The lead IRS agent, Jeff Novitzky, divided a page in columns and wrote "Track," "Baseball" and "Football" across the top of each. Then he mentioned some names. I said something like, "Yeah, I worked with that person." I even mentioned a few he'd missed.

But what came out in the press? "Victor Conte said he gave 'The Clear' and 'The Cream' to all 27 of these athletes." An absolute lie. I've never met Jason Giambi or his brother, Jeremy. I've never shaken their hand. I've never talked to them on the phone. Why would I tell a police officer I gave drugs to somebody I've never met?

Then Novitzky asked me, "Victor, would you be willing to wear a wire and help us collect evidence on other people, like physicians, coaches, chemists, athletes, etc.?" My answer was, absolutely not. That interview is not in any police report, anywhere. Isn't that amazing? It's like it never happened.

The feds want you to believe this is about them trying to control performance-enhancing drugs. It's not. It's about celebrity. It's about Barry Bonds. Marion Jones. The Olympics. My clients didn't come to BALCO to learn how to do drugs. Most were already using before they came.

And it's about fooling the public. You think it's over, just because they've indicted me? Please. There's a new version out there right now. It's "The Stuff III." If the feds hadn't raided BALCO, I'd have gotten it by now.

People have asked me: "Do you feel guilty about what you did? Are you ashamed?" The answer is no. I got to a point where I realized elite sport is about doing what you have to do to win. I've seen athletes being forced to decide whether to use or not use, and it's much more painful for them to entertain the idea of giving up their dream than to use anabolic steroids. That's what's really going on. That's the choice athletes face when they get to the very top.

Why did I do it? Because I'm a competitive person. I can't hold my own on a track, court or playing field. But I've still competed year-round at the highest levels. It's been special to be in the trenches when one of my athletes won an Olympic gold or became the world's fastest human.

Why am I telling you this now? Because I believe if you do things for the right reasons, the outcome will be positive. And I believe the world deserves to know the truth about the way things really work, painful as it may be to hear.

 

Seems to me like Barry is lying his a$$ off. Will an indictment for perjury be coming soon or will Barry admit everything and retire?
____________________________________________________

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/12/03/BALCO.TMP

BONDS' Grand Jury Testimony

Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada, Chronicle Staff Writers

Friday, December 3, 2004

Barry Bonds told a federal grand jury that he used a clear substance and a cream supplied by the Burlingame laboratory now enmeshed in a sports doping scandal, but he said he never thought they were steroids, The Chronicle has learned.

Federal prosecutors charge that the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative, known as BALCO, distributed undetectable steroids to elite athletes in the form of a clear substance that was taken orally and a cream that was rubbed onto the body.

Bonds testified that he had received and used clear and cream substances from his personal strength trainer, Greg Anderson, during the 2003 baseball season but was told they were the nutritional supplement flaxseed oil and a rubbing balm for arthritis, according to a transcript of his testimony reviewed by The Chronicle.

Federal prosecutors confronted Bonds during his testimony on Dec. 4, 2003, with documents indicating he had used steroids and human growth hormone during a three-year assault on baseball's home run record, but the Giants star denied the allegations.

During the three-hour proceeding, two prosecutors presented Bonds with documents that allegedly detailed his use of a long list of drugs: human growth hormone, Depo-Testosterone, undetectable steroids known as "the cream" and "the clear," insulin and Clomid, a drug for female infertility sometimes used to enhance the effect of testosterone.

The documents, many with Bonds' name on them, are dated from 2001 through 2003. They include a laboratory test result that could reflect steroid use and what appeared to be schedules of drug use with billing information, prosecutors told the grand jury.

In a September 2003 raid on Anderson's Burlingame home, federal investigators seized documents they said showed Bonds was using banned drugs, according to court records. Anderson was indicted in February on charges of money laundering and conspiracy to distribute steroids in the BALCO case.

Bonds' attorney, Michael Rains, said he was upset, though not entirely surprised, his client's secret testimony had been revealed. He said he had no proof but suspected the government was the source of the leak, insisting it had been out to get Bonds from the beginning.

"My view has always been this case has been the U.S. vs. Bonds, and I think the government has moved in certain ways in a concerted effort to indict my client," Rains said. "And I think their failure to indict him has resulted in their attempts to smear him publicly."

Attorney Anna Ling, who along with J. Tony Serra represents Anderson, said a court order precluded her from commenting on grand jury testimony.

"But it's been our position from day one that Mr. Anderson did not knowingly do anything illegal," Ling said. "If he had, he wouldn't have ever been involved. He did not knowingly provide any illegal substances to anyone."

According to the transcript, two prosecutors queried Bonds closely about the documents, at times going over them line by line while peppering him with questions.

But Bonds said he had no knowledge of the doping calendars and other records that indicated he had used banned drugs. He said he had never paid Anderson for steroids and had never knowingly used them.

And he said he was confident that his trainer hadn't slipped him banned drugs without his knowledge, saying Anderson "wouldn't jeopardize our friendship" by doing that.

"Greg and I are friends," Bonds told the grand jury. "I never paid Greg for anything. ... You're going to bring up documents and more documents. I have never seen anything written by Greg Anderson on a piece of paper."

Bonds testified he had never discussed steroids with his trainer -- not even after federal agents kicked in Anderson's door to serve their search warrant. That was out of respect for Anderson's privacy, Bonds said.

To the prosecutors, the substances Bonds said he was using sounded like "the cream" and "the clear," two steroids designed to be undetectable in laboratory testing that Victor Conte, founder of BALCO, is accused of marketing to elite athletes, sometimes with Anderson as middleman.

Bonds said that as far as he knew, Anderson had given him only legal products to treat the arthritis and fatigue that afflicted him, especially when playing a day game after a night game. The trainer brought the products into the Giants' clubhouse at Pac Bell Park "once a homestand," Bonds said, and that's where he used them.

"I never asked Greg" about what the products contained, Bonds testified. "When he said it was flaxseed oil, I just said, 'Whatever.'

"It was in the ballpark ... in front of everybody. I mean, all the reporters, my teammates. I mean, they all saw it. I didn't hide it."

The transcript shows that before he testified, Bonds was told he would not be prosecuted for any crimes he admitted as long as he told the truth to the grand jury. But if he lied under oath, the prosecutors warned, he could face prosecution for perjury. It is illegal to obtain steroids and human growth hormone without a doctor's prescription.

Faced with the same warning and similar evidence, five other baseball players who were summoned to San Francisco to testify last year confessed to the grand jury that they had used performance-enhancing drugs provided by Anderson.

One week after Bonds testified, New York Yankees first baseman Jason Giambi and his brother Jeremy, both former Oakland A's, described in detail how they had injected themselves with performance-enhancing drugs. The Giambis testified they were drawn to Anderson because of Bonds' success.

Other players who admitted their use of performance-enhancing drugs were former Giants Armando Rios, Benito Santiago and Bobby Estalella. The players said they had come to know Anderson because he was Bonds' trainer.

A sixth witness, Yankees outfielder Gary Sheffield, testified that while he trained with Bonds in the Bay Area before the 2002 baseball season, Bonds had arranged for him to receive "the cream," "the clear" and "red beans," which the prosecutors identified as steroid pills manufactured in Mexico.

Sheffield said he had never been told that the substances were steroids. Bonds also was using "the cream" and "the clear," Sheffield said.

"Nothing was between me and Greg," Sheffield testified. "Barry pretty much controlled everything. ... It was basically Barry (saying), 'Trust me. Do what I do.'

"... I know I've seen Greg give Barry the same thing I was taking. I didn't see him taking those red beans, but I seen him taking this (clear) and this cream here."

Attorneys for Sheffield and Santiago expressed dismay that the secrecy of the grand jury had been violated.

Santiago's attorney, David Cornwell, also said, "If any performance-enhancing drugs were ingested, they were ingested unknowingly."

Rios' attorney, Chris Cannon, dismissed the report as "ancient history."

Estalella could not be reached for comment.

Since the BALCO scandal erupted, Bonds has insisted he never used banned drugs. But in statements they later denied making, both Conte and BALCO Vice President James Valente, also indicted, told investigators that Anderson was supplying steroids to Bonds, court records show.

In addition, The Chronicle has reported that in a secretly recorded conversation, Anderson said Bonds had used an "undetectable" performance-enhancing drug during the 2003 season.

Bonds hit 73 home runs in 2001, breaking one of baseball's most storied records. He hit his 703rd home run this past season and is expected to pass Babe Ruth's mark of 714 next year, then zero in on Hank Aaron's all-time record of 755 in 2006. Last month, at age 40, Bonds won his fourth consecutive National League Most Valuable Player award and the seventh of his career, more than any other player.

Anderson has been Bonds' trainer throughout his assault on the home run record. In a ceremony at Pac Bell Park in 2001 after he broke Mark McGwire's record for home runs in a season, Bonds publicly thanked Anderson for his help.

In his grand jury testimony, Bonds described Anderson as a boyhood friend with whom he reconnected in 1998, when Anderson was working as a personal trainer on the Peninsula.

"Greg is a weightlifting trainer," Bonds said. "And we're friends, grew up together. (I) go over there and see what he does. I liked his philosophy, and we started working out together."

Soon, Bonds said, he decided to bring on Anderson to replace Raymond Farris, who at the time was supervising his workouts.

"I was getting rugged with my other trainer, you know, doing the same thing over and over," Bonds said. "... My other trainer was like, you do three sets of legs, three sets of this, three -- you know.

"And Greg is more -- 16 sets of chest, more biceps, to really maximize and expand your muscle. And I liked that philosophy."

The ballplayer and the trainer began working out at a gym near BALCO, Bonds said. He said Anderson had also begun providing him with "vitamin and protein shakes."

In 2000 or 2001, Bonds said, Anderson persuaded him to undergo blood and urine testing at BALCO as part of a program touted by Conte to market his legal nutritional supplement, ZMA. Bonds said he already was interested in nutrition issues, testifying that he employed both a cook and a "nutritionist at Stanford."

Anderson "wanted to do a blood test to try to regulate your levels, if you're lacking in zinc or magnesium," Bonds said. "... The blood test at BALCO was just the thing to figure out what you're deficient in. ... I just thought it was a neat idea."

Bonds said he had his personal doctor come to his house and draw the blood for the testing.

Eventually, he said, Anderson began providing him with an array of supplements: "multivitamin to vitamin E to omega 3s to, you know, ZMA - the ZMA that BALCO had - to liver pills to oxygen ...

"But I had no doubt what he was giving me, because we were friends."

Bonds said he had met Conte, BALCO's president, two or three times but never paid for the nutritional supplements.

Instead, he said, he "did an ad" for BALCO in a muscle magazine, a reference to a photo shoot and feature in Muscle & Fitness that quoted Bonds effusively endorsing Conte's ZMA nutritional supplement product.

Bonds said he had begun using the cream and the clear substance at a time when he was aching with arthritis and was distraught over the terminal illness of his father, former Giants All-Star Bobby Bonds, who died Aug. 23, 2003.

"I have bad arthritis. I've played 18 years, bad knees, surgeries and so on," Bonds testified, adding that he wanted a product that would "take the arthritis pain away that I feel in the mornings when it's super cold ...

"I was battling with the problems with my father and the -- just the lack of sleep, lack of everything."

But Bonds said he got little help from Anderson's products.

"And I was like, to me, it didn't even work," he told the grand jury. "You know me, I'm 39 years old. I'm dealing with pain. All I want is the pain relief, you know? And you know, to recover, you know, night games to day games. That's it.

"And I didn't think the stuff worked. I was like, 'Dude, whatever,' but he's my friend."

Eventually, Bonds said he had stopped using the products, telling the grand jury, "If it's a steroid, it's not working." Bonds insisted he had never paid Anderson for drugs or supplements, but he acknowledged paying him $15,000 in 2003 for weight training.

"I paid him in cash," Bonds said. "I make $17 million."

In answers that sometimes rambled, Bonds sought to vouch for his trainer as a good and honest person who would never traffic in illegal drugs.

"Greg is a good guy, you know, this kid is a great kid. He has a child," Bonds said. At another point, he told the grand jury:

"Greg has nothing, man. ... Guy lives in his car half the time. He lives with his girlfriend, rents a room so he can be with his kid, you know?

"... This is the same guy that goes over to our friend's mom's house and massages her leg because she has cancer, and she swells up every night for months. Spends time next to my dad, rubbing his feet every night."

Bonds told the grand jurors that he had given Anderson a $20,000 bonus and bought him a ring after the 73-home run season. He also bought the trainer a ring to commemorate the Giants' 2002 World Series appearance. When a juror asked why the wealthy ballplayer hadn't bought "a mansion" for his trainer to live in, Bonds answered:

"One, I'm black, and I'm keeping my money. And there's not too many rich black people in this world. There's more wealthy Asian people and Caucasian and white. And I ain't giving my money up."

Prosecutor Jeff Nedrow pressed Bonds about the clear liquid Anderson provided.

"Did he ever tell you it was a molecularly or chemically altered steroid? Did Greg ever tell you anything like that?"

"No, because my other trainer, who is 50 years old, Harvey, was taking the same stuff," Bonds replied. "And he said it's flaxseed oil."

Tim Montgomery, a world-class sprinter, had earlier told the grand jury that Conte used flaxseed oil containers when sending "the clear" to athletes at overseas track meets.

For much of Bonds' testimony, Nedrow and Assistant U.S. Attorney Ross Nadel methodically questioned him about documents and evidence seized in the probe. Bonds said he had few insights.

The prosecutors queried Bonds about calendars -- taken in a raid on Anderson's home -- that contained his name and notes about performance-enhancing drugs. He replied, "I've never had a calendar with him, never had anything."

Bonds said he couldn't explain a calendar page with the name "Barry" on it, nor a note indicating an invoice of $450 for blood tests.

Likewise, Bonds said he couldn't translate a document that had the notation "! G !" along with "one box off season" and "two box season, $1,500."

The prosecutors thought it referred to Bonds' payments for boxes of human growth hormone, but Bonds said, "I don't know what G is."

Asked about a reference to a $450 payment for a bottle of the injectable steroid Depo-Testosterone, Bonds replied, "I have never seen this bottle or any bottle pertaining that says Depo-Testosterone." He also denied ever injecting himself with any drug.

Other documents suggested Bonds was using Clomid, the fertility drug that enhances the effect of testosterone; modafinil, an anti-narcolepsy drug used as a stimulant; and the steroid trenbolone.

"I've never heard of it," Bonds replied to questions about each drug.

Asked about the endurance-boosting agent known as EPO, Bonds said, "I couldn't even pronounce it."

Queried about insulin, which also can have a steroid-like effect, Bonds said, "Insulin? I'm not a diabetic."

Bonds also was quizzed about a document that said, "Barry 12-2-02, T, 1 cc G - pee."

A prosecutor asked, "Does that correspond to you getting, you know, growth hormones or testosterone or giving a urine test or anything of those things that you can recall from Mr. Anderson."

"T could mean anything," Bonds replied. "G could mean anything. And pee could probably mean anything."

Bonds said he had no knowledge of paperwork indicating that starting in 2001, BALCO had been screening his blood not just for nutritional deficiencies but for steroids.

"Do you know why BALCO would have been testing for your testosterone level?" he was asked.

"I have no idea," Bonds replied.

"Do you know why your testosterone level would have been -- according to the report -- higher than the level, the normal range indicated for males 29 to 49 years old?"

"I don't understand this piece of paper," Bonds replied.

Elevated testosterone levels can indicate steroid use, according to medical experts.

Rains, Bonds' attorney, said every other athlete called to testify in the case had been provided the opportunity to study the documents beforehand to assist the government in making its case; but Rains said the prosecutors had backed out on a similar deal with Bonds.

"That shows you what the government's attempt was and what their effort was," Rains said. "But it didn't work. One, because Barry testified truthfully, and they know it. And two, because the documents they showed him are so fraught with irregularities of unproven quality and character that they can't be used to secure an indictment (for perjury)."

Bonds said he hadn't told the Giants staff what he was doing with Anderson because he didn't trust them.

"No way ... we don't trust the ball team," Bonds said. "We don't trust baseball. ... Believe me, it's a business. I don't trust their doctors or nothing."

That lack of trust also led Bonds to ask Anderson to have him tested for steroids in 2003. Major League Baseball had just begun testing players for steroids, and Bonds said he was suspicious about it.

"We got tested two times this season unannounced," Bonds said. "I don't trust baseball. They say it's anonymous, but then they put your name on it. So I don't trust baseball. So I asked Greg ... 'I want to know what baseball's doing behind our backs.'

"I never saw the papers, never saw the results. Greg just said, 'You're negative.' "

At times, Bonds bantered with prosecutors and grand jurors.

Early on, a prosecutor asked whether Bonds had been confused by an explanation of how the hearing would be conducted.

"Yes -- you are confusing," Bonds said. Turning to the grand jurors, the outfielder said, "Is he confusing to you guys? I'm glad it's not me."

At other times, Bonds provided answers that weren't necessarily responsive to questions but that still contained personal insights about baseball's single-season home run king.

Asked whether he had ever discussed the BALCO probe with Anderson, Bonds said, "The only thing I asked Greg, 'What's it like getting your door blown down. Dude, I never seen anything like that except on TV.' That's about as far as we went on it."

Then, in an attempt to explain why he wasn't more inquisitive, Bonds said he had learned privacy concerns growing up as the son of a Giants All-Star.

"I was a celebrity child ... with a famous father," he said. "I just don't get into other people's business because of my father's situation, see."

Asked to name his greatest achievement, Bonds seemed to surprise a prosecutor expecting him to name the home run record.

The greatest achievement, Bonds said, was "when I was drafted in 1985" to play professional baseball. "There's no better achievement than fulfilling your goal."
Baseball's steroids ban

Major League Baseball began steroid testing in 2003 under terms of an agreement with the Major League Baseball Players Association. Critics -- including Commissioner Bud Selig -- say the program is too weak to deter drug cheats, but the players' association has balked at allowing the owners to toughen it unilaterally. Among the program's provisions:

Drugs tested for: Steroids only.

When tests occur: In season only.

Players tested: All players were tested in 2003 for the first time as a survey. Mandatory random testing began in 2004.

Test frequency: A player can be tested only once per season, with one follow-up one week later.

Penalties for violations: Starting in 2004, treatment program (first offense), suspensions ranging from 15 days to one year (subsequent offenses).

 

80%

 

Given Barry's persona.....I never thought he would confirm what everyone was thinking. I never thought he would admit.....although he says he had no idea what they were.

 

wow.

 

Shocking....

 

This news reminds me of the day I found out that there was really no such thing as Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny.

Be interesting to hear what the Bonds' supporters say about this "revelation".

 

*703

 

My questions exactly....will they now place an asterisk by his stats? Will this get him banned from the HOF like Pete Rose?

 

Hello Record Book...

*

 

Worst secret in baseball.

 

No surprise. The good thing is that at least we don't have to see Bonds keep lying to reporters saying he didn't use steriods.

 

Just a bunch of puss... ...

 

BELTRAN is your daddy, Barry.

 

agreed...and doesn't that validate the hell out of what Bonds has done?? his year this year was sick, sick, sick!!! and if it came without steroids, that's even sicker