March 02, 2004
Balco Breaks Bigger
The Balco steriods story has just broken bigger, with the San Francisco Chronicle reporting that Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi, Gary Sheffield, Marvin Bernard, Benito Santiago and Bill Romanowski all apparently having received steroids through Bonds' longtime friend and personal trainer, Greg Anderson.
Anderson allegedly obtained a so-called designer steroid known as "the clear" and a testosterone-based steroid known as "the cream" from BALCO and supplied the substances to all six baseball players, the government was told. In addition, Bonds was said to have received human growth hormone, a powerful substance that legally cannot be distributed without a prescription, investigators were told.
But what's different this time, is the tenor of the denials coming from a number of the athletes involved with the accusations:
Sheffield's attorney Paula Canny said, "Gary Sheffield has never knowingly ingested a steroid ... and Gary Sheffield has never knowingly applied an anabolic steroid cream to his body."
Santiago's attorney, David Cornwell, declined specific comment but said: "Based on my involvement in this matter, I know that many of the athletes involved did not know they were being given a banned substance."
Anna Ling, an attorney for Anderson, said the trainer had "never knowingly given any illegal substance to anybody."
That's a significant change, and one that I've written about before. Stay tuned.
UPDATE: Jason Scavone sees some humor in all this, and he's right. Dave Pinto wants more proof.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Drudge is fronting the Chronicle piece. ESPN.com's Daily Quickie points out the non-denial, denial line that Shefflield and Santiago are are hewing to. Hold on tight.
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» Naming Names from Baseball Musings
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Sheffied, Bonds, Giambi, Santiago, Marvin Benard and Randy Velarde all received steroids. The baseball stars allegedly got the illegal performance-enhancing drugs from the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative throug... [Read More]
Tracked on March 2, 2004 09:58 AM
» Word Smiths from Transition Game
Off Wing Opinion makes a good observation about the denials this time: ...what's different this time, is the tenor of the denials coming from a number of the athletes involved with the accusations: Sheffield's attorney Paula Canny said, "Gary Sheffield... [Read More]
Tracked on March 2, 2004 10:18 AM
06:58 AM