(OT) Barry Bonds Busted?

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http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file...MNG0D9B5K21.DTL

 

Bonds used steroids in 2003, trainer says on secret recording

Slugger's lawyer sees 'another below-the-belt bash'

 

Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada, Chronicle Staff Writers

 

Barry Bonds was using an "undetectable" performance-enhancing drug during the 2003 baseball season, his weight trainer claimed in a conversation that was secretly recorded last year and provided to The Chronicle.

 

Trainer Greg Anderson, 38, who is Bonds' longtime friend and a defendant in the BALCO steroids conspiracy case, also said on the recording that he expected to receive advance warning before the San Francisco Giants superstar had to submit to a drug test under what was then baseball's new steroids- testing program.

 

The recording is the most direct evidence yet that Bonds used performance- enhancing drugs during his drive to break the storied record for career home runs. Major League Baseball banned the use of steroids beginning with the 2003 season. It has long been illegal to use them without a doctor's prescription.

 

"The whole thing is, everything that I've been doing at this point, it's all undetectable," Anderson said on the recording of the drug he was providing Bonds. "See the stuff I have, we created it, and you can't buy it anywhere else, can't get it anywhere else, but you can take it the day of (the test), pee, and it comes up perfect."

 

There was another reason the trainer was confident that Bonds' drug use would escape detection: Anderson said he would be tipped off a week or two before Bonds was subjected to steroid testing.

 

"It's going to be in either the end of May or beginning of June, right before the All-Star break, definitely," he was recorded saying. "So after the All-Star break, f -- , we're like f -- ing clear."

 

The recording was provided to The Chronicle by a source familiar with Anderson who asked not to be identified. Two people who know Anderson listened separately to parts of the recording and identified the voice as his.

 

Anderson's lawyer, J. Tony Serra, said Friday that the trainer "categorically denies" providing banned substances to Bonds, and he called the recording a "red herring" that doesn't prove otherwise.

 

After listening to portions of the recording played for him by a Chronicle reporter, Serra said he was unable to identify the person speaking.

 

"We sure as hell can't ID it as our client's voice," Serra said.

 

Bonds' attorney, Michael Rains, lashed out Friday at both the source of the recording and The Chronicle.

 

"The way I view this is as simply another below-the-belt bash of Barry Bonds," Rains said, "which as I understand it is supposedly the product of what has to be an illegally recorded telephone conversation supposedly between Greg Anderson and an anonymous criminal.

 

"The circumstances that surround both the recording and the reporting of this supposed conversation, while perhaps appropriate fodder for the front page of the Enquirer, deserve no place in a responsible publication like The Chronicle and are unworthy of any substantive response other than scorn and contempt."

 

In addition to Anderson's voice, the 9-minute, 19-second recording contains several unidentifiable voices and noises, as well as the sound of a cell phone ringing. The background conversations can't be made out, and a few of Anderson's comments are not audible.

 

Many of the trainer's comments make it clear Bonds is the subject of the conversation; Anderson described the six-time Most Valuable Player's unique batting achievements in specific detail, including the "73-home-run year" in 2001.

 

Based on Anderson's comments, the recording was made early in the 2003 season, when by Anderson's account Bonds was off to a relatively slow start, recovering from a minor neck injury, hitting below .300, worrying about his performance -- and using a performance-enhancing drug.

 

Bonds' words to MLB.com

 

Bonds has insisted that he has never used steroids. Last month, he told MLB.com, the Web site of Major League Baseball, that he had been randomly selected to submit to steroids testing this year, and he said he welcomed the chance to prove his achievements were accomplished naturally.

 

"I'm glad this is finally happening," Bonds told the Web site. "They'll get the results, and it will clear my name. It'll show that there's nothing behind what I've been doing this year."

 

But federal investigators probing an international sports-doping scandal allegedly centered at the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO) in Burlingame have been told repeatedly that Bonds obtained steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs from the company, The Chronicle has reported.

 

The Anderson recording provides further evidence. On it, the trainer said the undetectable drug he was giving to Bonds also was being used by unnamed Olympic athletes who had successfully passed multiple steroid tests.

 

"It's the same stuff that they went to the Olympics with, and they test them every f -- ing week at the Olympics, so that's why I know it works, so that's why I'm not even tripping," Anderson said on the recording. "So, it's cool."

 

In February of this year, Anderson and three other men, including BALCO founder Victor Conte, were indicted on steroid conspiracy charges for allegedly distributing drugs that included a supposedly undetectable steroid called "the clear" to stars of baseball, the National Football League and Olympic track and field. They have pleaded not guilty.

 

Serra said that because the recording was not provided to defense lawyers in pretrial discovery in the BALCO case, it is "highly suspect and inadmissible" as evidence against Anderson. Serra predicted that the tape ultimately will prove to be "much ado about nothing."

 

Anderson has been a friend of Bonds since their days playing baseball in the San Carlos Little League. He owns a personal training business, Get Big Productions, working with clients at public gyms on the Peninsula, including one near BALCO. Anderson became Bonds' weight trainer in 1998.

 

On the recording, Anderson described himself as having 16 years of experience with steroids, saying he was familiar with the infections and other medical problems that can arise from injecting the drugs.

 

'That's the problem'

 

"People don't know what the f -- they're doing," he said, in one of many remarks laced with profanity. "That's the problem. No, I've seen all kinds of ugly s -- . It's just unbelievable."

 

Federal agents began focusing on Anderson soon after their investigation of BALCO began in August 2002. An informant told local U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents that Anderson was supplying steroids to baseball players, court records show.

 

On Sept. 11, 2002, agents on a stakeout tailed Anderson from BALCO to a Giants game at Pacific Bell Park, where the trainer double-parked in the players' parking lot and disappeared from the agents' view, court records show.

 

In a September 2003 raid on Anderson's Burlingame home, agents found containers of suspected steroids and human growth hormone, $60,000 cash and calendars that appeared to note "daily doses of steroids and growth hormones" given to unnamed elite athletes, according to an affidavit filed by Internal Revenue Service special agent Jeff Novitzky. During the raid, Anderson admitted to authorities he had "given steroids to several professional baseball players," the agent wrote. Attorneys for Anderson disputed many aspects of Novitzky's account, including the alleged admission, in court papers filed Oct. 8.

 

Novitzky wrote in another document that former Giants outfielder Armando Rios admitted during a phone interview that he had purchased human growth hormone and testosterone from Anderson.

 

The recording of Anderson, made in the spring of 2003, begins with the trainer discussing how athletes sometimes injure themselves injecting steroids.

 

"What happens is they put too much in one area and, what it does, it will actually ball up and puddle and what happens is it actually will eat away and make an indentation and it's a cyst ... and you have to drain it," Anderson said on the recording. "Oh yeah, it's gnarly."

 

To avoid problems, Anderson said on the recording, he varied the location of injections. "I move it all over the place," he said. Some people who ignored that advice developed serious infections.

 

"I learned that when I first started doing that s -- 16 years ago 'cause guys were getting some gnarly infections, and it was gross."

 

From there, Anderson began discussing baseball's 2003 steroid-testing program, which he indicated he was monitoring on Bonds' behalf.

 

He said he understood that baseball had tested "25 players random, supposedly in spring training."

 

"So those guys have already been tested twice," Anderson said. "They got tested, and then a week later got tested again. So ... those guys are pretty much done for the year. They never have to get tested again."

 

In the next phase, Anderson said, there would be "150 guys tested at random" at some point prior to the 2003 All-Star break. Anderson said he presumed Bonds would be among that group, but he expected a heads-up.

 

"Do we know when they're gonna do it? Oh, I have an idea. See, the lab that does this stuff is the lab that does -- ," Anderson said on the recording.

 

Learning in advance

 

The rest of the remark is not entirely audible, but Anderson claimed he had a relationship with the same testing laboratory that was doing baseball's drug tests. Through that contact, Anderson said on the recording, he would learn in advance about Bonds' testing date.

 

"I'll know like probably a week in advance or two weeks in advance before they're going to do it," Anderson was recorded saying.

 

Rob Manfred, a Major League Baseball executive vice president who is the commissioner's point man on the steroids policy, disputed Anderson's claim during a phone interview Friday.

 

"With respect to advance notice, given the procedures that were in place, there is no way that Greg Anderson or Barry Bonds had advance notice of when he was going to be tested," Manfred said. "I didn't know when he was going to be tested."

 

Comprehensive Drug Testing (CDT) of Long Beach was baseball's "third- party administrator" during the 2003 season, coordinating the collection of urine specimens and compiling data from the test results. CDT contracted the actual testing out to New Jersey-based Quest Diagnostics.

 

In an affidavit, agent Novitzky said BALCO sent at least 33 checks to Quest with the notation "steroids." Novitzky suggested Conte's firm used the lab for pre-testing to guarantee athletes would pass formal steroid tests.

 

A source familiar with the BALCO case said that during last year's raid on Anderson's home, agents seized documents showing that the trainer also had sent samples of his clients' blood or urine to Quest, The Chronicle previously reported. Investigators presumed he was making sure the drugs he was providing couldn't be detected, according to court documents.

 

"He was trying to make sure the guys were cycled off" the drugs, the source told The Chronicle.

 

Quest spokesman Gary Samuels denied that his company performed pre- testing for clients and said Quest could not have been involved with Anderson receiving advanced warning about Bonds' test.

 

"It's a categorical denial that it's even plausible that we could be a source for this," Samuels said Friday. "We didn't know who was being tested or when they were being tested or where they were being tested or when we were getting the specimens."

 

Samuels said Quest has been notified it will be called as a witness in the BALCO case. Earlier this year, baseball announced the 2004 season's steroids testing would be performed by an Olympic-accredited lab in Montreal.

 

"You had better check your facts carefully," said Dr. Kim Jasper of CDT, when told Friday of Anderson's comments on the recording.

 

In the final portion of the recording, Anderson discussed Bonds' slow start in the 2003 season.

 

"What his problem is, he thinks the magic's gone and he doesn't have it anymore," Anderson said on the recording.

 

The trainer also claimed intimate knowledge of Bonds' psyche and how it relates to his on-the-field exploits. At one point, he suggested Bonds would hit better if he tried to be less accommodating to sportswriters and fans.

 

Bonds has "been way too nice," Anderson said on the recording. "Be an -- hole again. Every time he's an -- hole, it f -- ing works. He f -- ing plays good because he's just being himself."

 

At the same time, Anderson said he was confident Bonds' hitting would come around, citing a mini-slump in 2001 that delayed his 500th home run.

 

"Other than last year and him hitting .370 ... he always starts slow. Even the 73 home run year, look at how long it took him to get to 500," he said on the recording.

 

Slow start in 2003

 

Bonds did start slowly in 2003, but he went on to hit .341 with 45 home runs, leading the Giants to the National League West Division title.

 

Some of Anderson's comments on the recording mirror evidence gathered in the BALCO investigation.

 

In a statement to the federal investigators who raided BALCO in September 2003, Conte allegedly said that during the 2003 season he had supplied Bonds with "the clear" and a testosterone-based cream. Conte allegedly said that Bonds had used the drugs regularly and that the Giants star was among 27 elite athletes who had received the drugs, The Chronicle previously reported. Conte denies making the statement, and last week his attorneys sought to dismiss the case by arguing that Novitzky had disregarded the law to pursue a vendetta against Bonds.

 

Also in September 2003, investigators were told that Bonds and several other baseball players received "the cream" and "the clear" from Anderson, The Chronicle has reported. Investigators also were told that Bonds received human growth hormone, which isn't detectable on drug tests.

 

"The clear," referred to in some cases as the designer steroid THG, was taken orally, the government has indicated; human growth hormone is typically injected.

 

In testimony last year before the grand jury that handed up indictments in the BALCO case, 100-meter world-record holder Tim Montgomery quoted Conte as saying he had provided Bonds with Winstrol, an injectable steroid, The Chronicle also has reported. Conte denied the allegation.

 

Anderson's recorded description of baseball's "survey testing" program, though not entirely accurate, illustrates an understanding of the process and some of its finer points.

 

For example, the trainer discussed players being tested twice within a one-week span, which was part of the agreement between the owners and the union designed to ensure players wouldn't get penalized for unwittingly using tainted supplements.

 

Anderson also noted there would be a certain number of players selected at random for additional testing; the agreement stated that "up to 240 players, selected at random, may be tested."

 

Finally, medical experts said steroid users sometimes suffer the sort of "gnarly" infections and cysts that Anderson described. But they said the problem isn't the location of the injection, but dirty syringes.

 

"They're not using clean needles, and of course you get infections," said Dr. Harrison Pope, a Harvard University psychiatrist and a leading expert on steroid abuse. Unless the needle is sterile, bacteria is introduced deep into the steroid user's muscle, and as the infection takes hold, a pus-filled cyst called an abscess is formed.

 

"I've seen 20 or 30 guys who have experienced an abscess, and it's been the result of a dirty needle," he said.

 

It's unclear what action Major League Baseball could take regarding alleged drug use by Bonds. Last week, in interviews with Sports Illustrated and ESPN, New York Yankees outfielder Gary Sheffield said that while visiting Bonds before the 2002 season, he had unwittingly taken steroids he received from BALCO through Anderson. Manfred of the commissioner's office told reporters that Major League Baseball was precluded by its agreement with the Players' Union from taking action on incidents that occurred more than a year ago.

 

Asked for comment Friday about Bonds' alleged use of banned drugs, Manfred told The Chronicle, "... Whether or not he was using an undetectable performance-enhancing substance, I and the commissioner will have no comment."

 

Bonds already holds baseball's record for home runs in a single season, 73, and now, with 703 for his career, he's chasing the most hallowed record in sports -- Hank Aaron's all-time mark of 755.

 

The surge toward Aaron was sparked by a late-career power outburst that coincided with Bonds' relationship with BALCO. That association began not long after the 2000 season, when Anderson took the Giants outfielder to meet Conte. In the four years since, Bonds has hit 209 home runs -- or 30 percent of the homers he has smacked in his 19-year career.

History of developments

 

in BALCO investigation

 

In February of this year, the federal grand jury in the BALCO case indicted Greg Anderson, who is Barry Bonds' weight trainer; Victor Conte; Bonds' self-described nutritionist; BALCO vice president James Valente; and track coach Remi Korchemny on steroid conspiracy charges. The defendants have pleaded not guilty, and Bonds has denied using performance-enhancing drugs. But during the probe, Bonds and his trainer have repeatedly been linked to BALCO and to the use of the substances.

 

August-October 2002: Anderson tips. A local narcotics task force and the San Jose office of the DEA received separate tips that Anderson was dealing steroids to professional baseball players, court records show.

 

Spring 2003: Greg Anderson tape. In a secretly taped conversation, Anderson acknowledged he provided Bonds with an "undetectable" performance- enhancing drug in 2003.

 

June 1, 2003: Bonds endorsement. In a Muscle & Fitness magazine article, Bonds praised Conte and Anderson for getting him into the best shape of his life. Of BALCO, he said, "I'm just shocked by what they've been able to do for me."

 

Sept. 3, 2003: Victor Conte statement. During a federal raid at BALCO, Conte allegedly said that he had provided Bonds with steroids and that the outfielder had used the drugs regularly, according to a government document obtained by The Chronicle. Conte has denied making the statements.

 

Sept. 3, 2003: Anderson statement. During a raid on his home, Anderson admitted he had "given steroids to several professional baseball players," according to court records. The players were not identified.

 

September 2003: Another statement. BALCO investigators who had been told by Conte about Bonds' alleged use of steroids were told by a second source that Bonds got steroids and human growth hormone from BALCO via Anderson.

 

Nov. 6, 2003: Tim Montgomery testimony. The sprinter told a federal grand jury that Conte claimed he provided Bonds the steroid Winstrol in 2000 or 2001. Conte later denied the allegation.

 

Feb. 27, 2004: Calendar and schedule. Bonds' name was on "a calendar and a schedule" seized at Anderson's home, Anderson's lawyer acknowledged outside court. Authorities claimed in court records that the documents tracked steroid regimens. The lawyer said they were for a legal substance that Bonds declined to use.

 

March 2, 2004: An Anderson source. A source familiar with Anderson said the weight trainer obtained steroids and human growth hormone for Bonds dating back to the 2001 season, The Chronicle reported. Michael Rains, Bonds' attorney, said his client never received any drugs from Anderson.

 

Sept. 24, 2004: Bonds tested. Bonds told MLB.com that he had just been tested for steroids under the program agreed to by Major League Baseball and the Players' Association, adding, "I'm glad this is finally happening. They'll get the results and it will clear my name."

 

Oct. 2004: Gary Sheffield interview. The New York Yankees star told Sports Illustrated that Bonds introduced him to Conte and Anderson. From Anderson, Sheffield said, he got a BALCO cream that he said he later learned was a designer steroid.

 

Oct. 16, 2004: BALCO's toll to date. Since the 2003 raids, 14 elite athletes with ties to BALCO have either tested positive for banned drugs, admitted using them or been formally accused of doping violations. They include four Oakland Raiders football players, nine track stars and former Giants outfielder Armando Rios, who, according to a government document, admitted buying human growth hormone and testosterone from Anderson