Barry Bonds (Juiced Merge)

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

ABJ

3/9/06

Selig to review book critical of Bonds

JANIE McCAULEY

Associated Press

<!-- begin body-content -->SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - Bud Selig wants to read the book before making any decisions about Barry Bonds. On a day when Bonds was in California for a child custody hearing, baseball kept buzzing about him Wednesday - specifically, about an upcoming book that describes in vivid detail the slugger's alleged steroids use.
Selig has no plans to meet with the San Francisco star. Instead, the commissioner will wait.
"I will review all the material that's relative in every way," he said. "Obviously, we've only seen parts of things.
"The book itself doesn't come out until the end of the month," he said in Phoenix at the World Baseball Classic game between Canada and the United States. "But we will review everything there is to look at and at some appropriate time I'll have further comment, but I don't have any further comment at this point."
The Giants responded to Selig's comments by saying they would cooperate fully with the commissioner.
"The Giants fully support and will assist with commissioner Bud Selig's review of the circumstances surrounding the recent published report about Barry Bonds," the team said in a statement.
Bonds, who has repeatedly denied using performance-enhancing drugs, posted a note on his Web site thanking fans for their support without mentioning the newest allegations. His lawyer, meanwhile, questioned the book's credibility.
All around baseball, Bonds was topic No. 1.
Boston pitcher David Wells said Bonds should "be a man and come out and say that he did it" if he used steroids. Wells said Bonds "probably" used them.
"If you're guilty and you got caught, come clean. I think you can get a lot more respect from people than (by) lying," Wells said.
Roger Clemens offered another opinion.
"I worry more about the man's health than I do about him hitting home runs or whatever this witch hunt we're on," the Team USA ace said.
"I think he got hammered pretty good last year, and it seems to be happening again this year. I don't know if it's going to change anything," he said.
Yankees manager Joe Torre said Bonds' Hall of Fame status was up to individual voters. He said the overall steroids scandal had given the sport "a black eye" and watered down the home run marks.
"I think right now we have already diluted that," he said.
Bonds, with 708 home runs and only 48 shy of breaking Hank Aaron's career record, was absent from Giants' camp because of a hearing that was scheduled more than a month ago. But it certainly fell at the right time to provide him a brief respite, a day after Sports Illustrated released excerpts from "Game of Shadows," written by two San Francisco Chronicle reporters.
"I want to thank you all for your e-mails and the words of support and encouragement yesterday," Bonds wrote on his Web site.
"There are a lot of exciting things going on in baseball right now. I would like to congratulate Team USA on their win over Mexico. I continue to be focused about this spring and the upcoming season. Later, Barry Bonds."
At the San Mateo County Superior Courthouse in Redwood City, Calif., Bonds smiled as he exited with his legal staff. He did not respond to a barrage of questions about the book as he left the building.
His attorney, Michael L. Rains, issued a statement on Bonds' site, http://www.barrybonds.com.
"My client, Barry Bonds, has not read the Sports Illustrated article and does not intend to. Furthermore, he does not intend to read the book from which the article is excerpted. Barry regards this as an unfortunate distraction to his friends and teammates at the San Francisco Giants and to the good name and the great players in Major League Baseball," he said.
"The exploitation of Barry's good name ... may make those responsible wealthy, but in the end, have misled the public in the interest of financial and professional self promotion," he said.
Bonds was expected to return to Arizona late Wednesday in time to work out Thursday - or perhaps play for the first time this spring.
The 41-year-old Bonds has been out of the exhibition lineup after playing only 14 games last season because of three operations on his troublesome right knee. Giants manager Felipe Alou didn't rule out the seven-time NL MVP playing Thursday against the Angels in Tempe, Ariz.
"My wish is for tomorrow," Alou said after the Giants beat Seattle 4-2. "It's going to happen very soon."
Said Giants pitcher Jason Schmidt: "Just let him play. Whatever happened, happened."
"Testing's in place now. If that was an issue before, obviously it can't be an issue now. It's a different game. We're all under the same rules. It's a done deal," he said.
Bonds, who testified before a California federal grand jury investigating steroid use by top athletes, has insisted his accomplishments are purely a result of hard work and talent.
In their book, authors Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams describe how Bonds started using steroids because he was jealous of the attention paid to Mark McGwire's home run race with Sammy Sosa in 1998.
"For whatever one wants to say, from 1998 on we've come as a sport a long way," Selig said, referring to baseball's improved drug-testing policy. "I can only deal with the present and the future."
---
AP Sports Writer Bob Baum in Phoenix and Associated Press Writer Terrence Chea in Redwood City, Calif., contributed to this story.

[Dryden]

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/46188

Barry Bonds Took Steroids, Reports Everyone Who Has Ever Watched Baseball

March 8, 2006 | Onion Sports

SAN FRANCISCO—With the publication of a book detailing steroid use by San Francisco Giants superstar Barry Bonds, two San Francisco Chronicle reporters have corroborated the claims of Bonds' steroid abuse made by every single person who has watched or even loosely followed the game of baseball over the past five years.

In Game Of Shadows, an excerpt of which appeared in Sports Illustrated Wednesday, authors Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams claim that more than a dozen people close to Bonds had either been directly informed that Bonds was using banned substances or had in fact seen him taking the drugs with their own eyes. In addition to those witnesses, nearly 250 million other individuals nationwide had instantly realized that Bonds was using banned substances after observing his transformation from lanky speedster to hulking behemoth with their own eyes.

According to hundreds of thousands of reports coming out of every city in the U.S., Bonds' steroid use has been widely reported and well-documented for years, with sports columnists, bloggers, people attending baseball games, memorabilia collectors, major ballpark popcorn and peanut vendors, groundskeepers, roommates, significant others, fathers-in-law, next-door neighbors, fellow fitness club members, bartenders, mailmen, coworkers, teachers, doormen, parking-lot attendants, fellow elevator passengers, Home Depot clerks, servicemen and women serving in Iraq, former baseball players, Congressmen, second-tier stand-up comics, Sports Illustrated's Rick Reilly, and random passersby all having stated at some point in the last five years that Bonds was obviously taking some sort of performance-enhancing drugs.

Many of those eyewitnesses came forward following Wednesday's revelation with their own accounts of Bonds' seven-year history of steroid use.

"I originally heard that Barry Bonds was on steroids during a Giants game in 2001, when my buddy Phil, who was on the couch next to me, said, 'Dude, that Barry Bonds guy is definitely on steroids,'" said Chicago resident Mitch Oliveras. "After 10 seconds of careful observation, and performing a brief comparison of Bonds' present neck width with that on Phil's old 1986 Bonds rookie card, I was convinced."

"I can see how some people might be shocked about Bonds' doping, but this has been an open secret for years among the people in my industry," said air-conditioner repairman Mike Damus. "I'm sure it's an even more widely known fact in baseball."

"Everyone in our front office has known about Bonds since the 2001 season," said San Francisco-area accounts-receivable secretary Mindy Harris of McCullers and Associates, Ltd. "People in our ninth-floor office, too, and all seven branch offices. None of us were sure exactly which kind of steroids he was on, but we were pretty sure it was the kind that causes you to gain 30 pounds of muscle in one offseason, get injured more easily, become slow-footed, shave your head to conceal your thinning hair, lash out at the media and fans, engage in violent and abrupt mood swings, grow taut tree-trunk-like neck muscles, expand your hatband by six inches, and hit 73 home runs in a single season."

"Come to think of it, we're all fairly certain he's on all of them," Harris added.

"My 6-year-old son and I bonded over our mutual agreement that Bonds was obviously juicing up," San Francisco-area construction worker Tom Frankel said. "I hope that, one day, little Davey will have kids of his own, and that they will be able to easily glean the knowledge that Bonds was a cheater just by looking at the remarkable shift in his year-by-year statistics on his Hall of Fame plaque."

In light of the most recent accusations, which echo what any idiot with a pair of eyes and even the most fundamental knowledge of how the human body works has made in recent years, MLB Commissioner Bud Selig issued a statement Wednesday to address the issue.

"It is unfair to judge Mr. Bonds based solely on the fact that everyone says he has taken some sort of performance-enhancing drug for the past five years," Selig said. "I myself think Bonds has been taking steroids—I'm not blind, after all—but nothing, even an admission by Bonds himself, can conclusively prove that he took steroids, as he has not tested positively in an MLB-sanctioned drug test. Unless that is somehow made to happen, we must all accept his recent unfathomable accomplishments as one of the truly exciting and continuing storylines of this great sport."

When reached for comment, Bonds insisted that he "[doesn't] have time to deal with all these charges."

"I'm not going to respond to these 228 million allegations," Bonds said. "I don't care what every last person in the entire world thinks. As long as my fans believe me, that's the most important thing."

[tibor75]

It is unfair to judge Mr. Bonds based solely on the fact that everyone says he has taken some sort of performance-enhancing drug for the past five years," Selig said. "I myself think Bonds has been taking steroids—I'm not blind, after all—but nothing, even an admission by Bonds himself, can conclusively prove that he took steroids, as he has not tested positively in an MLB-sanctioned drug test. Unless that is somehow made to happen, we must all accept his recent unfathomable accomplishments as one of the truly exciting and continuing storylines of this great sport."


the funny thing is that I can actually picture Selig saying something like that.

[Thump]

Bump for Barlow

[barlow1802]

Cant believe theres not a thread about this, great excerpt from "Game of Shadows" which is about Barry's steriod use. Word has it he has a meeting with Selig now and is in touble with the senate for PURGRY and the irs for tax evasion.

Im only 2 pages in and its up to the 99 season now after he started with greg anderson in the summer of 98 after McGwire had his tear. Great article and it's too bad baseball let this go on and that many players followed suit. Selig and Bonds are both assholes in my mind however I do think Barry (w/ Roids) is the greatest hitter of all time. I would love to see the Babe hit juiced balls into McCovey's cove 300 feet away though. I think he's a douche and a cheater but a helluva hitter.

IMO Bonds should of walked away a few years ago like McGwire did and try and law low but its clear to see the record is all he wants now.. i dont think he understands if he breaks Hank record, to almost all baseball fans its tarnished and hank still owns the real record. To casual fans Babe still has the record
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[harrydangler]

Here's a great article about Bonds and steriods:

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/s...t&lid=tab1pos1

It basically says Bonds told Griffey he was jealous of McGwire and Sosa and that he was going to start juicing.

Thanks to two enterprising San Francisco Chronicle reporters who cast a spotlight into the shadows, we have a pretty good idea of what Barry Bonds did to himself to pump out those big numbers. To illuminate his motivations, ESPN The Magazine turns to writer Jeff Pearlman. In his upcoming biography, "Love Me, Hate Me: Barry Bonds and the Making of an Antihero," Pearlman examines why, and pinpoints when, one of the most talented and dominant players in baseball history went over to the dark side.

The concentration of sports and entertainment superstars living in the 800-acre Windermere, Fla., enclave known as Isleworth can make an afternoon stroll down one of its sidewalks seem like a red-carpet rehearsal. Shaquille O'Neal, Tiger Woods, Wesley Snipes -- they all flock to this gated community of multimillion-dollar homes. Few spreads match the splendor of the 13,000-square-foot mansion owned by Ken Griffey Jr. Decorated in serene linens and creams, the place features floors of marbled Macedonian stone and a miniature movie theater. Video games line the walls of an entertainment center; outside, a large in-ground swimming pool begs for balmy days.



<!---------------------INLINE TABLE (BEGIN)---------------------><TABLE id=inlinetable cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=3 width=200 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TH style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #000000">Take two: Other opinions</TH><TR style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ececec" vAlign=top><TD width=184>Jason Whitlock: Barry Bonds is the new O.J. Let's all make sure he never forgets it. Story

Scoop Jackson: If Barry Bonds is the Devil, then what does that make Major League Baseball? Story





</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><!---------------------INLINE TABLE (END)--------------------->
Griffey's friendship with Barry Bonds dates back to 1987, when Griffey was a 17-year-old Mariners prospect playing in the Arizona Instructional League. Bonds, a young Pirate at the time, was living near Phoenix, and he took the future star under his wing. "Barry would come by and pick me up in his white Acura Legend," Griffey recalls. "He probably treated me to four or five dinners." The two bonded over baseball and the identity crisis that comes with having a renowned parent.

"Now whenever I go to San Francisco, Barry takes me out to dinner," Griffey says. "And when he comes to Cincinnati, I'll take him out. I fly my mom in because Barry loves the way she cooks macaroni and cheese and fried chicken. That's the kind of relationship we have. It's not just about baseball."


In the winter following the 1998 season, Bonds brought his family on vacation to Orlando, where he could also visit his longtime buddy. After spending a day toting his two kids around Disney World, he headed to Griffey's house for dinner.



On an otherwise ordinary night, over an otherwise ordinary meal, Griffey, Bonds, a rep from an athletic apparel company and two other associates chatted informally about the upcoming season. With Griffey's framed memorabilia as a backdrop, and Mark McGwire's obliteration of the single-season home run record a fresh memory, Bonds spoke up as he never had before. He sounded neither angry nor agitated, simply frustrated. "You know what," he said. "I had a helluva season last year, and nobody gave a crap. Nobody.

As much as I've complained about McGwire and Canseco and all of the bull with steroids, I'm tired of fighting it. I turn 35 this year. I've got three or four good seasons left, and I wanna get paid. I'm just gonna start using some hard-core stuff, and hopefully it won't hurt my body. Then I'll get out of the game and be done with it."

Silence.


According to others in the room, Griffey was uncertain how to react. At age 29, he was at the top of his game, fresh off a season in which he compiled 56 home runs and 146 RBIs. As the pressure to indulge in performance-enhancing drugs mounted, the man known as 'The Kid' stayed clean. Sure, he, too, could see the physical differences in many players, including some on his own team. But to him, baseball wasn't important enough to risk his health and reputation. "If I can't do it myself, then I'm not going to do it," Griffey says. "When I'm retired, I want them to at least be able to say, 'There's no question in our minds that he did it the right way.' I have kids. I don't want them to think their dad's a cheater."


Nevertheless, Griffey understood how Bonds felt. For most of the past decade, they had been the sport's two top players. Now, from their point of view, men with significantly less talent were abusing drugs to reach their level. Where was the fairness? The integrity? Griffey didn't agree with Bonds' position, but he certainly empathized.


Bonds' frustration had peaked on Aug. 23 of the previous season. That was the day he crushed a knuckleball from Marlins lefthander Kirt Ojala into the bleachers of Miami's Pro Player Stadium, becoming the first man in major league history to compile 400 home runs and 400 stolen bases.


On the scoreboard, "400/400" flashed in bright yellow letters, and most of the 36,701 fans rose in appreciation. Outside the stadium, however, few people cared. Bonds' achievement found its way into every sports section across America -- but on the second, third or fourth page.

For Bonds himself, the ultimate statistics scavenger, reaching 400/400 was momentous. He had gone beyond his father, Bobby Bonds. He had gone beyond his godfather, Willie Mays. He had gone beyond Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron. In the sort of aw-shucks false modesty he put on from time to time, Bonds told the small number of assembled reporters that he was nothing compared to McGwire and Sammy Sosa, who were in the midst of their epic home run race. "I have nine writers standing here," he said. "McGwire had 200 writers back when he had 30 home runs. What they're doing is huge, phenomenal. Two guys might break the record. I mean, what's the chance of that ever happening again?"


Though Bonds delivered the sentiment with a broad smile, he was in fact feeling unappreciated, grumpy and terribly jealous. Just one day earlier, after the Associated Press reported that a bottle of androstenedione had been found in McGwire's locker, Bonds scoffed. He was well aware McGwire had ingested more than vegetables and vitamin C tablets to become the size of The Thing. "I use that stuff too," Bonds told teammates. "The difference is Mac's doing stuff I wouldn't think of." The belief that McGwire was cheating infuriated Bonds, who -- for all his faults -- respected the sanctity of the record book.


But despite his protestations that he wanted only to be left alone, Bonds cared deeply about his status. He was already a three-time MVP, widely considered one of the greatest players ever. In his mind, he was the best. Here was a guy who, as a freshman at Junipero Serra High School in suburban San Francisco two decades earlier, had turned to a classmate and declared, "I'm gonna be a superstar." A guy who, as a 21-year-old spring training invitee with the Pirates in 1986, told manager Jim Leyland, "Dude, you're gonna need me around here."


Now, with McGwire and Sosa occupying the center of the baseball universe, Bonds was unhappy. For years he had perfected the art of media deflection, of hiding the fact that he actually liked -- no, needed -- the spotlight.


"Barry yearned to be the Michael Jordan of baseball, the icon of the game," says one ex-teammate. "He knew he was better than McGwire and Sosa, and at that point he was, factually, better. But everyone loved Mac and Sammy, and nobody loved Barry."


By the time Bonds arrived at Scottsdale Stadium on Feb. 25, 1999, he had a new daughter -- Aisha Lynn, born Feb. 5 -- and a new physique. Everything seemed to have blown up: his arms, his chest, his shoulders, his legs, his neck. When asked by Rick Hurd of the Contra Costa Times to explain his physique, Bonds blew off the question. "It's the same thing I've always done," he said. "It's just that I started so early."


Within the Giants' clubhouse, Bonds' transformation was met with skepticism. His face was bloated. His forehead and jaw were substantially larger. "And the zits," says Jay Canizaro, who played 55 games as a Giants infielder in 1996 and '99. "Hell, he took off his shirt the first day and his back just looked like a mountain of acne. Anybody who had any kind of intelligence or street smarts about them knew Barry was using some serious stuff."

Canizaro had firsthand knowledge of the side effects, having used steroids himself while in college at Oklahoma State. Observing from a nearby locker throughout spring training in 1999, Canizaro was almost 100 percent certain Bonds was using steroids and human growth hormone. Any lingering doubts were eradicated when Canizaro approached Greg Anderson, Bonds' trainer, and asked a simple question: "What's he on?" Anderson didn't hesitate. "He was calling out Deca-Durabolin and testosterone and all these different things that were steroids and hormones," Canizaro recalls. "Then he told me he could easily put a cocktail together for me, too."


Canizaro was tempted. He was fighting for a job against other players who were clearly using. But then he remembered the acne and the shrunken testicles -- and the time he blacked out while injecting steroids into his rear.


"Thanks," he told Anderson, "but no thanks."


Canizaro estimates that as many as a dozen other Giants were taking illegal performance-enhancing drugs. "The Giants that year were really out of control," he says. "It started in the minors. You're in Triple-A, and you think you need that extra boost to make the majors. So you give in and cheat."

What was the motivation not to? True, the possession of steroids for nonmedical reasons is a crime under U.S. law. But who was busting athletes? Not baseball.


"You're a product," says former Giants catcher Brian Johnson. "Teams say they care about their players, but it's only true until you stop producing. So it's hard to see a motivation for having your players stop using steroids if it's working for them."


And in Bonds' case, it seemed to be working. According to the Society for American Baseball Research, the peak age for players with at least 200 career home runs is 27. After 30, a noticeable decline begins. At 35, the decline becomes a steep hill. But here was Bonds, at 35, hitting the ball harder and farther than ever. He started the 1999 season on a tear, leading the Giants with an April average of .366. "One of the things I noticed was how fast he was able to put the bat on the ball," says pitcher Russ Ortiz. "He could recognize the pitch well before he had to swing, and then he would get around so fast, so hard." Equally amazing was Bonds' indifference to fatigue. He could lift weights, play, lift more weights, then arrive early the next morning to pump more iron.


Such are the recuperative powers supplied by steroids. But the body often isn't able to handle the rapid muscle growth. In a mid-April series against the Astros, Bonds began to feel pain in his left elbow. He tried playing and sleeping with a protective rubberized sleeve, but to no avail. The pain became so bad that Bonds needed someone to rub his arm to dull the sensation before at-bats. On April 20, he underwent surgery for, of all things, a damaged triceps tendon.


Bonds missed 60 games in 1999, and he played in only 14 last year due to three surgeries on his right knee. During the five years in between, he hit 258 homers with a .535 on-base percentage, staggering numbers that dwarfed those he himself had put up until then. But he also attracted the attention of federal prosecutors and became the most controversial figure in baseball since Pete Rose.


In the end, Barry Bonds may be the least likely drug abuser baseball will ever see. Going into 1999, he was already the best all-around player in the game, making more than $9 million a year. With or without another five or six great seasons, he was guaranteed enshrinement in Cooperstown.

But it wasn't enough.