Barry Bonds Bombshell

[Cowperson]

Originally Posted by habernac

If you want to blame anyone, blame Selig. He's the one who didn't have the stones to set up a program to strictly test for drugs. This is the sport where Steve Howe had more than 10 suspensions for drug use before being kicked out of the league (or did he just retire?).

I love baseball and I'm glad they've got some better rules in there now. But I say there still wouldn't be any if congress hadn't threatened action because in the eyes of the commisionerr it was "good for the game".

As I said in my first post, it's not just MLB and Selig, it's also the players union and Donald Fehr which resisted any attempt at valid drug testing.

In other words, it's all of baseball, top to bottom . . . . . and most fans at the time (not me though), most media, etc.

Pretty much everyone, top to bottom, ignored the obvious and egged on the race . . . . . .

Cowperson

[nfotiu]

Originally Posted by Cowperson

There is still a chance Bonds could become a criminal, if its determined he lied before a grand jury.

Cowperson

Wouldn't that have already sorted itself out by now? Isn't the book just reporting the "sealed" and "confidential" information acquired by government agents, and the grand jury testimony? I don't believe they are presenting anything that the Balco investigation didn't already know.

[Cowperson]

Originally Posted by nfotiu

Wouldn't that have already sorted itself out by now? Isn't the book just reporting the "sealed" and "confidential" information acquired by government agents, and the grand jury testimony? I don't believe they are presenting anything that the Balco investigation didn't already know.

If it can be demonstrated, as the book flat out states, that he was fully aware of what he was doing when he told the grand jury that he wasn't, then he will have been caught in a lie under oath.

One of the news stories quotes a federal prosecutor refusing to "confirm or deny" whether or not Bonds is back under investigation as a result of the revelations in the book . . . . . you would expect that reaction but it was a pretty smart move on the part of a reporter to ask the question since the conflict is obvious.

Watch for more on that angle.

Cowperson

[nfotiu]

When you read what was written in 2004, it doesn't sound a whole lot different than what is coming out now:

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.

It sounds like the book is just detailing what the investigators already knew, and already confronted Bonds with during his testimony.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...GGFA0UDU65.DTL

[Cowperson]

Originally Posted by nfotiu

When you read what was written in 2004, it doesn't sound a whole lot different than what is coming out now:


It sounds like the book is just detailing what the investigators already knew, and already confronted Bonds with during his testimony.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...GGFA0UDU65.DTL

I think you are missing the point.

Barry Bonds testified to a grand jury that he used a clear substance and a cream given to him by a trainer who was indicted in a steroid-distribution ring, but said he didn't know they were steroids, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Friday.

The book says he not only knew what all that stuff was, he was gorging on it and ignoring all warnings to take it easy.

There's the contradiction. There's the lie.

The baseball writer at the New York Post goes after Bonds to. . . .

http://www.nypost.com/sports/62840.htm

EDIT: Ray Ratto goes after Bonds in the San Francisco Chronicle . .

The Sports Illustrated.com excerpts from "Game of Shadows," the book by Chronicle reporters Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada that essentially proves that Barry Bonds persistently, deliberately and systematically used performance-enhancing drugs to help fuel his late-career mega-renaissance, ends his latest foray into I'm-just-another-guy-on-the-team-hood.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...PGKDHKFQK1.DTL

Cowperson

[JBR]

A big Giants fan here but the SI article made me sick. My team has benefitted from Bonds' production but it's hard to cheer for him. Heading down to Phoenix in April to watch the Giants/D-Backs. I bought RF bleacher seats with the hope of having a chance to catch #716 (or around that number). After the SI read, I would love to catch the ball, hold it up, and with the jumbotron zoomed in on me... SPIT ON IT AND THROW IT BACK WHILE FLIPPING THE DOUBLE BARRELLED BIRD TO BARRY BONDS.