Report: Bonds' drug sample from 2003 exists

[BengalszoneBilly]

Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The samples from drug tests taken last year by Barry Bonds and six other baseball players have not been destroyed and can be retested to determine if the players used a designer drug at the center of an alleged steroid-distribution ring, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The seven players in question testified before a grand jury last year and investigators had been seeking the results from the drug tests. It was believed that only written reports existed, but the newspaper reported on its Web site Friday night that four sources with knowledge of the subpoena process said the actual urine samples remained and could be retested.

That would allow investigators to determine whether the players used THG, which was allegedly given to athletes by the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative.

Bonds' personal trainer, Greg Anderson, was among four men indicted last month on charges of illegally supplying performance-enhancing drugs from BALCO. All four pleaded innocent.

"I don't have any concerns that this would be legally significant to Barry," Bonds' attorney, Michael Rains, told The Chronicle.

The other players who testified before the grand jury were Gary Sheffield, Jason Giambi, Jeremy Giambi, Benito Santiago, Armando Rios and Bobby Estalella.

The subpoenas for the tests are due to be returned next Thursday, however the baseball's union and management are expected to try to challenge them because the tests were supposed to be confidential.

Last month, the union and management agreed to put THG on the list of banned substances. The Food and Drug Administration ruled Oct. 28 that it is an illegal drug. Because baseball and other sports did not know about THG before last October, drug testing was unable to detect it.

Last year's drug testing was done on a survey basis to see if steroid use was widespread enough to warrant testing with punishment this season. Between 5 and 7 percent of tests were positive, which led to a drug plan with discipline being instituted this season.

The grand jury subpoenaed all documents and materials related to the tests before they could be destroyed, as mandated under the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

[kevnz]

TEST IT!!!!

Test it for every thing, and if he's not clean take his homerum record away and kick him out of baseball for life!

[BengalszoneBilly]

if he's not clean take his homerum record away and kick him out of baseball for life!

What do you mean "IF"! Look at the freak! He's been juicing for YEARS!!

[richmond_mat]

If I were a betting man, I'd wager that the samples will NEVER be retested. At least the public will never hear the truth.

Why does it matter anyway?

[BengalszoneBilly]

Why does it matter anyway?

It matters to me because IMHO what Barry and his bretheren have done to baseball FAR outweighs what Pete Rose did, and look at the flak Pete got!! Pete's betting on the Reds to WIN (and that's ALL he did!) did absolutely NO physical damage to the game whatsoever, (Yes Josh...I know you're gonna disagree) whereas these juiced players have absolutely wrecked the record books of the game for all time! Un-f**cking-believable the hypocrisy of MLB these days!!

I know it's Opening Day tomorrow...but I had to vent.

[The Brew Man]

Bonds on the juice, head big as a moose!

[The Brew Man]

Major League Baseball says it won't retest samples for THG 

  April 5, 2004

SportsLine.com wire reports   

 

  SAN FRANCISCO -- Major League Baseball will not retest the approximately 500 samples remaining from last year's drug tests for the steroid THG, a baseball official said Monday.

Results of the drug tests on Barry Bonds and several other players are being sought by federal prosecutors probing a San Francisco-area nutritional supplements lab. It is not clear if the samples for Bonds and those other players are among the ones that still exist.

The urine samples were taken from players last year as part of baseball's effort to determine the scope of steroid use. When more than 5 percent of samples showed evidence of steroids, new regulations -- including punishments -- were imposed beginning this season.

"There will be no effort by Major League Baseball to retest the samples because our agreement (with the players' union) does not allow it," said Rob Manfred, baseball's executive vice president for labor relations.

Two samples were taken from each of the more than 1,400 major league players last season. Most were destroyed, but about 500 were saved when a grand jury in San Francisco issued a subpoena for baseball's drug tests.

Since two tests were taken on each major leaguer, the surviving tests could have come from as few as 250 players -- and as many as 500.

The steroid tests did not check for THG, which was undetectable until last summer. Officials did not know of THG's existence when the baseball tests were carried out last season. THG is at the center of the federal probe.

The tests were supposed to remain anonymous. But Manfred said the subpoena seeks urine samples and paperwork showing drug-test results from Bonds, Gary Sheffield, Jason Giambi and a handful of other players as part of the federal probe into the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative.

Bonds, Sheffield and Giambi, all of whom have denied steroid use, testified before the grand jury probing BALCO.

The subpoena demands that the material be turned over to federal prosecutors in San Francisco by this Thursday. Manfred would not comment on whether Major League Baseball will try to block the material from being given to prosecutors.

Gene Orza, chief operating officer of the players' association, could not be reached Monday for comment on whether the union will try to quash the subpoena.

Baseball's steroid tests were carried out by Comprehensive Drug Testing of Long Beach, Calif., and Quest Diagnostics of Teterboro, N.J.

The steroids probe has led to charges against four men: BALCO founder Victor Conte, BALCO vice president James Valente, track coach Remi Korchemny and Greg Anderson, the personal trainer for Bonds. All have pleaded innocent to being part of an alleged ring that distributed steroids to professional athletes.

Dozens of athletes testified as part of the probe. No athlete has been charged.

Also on Monday, commissioner Bud Selig said Major League Baseball should adopt the policy for steroids and other drugs used by the minor leagues.

Selig stood by his decision to not push for a stronger drug policy in the last contract bargaining talks with the players' association, saying he did not want to jeopardize those talks and risk a work stoppage. Now, he said, baseball must take a tougher stance.

"It clearly is a health issue," Selig told reporters at the Milwaukee-St. Louis game. "It's clearly an integrity issue for the game. It clearly affects a lot of ways the game is played and therefore we need it.

"There's no beating around the bush. That's just the way it is. It's a problem. I've said it's a problem. You can't let anything besmirch the game."

[BengalszoneBilly]

Uh-oh again Barry!

______________________________________________________________________________

IRS seizes MLB drug test results

SAN FRANCISCO -- Federal authorities probing an alleged steroid distribution ring have seized the results and samples of drug tests on selected Major League Baseball players from a drug-testing lab, a spokesman for the lab said Friday.

Internal Revenue Service agents served a search warrant to obtain "documentation and specimens" from a Quest Diagnostics lab in Las Vegas, Quest spokesman Gary Samuels said.

Samuels would not say whether IRS agents took the drug-test results or specimen of Barry Bonds, but said the agents took materials consistent with a federal subpoena that had sought test results and specimens from the San Francisco Giants' slugger and fewer than a dozen other players. Among them were New York Yankees Gary Sheffield and Jason Giambi.

The raid occurred Thursday, shortly after the Major League Baseball Players Association filed a motion in a San Francisco court seeking to squash that subpoena.

IRS spokesman Mark Lessler and U.S. Attorney's spokeswoman Ji-Yon Yi both said Friday they could not comment.

Samuels said the IRS agents served the search warrant on the Quest lab after obtaining a coded list from California-based Comprehensive Drug Testing that matched players to the results and the samples.

Teterboro, N.J.-based Quest and Comprehensive Drug Testing, of Long Beach, did the tests last year for Major League Baseball, which was trying to determine the prevalence of steroid use among players. When more than 5 percent of those tests came back positive, the major leagues began a new testing program this season that includes punishments for those caught using steroids.

The tests were supposed to remain anonymous. But a federal grand jury in San Francisco that issued indictments in February against four men for allegedly distributing steroids to professional athletes sought the results as part of its probe.

One of those indicted Feb. 12 was Greg Anderson, the personal trainer for Bonds -- who, along with Sheffield, Giambi and dozens of other pro athletes, testified before the grand jury.

The grand jury's probe focuses on the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative and has led to charges against four men: BALCO founder Victor Conte, BALCO vice president James Valente, track coach Remi Korchemny and Anderson. All have pleaded innocent and are free on bail.

Bonds, Sheffield and Giambi have not been charged in the case and repeatedly have denied using steroids.

Rob Manfred, baseball's executive vice president for labor relations, said Monday that approximately 500 urine samples remain from last year's drug tests. He could not say if samples for Bonds, Sheffield, Giambi and the other players named in the subpoena are among that batch.

Two samples were taken from each of the more than 1,400 major league players last season. Most were destroyed, but about 500 were saved when the grand jury issued its subpoena.

Since two tests were taken on each player, the surviving tests could have come from as few as 250 players -- or as many as 500.

______________________________________________________________________________

With the report passing through this many hands, something is bound to leak out, especially from a government agency!