Bonds admits to unknowing use of steroid cream
SAN FRANCISCO -- Barry Bonds told a grand jury he used a clear substance and a cream provided by a trainer who was indicted in a steroid-distribution ring, but the slugger denied knowing they were steroids, according to a report published Friday.
Bonds, of the San Francisco Giants, testified last year that the trainer, Greg Anderson, said the substances he used in 2003 were the nutritional supplement flaxseed oil and a rubbing balm for arthritis, according to a transcript of his testimony reviewed by the San Francisco Chronicle.
The substances Bonds described were similar to ones known as "the clear" and "the cream," two steroids from the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, the lab at the center of the steroid scandal.
The federal grand jury transcripts are sealed and the newspaper did not say who disclosed the documents. Bonds' attorney, Michael Rains, said the leak was an attempt to smear his client.
"We think this has always been the case of the Barry Bonds show," he said yesterday at a news conference. "It hasn't been U.S. vs. BALCO. ... It's been U.S. vs. Bonds."
Even if the substances Bonds took were steroids, Rains said they were not banned by baseball at the time and the slugger believed they were natural. Bonds also maintains the substances did nothing to aid his rise as one of the game's greatest home run hitters, Rains said.
"Barry Bonds is a great athlete," he said. "Some people will never accept it for what it is."
Rains said prosecutors backed out of an agreement to let Bonds review documents pertaining to the case before he was called to testify. Instead, they confronted the slugger in an attempt to get him to lie under oath, Rains said.
Rains described Anderson and Bonds as close friends who had been training together for about the last four years.
"Greg knew what Barry's demands were," Rains said. "This is Barry's best friend in the world. Barry trusted him. He trusts him today. He trusts that he never got anything illegal from Greg Anderson."
He also maintained that Bonds testified truthfully before the grand jury.
Giants spokesman Blake Rhodes said the team wouldn't comment and directed all questions to the commissioner's office.
Tony Serra, Anderson's lawyer, said Anderson "never knowingly provided illegal substances to anyone."
The Chronicle story was the latest development this week in the more-than-yearlong BALCO probe. On Thursday, the paper reported that Yankees slugger Jason Giambi told the grand jury he injected himself with human growth hormone in 2003 and also used steroids for at least three seasons.
Giambi's reported testimony might lead the New York club to terminate his $120 million contract and allow baseball commissioner Bud Selig to discipline him.
Even before the Bonds story was published, U.S. Attorney Kevin Ryan said his office was concerned about the leaks to the Chronicle and asked the Justice Department to investigate.
Also, ABC News and ESPN the Magazine released excerpts of interviews with Victor Conte, in which the BALCO founder says he saw Olympic track star Marion Jones inject herself in the leg with human growth hormone. Jones' attorneys denied she ever used performance-enhancing drugs. Conte's interview with ABC's "20/20" program airs Friday night.
The head of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge, said he was aware of Conte's allegations.
"I hope the truth will emerge," Rogge said yesterday in Dubrovnik, Croatia, where he is attending a meeting of the European Olympic Committees. "We want the truth. We want to know what happened and the more we know the better."
Dozens of elite athletes testified before the grand jury last year, including baseball stars Bonds, Giambi and Gary Sheffield, and track stars Jones, Tim Montgomery and Kelli White.
The probe led to some athletes being banned from the Olympics and left a cloud of suspicion over others, such as Jones, who were allowed to compete despite the investigation.
White, the world-champion sprinter who acknowledged using banned substances and was suspended in May for two years, said the doping culture in sports is so pervasive that she felt compelled to cheat.
"I have no clue what it's going to take to change that," she told reporters Thursday in a tearful interview.
White tested positive in August 2003 for modafinil, a prescription stimulant, and at the time said she took it to combat narcolepsy. She admitted Thursday that the sleeping disorder explanation was "a story Victor told me to use."
She said she used so many substances from Conte that she developed acne and a raspy voice, and menstruated for a week every other week for two months.
Of all the implicated athletes, Bonds is the biggest star, the holder of baseball's single-season home run record of 73 in 2001 and the man who could break Hank Aaron's career homer mark of 755 as early as next year.
Bonds ended last season with 703 homers and won his record seventh Most Valuable Player award. It is uncertain whether these admissions will taint his legacy.
It is uncertain what punishment, if any, Bonds could receive from baseball, which didn't have penalties for steroid use until last year.
While discipline is spelled out for positive tests and criminal convictions from 2003 on, admission of illegal steroid use is not addressed, possibly giving Selig an opening to punish Bonds.
