Gold Member Username: Naledge503Http://com4.runboard.c... Post Number: 2184 Registered: Jun-06 | 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. Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3112487 |
Gold Member Username: Naledge503Http://com4.runboard.c... Post Number: 2188 Registered: Jun-06 | OH SH!T...and his trainer Greg Anderson got released today. Coincidence??? |
Platinum Member Username: WingmanaliveA pic is worth 1000 posts!! Post Number: 11076 Registered: Jun-06 | I'm picking myself up after being knocked off my feet with shock. Full circle guys. Full circle. |
Gold Member Username: Naledge503Http://com4.runboard.c... Post Number: 2190 Registered: Jun-06 | I felt it wasnt a coincidence at first but then I got to thinking. They had to release him because he was being held for contempt. The feds got their indictment so they dont need his testimony. |
Gold Member Username: Nyyfan13Fi SSD USA Post Number: 6996 Registered: Jul-06 | looks like someones a snitch....good to see this, bonds is a little b1tch, er big b1tch thanks to the roids lol |
Platinum Member Username: LklivesPost Number: 13626 Registered: Jan-06 | Nobody likes a rat...and U can bet Anderson finally dropped a dime....Nothing worse than a rat!...one who was actually involved and smokes his buds to save his own azz....lower than whale spe*rm As far as Bonds goes..if there is undeniable proof that he was knowingly involved, then strip his records, kick him out of baseball, and lock him up for perjury, just like anybody else..U wanna dance U got to pay the fiddler... |
Platinum Member Username: WingmanaliveA pic is worth 1000 posts!! Post Number: 11082 Registered: Jun-06 | Ya think the league will do that? And open THAT can of worms? Good debate. |
Gold Member Username: Denali_on_22sYou can call me Scroog... Post Number: 3078 Registered: Feb-06 | glad you finally realize that bonds sucks LK... HELL YEAH, F*CK YEAH! |
Gold Member Username: The_image_dynamicSan Diego Post Number: 3086 Registered: Dec-06 | It is a start, and this will end his baseball career because nobody will sign him with this out in the open now and hanging over his head. Giambi walked because he had the balls to tell the truth. Something to be said about that. Number of years he will spend in jail for this potentially thirty year crime? One, at absolute most, in a federal pound you in the ass prison. O.J. and Barry, sittin' in a tree... |
Platinum Member Username: WingmanaliveA pic is worth 1000 posts!! Post Number: 11084 Registered: Jun-06 | Lol. |
Platinum Member Username: LklivesPost Number: 13631 Registered: Jan-06 | I never "realized" that Bonds sucks..I never said that..he is a great athelete.. and IF convicted, he will go to a federal "camp", not a prison, like Camp Allentown Pa, or Danbury CT.. since its a non violent crime..and they aren't that bad, with tennis, baseball, basketball, outdoor freedoms etc..and 1 year is all that it deserves...he didn't shoot anybody or injure anybody... |
Gold Member Username: Nyyfan13Fi SSD USA Post Number: 6999 Registered: Jul-06 | lets be serious, bonds is one of the biggest names in sports....dude wont get anything....months at the most....hes a joke, career is over now....just in time for A-Rod, who is a yankee once again, to come and break his record....honestly, MLB wont have to suspend him or anything cause he'll have to retire this offseason now due to this....i must say, if MLB does not strip him of his records, then thats an embarrassment to baseball and all of sports |
Platinum Member Username: Bestmankind-apem Post Number: 15710 Registered: Oct-05 | the dude is a piece of sh!t. yes he is a great athlete with or without steroids but still a piece of sh!t in my book. |
Gold Member Username: Denali_on_22sYou can call me Scroog... Post Number: 3081 Registered: Feb-06 | sucks as a person is what i meant LK, and he would't own the HR record without his roid use |
Gold Member Username: PitbullguyAscendant Audio Arsenals, Chicago Post Number: 2200 Registered: Oct-06 | why would you strip him of his records? whether or not he's a decent person has nothing to do with baseball. |
Gold Member Username: Denali_on_22sYou can call me Scroog... Post Number: 3087 Registered: Feb-06 | have u seen sportscenter or even read anything in the thread you just replied to hahahaha |
Gold Member Username: Nyyfan13Fi SSD USA Post Number: 7005 Registered: Jul-06 | "why would you strip him of his records? whether or not he's a decent person has nothing to do with baseball." uhhh....sportscenter ftw....espn.com ftw....basically any website right now ftw |
Gold Member Username: PitbullguyAscendant Audio Arsenals, Chicago Post Number: 2202 Registered: Oct-06 | "uhhh....sportscenter ftw....espn.com ftw....basically any website right now ftw" rotfl. My bad I thought he was just being indicted for lying and/or not cooperating with the feds or w/e. All i meant was i don't really give a sh!t about anything he does other than whether or not he took steroids/hgh. If they can prove beyond any doubt that he did take those during his career, then sure strip the records. |
Platinum Member Username: LklivesPost Number: 13638 Registered: Jan-06 | U know the key to these charges and allegations is "INTENT"...thats what will determine the outcome of this..if he didn't realize these cremes were steroids and actually believed they were for arthritis and a simple pain reliever, he may be innocent unless there's more to it..and its very simple to get a grand jury indictment, which really may mean nothing in the end....lets see how this plays out....we all are just speculating at this point...and the media will write and twist whatever they want to sell newspapers or air time.. |
Gold Member Username: PitbullguyAscendant Audio Arsenals, Chicago Post Number: 2207 Registered: Oct-06 | very well said Lk. as for my previous post I missworded what i was trying to say...when i say stip the records i don't mean literally take his stats away. You can't do that, it wouldn't make any sense. If you erase his HR's from the records, what about his hits? his walks? his outs? the pitchers who gave up the hits/hr's/walks etc. Not to mention all the wins/losses that were effected by his numbers. Stats are mathematical, for every stat there's a counter-stat, and they're dependent on each other. What he SHOULD lose is respect, the honor of having people acknowledge him as the home run king, and eligibility for the hall of fame. |
Gold Member Username: Denali_on_22sYou can call me Scroog... Post Number: 3089 Registered: Feb-06 | he failed a balco drug test... nail in the coffin... his homeruns should not be acknowledged as credible... hank aaron should still have the record in his name, bonds shouldn't have his homerun commemorated in the hall, and bonds should be BANNED from the hall and baseball... |
Platinum Member Username: LklivesPost Number: 13642 Registered: Jan-06 | the media says that..where U there and witnessed it?...have U ever dealt with the media?...they're vultures, and fabricate everything!...maybe u don't remember the body counts in Nam, or their many other lies! |
Platinum Member Username: WingmanaliveA pic is worth 1000 posts!! Post Number: 11087 Registered: Jun-06 | Personally I just don't like the man's demeaner. He gave his own fans the cold shoulder. Refused to sign autographs, cold and unfriendly. Yeah the media will put anyone who is under the spotlight through their paces. It's part of the game today. I feel he thought he was above the eyes of baseball and eventually the federal courts. Ask Mike Vick, Pete Rose, or Darryl Strawberry how that goes. |
Gold Member Username: HdubbTeam Revolution Post Number: 2885 Registered: Nov-04 | why did it have to go to steriods...why couldnt they just be like darryl strawberry and do some coke before the game lol. as far as bonds this was a long time coming.... |
Gold Member Username: Nyyfan13Fi SSD USA Post Number: 7031 Registered: Jul-06 | "the media says that..where U there and witnessed it?...have U ever dealt with the media?...they're vultures, and fabricate everything!...maybe u don't remember the body counts in Nam, or their many other lies!" so are they just fabricating the story that hes gonna turn himself in today? do you honestly think he didnt use steroids? |
Platinum Member Username: LklivesPost Number: 13687 Registered: Jan-06 | turning himself in, has nothing to do with this.. honestly, I dunno, if he did or didn't use steroids...in this day and age its really not that hard to bulk up with proper training, trainers, equipment, and specific dieting...we all know some people personally who have doubled their size without the use of roids.. |
Gold Member Username: Denali_on_22sYou can call me Scroog... Post Number: 3109 Registered: Feb-06 | he failed a balco drug test, lk... let it go man... bonds is a cheater and now he's going to jail for it... f*ck him |