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Barry Bonds (Juiced Merge)

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I think it is easy to jump on the Hate Barry band wagon. Some of these same giants fan would be pulling for him, if the playoffs were on the line he was up to bat. I think most of them accomplished what they wanted to do, and that was get their face on tv.
I also think that Barry's image has been based off his reputation with the media. I grew up near Pittsburgh, and for a brief moment in 1991 I was able to speak to him. My opinion of him is very high. Unlike my opinion of Cal Ripken due to when I saw him.
Do I think he took steroids. Yes, but he has never tested positive. I have a friend who was traded from his NL team this off season who told me that steroids are everywhere. He was introduced to them from a veteran outfielder.
All in all, Barry is probably the best person to shoulder this attention. Other than him crying on his show this week, he is usually very mentally strong.
 
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Baseball isn't the only organization investigating Barry Bonds.

CNN reported Thursday that the federal government is investigating whether Bonds committed perjury during his grand jury testimony in the BALCO case in 2003.

Multiple sources told CNN that a federal grand jury has been hearing evidence for more than a month about whether Bonds perjured himself during his Dec. 4, 2003, testimony. CNN reporter Ted Rowlands told ESPN Radio on Thursday night that it took a month for the network to get corroborating sources for the story.

The U.S. attorney's office in San Francisco would neither confirm nor deny to CNN that a grand jury is sitting.

Harry Stern, an attorney in the firm representing Bonds, told The Associated Press that "we don't have any knowledge about" a grand jury investigation. He also said he stands by previous statements that his client did not perjure himself during his 2003 testimony.

Messages and e-mails left by ESPN for Bonds' attorney, Michael Rains, have not yet been returned.

The Giants declined to comment on the CNN report to ESPN's Colleen Dominguez on Thursday night. Baseball spokesman Rich Levin said he is aware of the reports, "but it's just not appropriate for us to comment at this time."

The San Francisco Chronicle reported Thursday night that Bonds' personal surgeon, Dr. Arthur Ting, has been subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury later this month. Investigators are reportedly interested in Ting, who treated the knee injury that sidelined Bonds for much of the 2005 season, because he visited BALCO with Bonds.

The Chronicle's sources told the newspaper that federal investigators believed Bonds was lying because documents seized in government raids included documentation of the slugger's drug use.

A number of professional athletes were given immunity from prosecution in exchange for their truthful testimony. They were also told that they would be prosecuted if it was later discovered they had lied.

Bonds, who testified before a San Francisco federal grand jury looking into steroid use by top athletes, has repeatedly denied knowingly using performance-enhancing drugs.

Two books being released this spring accuse Bonds of using steroids, human growth hormone and insulin for at least five seasons beginning in 1998 -- "Game of Shadows," written by two San Francisco Chronicle reporters, and "Love Me, Hate Me: Barry Bonds and the Making of an Antihero" by Jeff Pearlman. Baseball did not test for performance-enhancing substances until after the 2002 season.

BALCO founder Victor Conte insisted in March that he never gave performance-enhancing drugs to Bonds and that "Game of Shadows" is "full of outright lies."

Conte spoke to The Associated Press outside his San Mateo home hours after his release from prison, where he spent four months after pleading guilty to orchestrating an illegal steroids distribution scheme that allegedly involved many high-profile athletes, including Bonds.

Asked whether he gave Bonds performance-enhancing drugs, Conte said: "No, I did not."

"Game of Shadows" chronicles the founding of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative and details alleged extensive steroid use by Bonds and other baseball stars. Baseball commissioner Bud Selig announced in March that former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell will lead an investigation into the claims.

"I plan to provide evidence in the near future to prove that much of what is written in the book is untrue," Conte told the AP. He declined to list specific inaccuracies or what evidence he would provide but said the book is "about the character assassination of Barry Bonds and myself."

"It's my opinion that the two writers of the book have a disease called fabrication-itis," Conte said, holding a copy of "Game of Shadows" as he stood on his front steps.

Conte founded and managed the Burlingame-based BALCO, where the steroids were sold. He pleaded guilty to money laundering and a steroid distribution charge, and dozens of other charges were dropped as part of his plea deal.

Conte was sentenced in October to four months in prison and four months' home confinement in a plea deal with federal prosecutors.

Baseball investigators could seek to interview Conte about steroid use in the game.

Bonds, who has denied using steroids, was the most prominent athlete linked to BALCO. He testified in December 2003 to the federal grand jury investigating the case but has not been charged with a crime.

Bonds is third on baseball's all-time home runs list with 708; he is seven homers shy of passing Babe Ruth. He did not play in the second game of Thursday's doubleheader with the Houston Astros in San Francisco and was not made available for comment.

Other baseball players linked to BALCO include New York Yankees stars Jason Giambi and Gary Sheffield.

Olympic track and field stars Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery and former NFL player Bill Romanowski were also called to testify in front of the grand jury. No athletes were charged in the scheme.

Greg Anderson, Bonds' personal trainer, was sentenced to three months behind bars and an additional three months of home confinement after pleading guilty to money laundering and a steroid distribution charge.

BALCO vice president James Valente was sentenced to three years' probation, and track coach Remi Korchemny received a year of probation.

Meanwhile, baseball star Rafael Palmeiro will not be prosecuted on perjury charges after lawmakers said there isn't enough evidence to prove he lied when he told Congress under oath that he had "never used steroids" -- six weeks before failing a steroid test.

The investigation did not conclude whether the former Baltimore Orioles slugger had actually ever used performance-enhancing substances prior to his testimony before the House Government Reform Committee.

"We couldn't find any evidence of steroid use prior to his testimony," Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., said in releasing a 44-page report. "That's not a finding of innocence, but it's a finding that we could not substantiate perjury."

At issue was Palmeiro's statement at a March 17 hearing: "I have never used steroids. Period." On May 4, he failed a Major League Baseball drug test, coming up positive for an anabolic steroid. In August, shortly after baseball suspended Palmeiro for 10 days, Davis said Congress would look into whether the player committed perjury.

"We have a responsibility, an obligation, to investigate it, and that's what we've done," Davis said during a news conference in the same hearing room where Palmeiro had testified.

Davis said the steroid for which Palmeiro tested positive is detectable for three to four weeks, shorter than the gap between his failed test and Capitol Hill appearance, and therefore "could not have been in his system the day he testified."

"We were not concerned with why he tested positive or how he tested positive except for how that related to his testimony," Davis added.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
 
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LINK

Bonds threatens to quit if bone chips worsen

FOXSports.com

The problems continue to pile on for Giants outfielder Barry Bonds. The latest setback for the embattled slugger is bone chips in his left elbow.

Bonds told MLB.com that he has "10 to 12 bone chips floating" in his left elbow, which he revealed is swollen to "almost twice the size" of his other elbow.
"I'm going to keep playing until it blows up," Bonds told MLB.com. "If I have to have a procedure, then I'm done. Finished. That would be it."

This health issue came just a day after it was revealed that a federal grand jury is investigating whether Bonds committed perjury when he testified in 2003 that he never used steroids.

Bonds said he felt his elbow pop during a spring training batting practice session in March. He underwent an MRI and was examined at the time by Dr. Ken Akizuki, the Giants orthopedic surgeon, and Dr. Lewis Yocum, the Giants' and Angels' orthopedic specialist, who oversaw Bonds' recovery from last year's three surgeries on his right knee. The Giants said Bonds was diagnosed with inflammation in the elbow, and Bonds missed about a week of action.

On Friday, head trainer Stan Conte acknowledged to MLB.com that the inflammation was caused by bone chips in the elbow. Conte was able to speak about the injury after getting clearance from Bonds, who controls his own flow of medical information to the media, the trainer said.

"He does have bone chips," Conte told MLB.com. "We knew that after he took the MRI during spring training. He does have it, and he's going to have intermittent discomfort with that. A lot of players have those. We know from spring training that he gets irritated from time to time. There's nothing we can do except keep an eye on it."

Bonds, who will be 42 on July 24, has wavered about whether he plans to return next season. Bonds is chasing Hank Aaron's home run record, was granted immunity to testify truthfully before a grand jury in December 2003 investigating a Northern California steroid distribution ring based at the company called the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative, or BALCO.

According to excerpts of testimony previously reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, Bonds testified that he used a clear substance and a cream given to him by a trainer convicted in the case, but said he didn't know they were steroids.

Bonds testified that Greg Anderson, his personal trainer, told him the substances were the nutritional supplement flaxseed oil and an arthritis balm.

Anderson and three others, including BALCO founder Victor Conte, have pleaded guilty to distribution charges.

Bonds is hitting just .167 with no home runs this season.
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This doesn't seem like that tough of a scenario to figure out. Bonds plays the martyr, battling valiantly (in his own eyes) through these horrible bone chips in order to hit just enough home runs to pass Babe Ruth, whom he has belittled on numerous occasions (though ironically he never did say that Ruth probably used steroids, like that rocket scientist Jeff Kent). He will then retire and bow out, knowing that if he passes Hank Aaron he may very well become, by the general populace, the most hated man in the history of sports. So he won't, and he won't draw the * for the 756, and will attempt to not be the poster child for the steroid era. He will then retire and ask for his privacy, believing he has been persecuted by the media and the fans, and attempt to disappear completely. Eventually, he will release a book, of course, documenting the racism that MUST underly all (or any) of the criticizm he has gotten, declare himself a hero and a martyr, and live happily ever after on his bazillion dollars he made from the very people he hates the most. The End.
 
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ABJ

4/16/06

Column: Bonds has more to worry about

TIM DAHLBERG

AP Sports Columnist

<!-- begin body-content -->Imagine that, prosecutors in San Francisco think Barry Bonds is a liar. Gee, he seemed awfully sincere the other night bawling his eyes out on his reality show.
"You can't hurt me any more than you've already hurt me," Bonds said between sobs in the first episode. "I'm going to take it because there's so many people who depend on me."
Who would have known Barry had such a sensitive side?
Good thing he didn't break down in the clubhouse. There's supposed to be no crying in baseball.
Stay tuned, though, because there could be a lot more tears.
If the nasty media is enough to make Bonds cry, wait until the government gets done with him.
There's nothing like having a pair of handcuffs slapped on to make a man weep.
Don't think it can't happen, because Bonds isn't the only one playing hardball these days.
Up until just a few days ago, the most baseball's tainted slugger had to worry about was why his reality show was tanking and figuring out why balls he used to hit into McCovey Cove now die on the warning track.
George Mitchell's baseball investigation of his steroid use wasn't exactly keeping him up at night. Bonds probably figured out that probe will drag on long past this season before eventually coming to an inconclusive and unsatisfying close.
Get the feds after you, though, and that's another matter entirely.
It's OK to cry on the witness stand. But courts tend to take it seriously when you lie while under oath.
The news that prosecutors are presenting evidence to a grand jury that Bonds committed perjury when he testified before another grand jury in 2003 brings out only one question.
What took so long?
By now, it's laughingly clear to anyone who doesn't own a season ticket at AT&T Park that Bonds wasn't telling the truth when he testified before the grand jury that he didn't knowingly use steroids.
Bonds told the grand jury that the cream was arthritis balm, the clear flaxseed oil. Or maybe it was the other way around.
And it was clean living and hard work that bulked his body up to cartoon-like proportions at a time in everyone else's life when they begin to lose muscle mass.
Believe that, and you've been sniffing garlic fries too long.
Most people don't, even in a state where they tend to give their celebrities the benefit of the doubt. A poll released Saturday showed seven of 10 baseball fans in California believe Bonds used steroids and should be penalized for doing so.
The few remaining holdouts might change their minds if they fork over $26 for "Game of Shadows," the painstakingly researched book that details through court records and interviews how Bonds began using a veritable medical chest filled with steroids, human growth hormone, insulin and who knows what else to chase the suspiciously large Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa.
The only criticism of the book is that it relies too much on a vengeful former mistress of the slugger. But prosecutors must have found it a good read because they're not only talking to Kimberly Bell but have also subpoenaed Dr. Arthur Ting, Bonds' personal surgeon, for a chat before the grand jury.
The ironic thing is had Bonds come clean, all might have been forgiven by now. He had limited immunity from prosecution in exchange for telling the truth, and Bud Selig certainly wouldn't try to punish him if the feds didn't.
Bonds could have held a news conference, shed a few tears, and moved on with his chase of Babe Ruth and Henry Aaron.
It worked for Jason Giambi, who admitted to the grand jury that he used steroids. Giambi apologized profusely for something, though he wouldn't say what, then went on with the business of playing first base for the New York Yankees.
And if Rafael Palmeiro hadn't jabbed his finger at some U.S. senators and denied ever using steroids, he might still be playing today.
That's because baseball fans are by nature a very forgiving sort. They're willing to overlook just about anything for the chance to cheer their heroes on.
Bonds, though, has used up almost all of this huge reservoir of goodwill, mostly through his sheer arrogance. Fans don't just dislike Bonds anymore, they hate him for what he's done to the game.
In San Diego, a fan threw a syringe on the field. At Dodger Stadium they came early for once just for the chance to yell insults at him.
His reality show isn't making things better, with the tears on demand and the phony smiles. And you have to wonder why Bonds, who has last review on the show, wants the world to see him lounging on a private jet one minute, and blowing off fans looking for autographs the next.
It's hard to imagine things getting much worse for Bonds. His show stinks, he has yet to hit a home run, and now he's facing the real possibility of felony charges.
It's almost enough to make you cry.
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Greatest Bonds picture ever:

tx_0415_bonds_ap.jpg
 
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yahoo.com

4/19/06


<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=yspsctnhdln>Newspaper: Giants trainer to testify before Bonds' grand jury</TD></TR><TR><TD height=7><SPACER type="block" width="1" height="1"></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>April 18, 2006
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<SMALL>AP - Apr 18, 1:23 pm EDT</SMALL>
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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- The head athletic trainer for the San Francisco Giants was told to appear before a federal grand jury investigating whether Barry Bonds lied about his connection to the BALCO steroids scandal, a newspaper reported.

Stan Conte, who is not related to Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative owner Victor Conte, was subpoenaed to appear in a San Francisco federal courtroom April 27, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Tuesday, citing three anonymous sources familiar with the investigation.

Conte is scheduled to appear before the grand jury on the same day as Bonds' orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Arthur Ting. The grand jury subpoenaed Ting's medical records related to Bonds a year ago, the Chronicle reported.

The panel has been hearing testimony for more than a month about whether the outfielder lied to a separate grand jury in December 2003 about his connection to BALCO.
Bonds addressed the latest probe publicly for the first time Tuesday on his television show, "Bonds on Bonds."

"I knew I was still being investigated, but I didn't know that was particularly coming," he said.


Bonds added that he would not repeat what he told the BALCO grand jury more than two years ago, saying he still stands by those comments.

"I said what I said in the grand jury testimony," he said. "That's what I stated and that's what I will live by for the rest of my life."

Bonds was one of a string of elite athletes called as witnesses in the steroids conspiracy case. They were granted partial immunity, protected from prosecution as long as they testified truthfully.

According to excerpts of the testimony previously reported by the Chronicle, Bonds testified that he used a clear substance and a cream given to him by a trainer who later pleaded guilty in a steroid-distribution ring, but said he didn't know they were steroids.

Bonds said Greg Anderson, his personal trainer, told him the substances he used were the nutritional supplement flaxseed oil and a rubbing balm for arthritis.

The substances Bonds described were similar to ones known as "the clear" and "the cream," two steroids at the center of the BALCO scandal.

Investigators seized calendars that recorded schedules for Bonds' use of those drugs, as well as human growth hormone, clomid, insulin and other steroids and prosecutors believe those documents contradict Bonds' testimony, the Chronicle reported.

A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office refused to comment Tuesday.

Conte is in his 15th season with the team and seventh as its head trainer.

His subpoena represents the first time a Giants employee other than a player has been called to testify in connection with the government probe. Conte said "the Giants policy is not to comment on direct or indirect questions about the grand jury." A message left for Larry Baer, executive vice president for the Giants, was not immediately returned nor were messages left for Conte's lawyer.

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