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colleyvillesooner
11/15/2007, 05:42 PM
SAN FRANCISCO -- Baseball superstar Barry Bonds was charged Thursday with perjury and obstruction of justice for allegedly lying when he said he did not use performance-enhancing drugs.

The indictment, unsealed Thursday by federal prosecutors in San Francisco, is the culmination of a four-year federal probe into whether he lied under oath to a grand jury investigating steroid use by elite athletes.

The indictment comes three months after the 43-year-old Bonds, one of the biggest names in professional sports, passed Hank Aaron to become baseball's career home run leader, his sport's most hallowed record. Bonds, who parted ways with the San Francisco Giants at the end of last season and has yet to sign with another team, also holds the game's single-season home run record of 73.

While Bonds was chasing Aaron amid the adulation of San Franciscans and the scorn of baseball fans almost everywhere else, due to his notoriously prickly personality and nagging steroid allegations, a grand jury quietly worked behind closed doors to put the finishing touches on the long-rumored indictment.

"I'm surprised," said John Burris, one of Bonds' attorneys, "but there's been an effort to get Barry for a long time. "I'm curious what evidence they have now they didn't have before."

Burris did not know of the indictment before being alerted by The Associated Press. He said he would immediately call Bonds to notify him.

The indictment charges Bonds with lying when he said that he didn't knowingly take steroids given to him by his personal trainer Greg Anderson. He also denied taking steroids at anytime in 2001 when he was pursuing the single season home-run record.

"During the criminal investigation, evidence was obtained including positive tests for the presence of anabolic steroids and other performance enhancing substances for Bonds and other athletes," the indictment reads.

He is also charged with lying that Anderson never injected him with steroids.

"Greg wouldn't do that," Bonds testified in December 2003 when asked if Anderson ever gave him any drugs that needed to be injected. "He knows I'm against that stuff."

Bonds is by far the highest-profile figure caught up in the wide-ranging government steroids investigation launched in 2002 with the raid of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative -- now infamously known as BALCO -- the Burlingame-based supplements lab at the center of a large steroids distribution ring.

Allegations of steroid use long have dogged Bonds, the son of an ex-Major Leaguer who broke into baseball with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1986 as a lithe, base-stealing outfielder. By the late 1990s he'd grown to more than 240 pounds, with his head, in particular, becoming noticeably bigger.

Bonds' physical growth was accompanied by a remarkable power surge. During the 2001 season he broke Mark McGwire's single-season home run crown, and by 2006, he'd passed Babe Ruth to move into second-place among the sport's most prolific power hitters. He will soon in all likelihood surpass Aaron's career mark of 755 homers.

Speculation of his impending indictment had mounted for more than a year. In July 2006, the U.S. attorney in San Francisco, who led the investigation, took the unusual step of going public with the probe by announcing he was handing it off to a new grand jury when the previous panel's 18-month term expired. Prosecutors are typically secretive about grand jury proceedings.

At the center of the investigation is Bonds' childhood friend and personal trainer, Greg Anderson, who spent most of the past year in a federal detention center for refusing to testify to the grand jury investigating Bonds' alleged perjury.

According to testimony obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle, Bonds testified in 2003 that he took two substances given to him by Anderson -- which he called "the cream" and "the clear" -- to soothe aches and pains and help him better recover from injuries.

The substances fit the description of steroids peddled by BALCO founder Victor Conte. But when questioned under oath by investigators, Bonds famously said he believed Anderson had given him flaxseed oil and an arthritic balm.

Investigators and the public had their doubts.

Aiming to prove Bonds a liar, prosecutors tried to compel Anderson to testify. When he refused, they jailed him for contempt.

Bonds joins a parade of defendants tied to the BALCO investigation, including Anderson, who served three months in prison and three months of home detention after pleading guilty to steroid distribution and money laundering.

Conte also served three months in prison after he pleaded guilty to steroids distribution.

Patrick Arnold, the rogue chemist who created the designer steroid THG, BALCO vice president James Valente and track coach Remi Korchemny also all also pleaded guilty. Korchemny and Valente were sentenced to probation and Arnold sent to prison for four months.

Kirk Radomski, a former New York Mets clubhouse attendant, pleaded guilty April 27 to drug and money laundering charges after federal officials said he became Major League Baseball's biggest steroids dealer after BALCO shut down.

Elite cyclist Tammy Thomas and track coach Trevor Graham have each pleaded not guilty to lying to a grand jury and federal investigators about their involvement with steroids.

Troy Ellerman, a defense attorney who represented two of the BALCO figures, pleaded guilty to leaking confidential grand jury transcripts to the San Francisco Chronicle and then denying he was the leak in court documents filed under penalty of perjury.

Dozens of other prominent athletes have been connected to BALCO, including New York Yankees slugger Jason Giambi who told the grand jury he injected steroids purchased at BALCO and Detroit Tigers outfielder Gary Sheffield who testified that Bonds introduced him to BALCO.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3112487

sooneron
11/15/2007, 06:11 PM
They gonna nail his ***!!

http://img67.imageshack.us/img67/1175/nailhisasssx4.jpg

colleyvillesooner
11/15/2007, 06:15 PM
A pictorial of his body change.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia/photo_gallery/0702/gallery.bonds.legends/content.1.html?eref=T1

SOONER STEAKER
11/15/2007, 06:22 PM
Granted his body did develope alot. But look at players who come out of HS and go to play football at major colleges. Look at their pic's from when they arrived on campus and when they leave. HUGE DIFFERENCES!!

I'm not sayig BB had some help thru chemicals, but can't the same be said of any college athlets.

Does anyne ave a pic of DJ Wolfe when he was a freshman? Comapre his pic to the way he looks now. Did DJ do some juice or was t thru hard work in the weightroom?

TexasEx4OU
11/15/2007, 06:25 PM
Dear ESPN,

In re: Barry Bonds

I'm over it.

Signed,

Ambivalent in Denver

P.S. - Screw you for preempting PTI for that exercise in redundancy.

SoonerStormchaser
11/15/2007, 06:32 PM
I hope he goes to prison and everyone forgets about him.

That is all.

1stTimeCaller
11/15/2007, 07:02 PM
Granted his body did develope alot. But look at players who come out of HS and go to play football at major colleges. Look at their pic's from when they arrived on campus and when they leave. HUGE DIFFERENCES!!

I'm not sayig BB had some help thru chemicals, but can't the same be said of any college athlets.

Does anyne ave a pic of DJ Wolfe when he was a freshman? Comapre his pic to the way he looks now. Did DJ do some juice or was t thru hard work in the weightroom?


there's a large difference between what a 19 year old's body can do on its own versus what a 35 year old's body can do on its own.

Lott's Bandana
11/15/2007, 07:43 PM
asterisk

AverageJoe
11/16/2007, 01:38 PM
Steroids are not an illegal drug. You can get them from your doctor. I am really annoyed that our taxpayer funded federal government is enforcing MLB rules. I don't like Bonds either but for Congress to open hearings about MLB Rule breaking and setting up the players to snitch on each other and then get brought up on charges from the Justice Dept. is just abuse of power. I could care less if someone lied to Congress, they lie everytime they open their mouth. They are not judges, it was not a court of law.

I am frankly disgusted at the abuse of tax payer funds this stuff represents. Our so called leaders have better things to do. MLB can afford to pay players $275million, they can clean up their own mess.

AJ

Scott D
11/16/2007, 03:26 PM
Dear ESPN,

As Peter Gammons just told you when you asked how people in baseball feel, the American public feels the same way. Outside of you jackholes, and about 12 people in San Francisco/Washington DC. Nobody gives a ****.

Sincerely,
The Populace of the United States

rubyspirit
11/16/2007, 08:55 PM
A pictorial of his body change.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia/photo_gallery/0702/gallery.bonds.legends/content.1.html?eref=T1
There's a 20+ year difference in those photos. You get older and fatter over time.

This is a total smear campaign. From the revelations of late, I wouldn't be surprise if half the MLB uses steriods.

1stTimeCaller
11/16/2007, 10:11 PM
Ahh, I see we've started on the 'Everybody else is doing it!!' excuse.

That didn't work for me when I was 6, it's not going to work for Barry now.

BarryBnds
11/18/2007, 09:10 PM
It's going to be so funny when nothing comes from these charges. When this is over the federal government will have spent more time and money than it took to catch, try, convict and put Tim McVeigh to death. Just a dose of reality.

GrapevineSooner
11/19/2007, 10:06 AM
Steroids are not an illegal drug. You can get them from your doctor.

Considering I was on an oral steroid to treat a rare childhood disease, you're right. They are legal.

So long as they're prescribed which in my case, they were. In Bonds case, they were not.


I am really annoyed that our taxpayer funded federal government is enforcing MLB rules.

Just as the brouhaha with Clinton did not directly apply to him giving a BJ to Monica, this does not directly apply to the Bonds using Steroids.

You see, he gave grand jury testimony back in 2003. The grand jury apparently found evidence to suggest he perjured himself. Hence, the indictment.

Whether you think this is a matter for the federal government to be involved in is certainly another matter of discussion. But if Bonds lied to the Grand Jury and he gets convicted because of it, he has nobody to blame but himself.

I will add this on the issue of steroid abuse by athletes:

I think Bonds probably takes more flak than he deserves.

Shawn Merriman uses steroids, serves a four game suspension, then comes back and gets a deal from Nike. Rodney Harrison also gets busted, serves his time, and that's it. And anywhere from 30 to 50 percent of baseball players have probably used 'roids as well.

Again, it doesn't make Bonds in the right for doing something that many of his colleagues were probably doing. But unless somebody comes up with evidence to suggest Roger Maris or Hank Aaron were juicing up, his all-time home run record and single season home run record mark richly deserve their asterisks.

Ike
11/19/2007, 02:06 PM
Just as the brouhaha with Clinton did not directly apply to him giving a BJ to Monica, this does not directly apply to the Bonds using Steroids.

You see, he gave grand jury testimony back in 2003. The grand jury apparently found evidence to suggest he perjured himself. Hence, the indictment.

Whether you think this is a matter for the federal government to be involved in is certainly another matter of discussion. But if Bonds lied to the Grand Jury and he gets convicted because of it, he has nobody to blame but himself.


What makes the indictment of Bonds all the more interesting is that prior to his grand jury testimony, he was given immunity, and his testimony was to be kept secret (although someone did leak it to the press). If he perjured himself under those conditions, then I think the govt should go after him.