steroids-Bonds Giambi,Sheffield

Bonds got steroids, feds were told
Slugger's trainer said to have given substances to several athletes

Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, Chronicle Staff Writers © 2004 San
Francisco Chronicle
Tuesday, March 2, 2004


San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds, New York Yankees stars Jason
Giambi and Gary Sheffield and three other major league baseball players
received steroids from a Burlingame nutritional supplement lab, federal
investigators were told.

The baseball stars allegedly got the illegal performance-enhancing drugs
from the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative through Greg Anderson, Bonds'
personal weight trainer and longtime friend, according to information
furnished the government and shared with The Chronicle.

In addition to Bonds, Giambi and Sheffield, the other baseball players said
to have received steroids from BALCO via Anderson were two former Giants,
outfielder Marvin Benard and catcher Benito Santiago, and a former A's
second baseman, Randy Velarde.

Oakland Raiders linebacker Bill Romanowski also was said to have received
performance-enhancing drugs.

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.

Agents obtained the information about the baseball players and illegal drugs
last September during a probe that resulted in the indictment of Anderson,
BALCO owner Victor Conte and two other Bay Area men on steroid conspiracy
charges.

The information shared with The Chronicle did not explicitly state that the
athletes had used the drugs they were said to have obtained. Bonds, who is
baseball's single-season home-run king, and Giambi, who won the American
League Most Valuable Player award when he was with the Oakland Athletics,
have publicly denied using steroids. So has Sheffield. All three declined to
discuss the matter Monday.

Last week, attorneys for Anderson and Conte quoted their clients as saying
Bonds had never used illegal drugs.

The information about Bonds provided to The Chronicle was corroborated by a
source familiar with Anderson. The source told The Chronicle that the weight
trainer had obtained steroids and human growth hormone for Bonds dating back
to the 2001 season. That was the year the Giants outfielder broke baseball's
storied single-season record for home runs -- hitting 73.

"We continue to adamantly deny that Barry was provided, furnished or
supplied any of those substances at any time by Greg Anderson," Michael
Rains, an attorney for Bonds, said Monday. He also questioned the
credibility of the source familiar with the trainer.

Other attorneys interviewed Monday answered in the same vein.

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."

Velarde did not respond to requests for comment. Benard could not be
reached.

Investigators also were told that pro football player Romanowski had
allegedly obtained both steroids and human growth hormone from BALCO.
Romanowski was one of the early big-name boosters of Conte and his legal
supplements, and the linebacker helped draw other elite athletes to BALCO.
In 1999, Colorado court records show that Romanowski's wife, Julie, told
investigators that the linebacker had obtained human growth hormone from
BALCO. An attorney for Romanowski didn't return a reporter's phone call.

Bonds, Giambi, Sheffield, Santiago and Romanowski were among more than 30 of
the world's greatest athletes -- stars of baseball, football, boxing and
track and field -- who testified last year before the San Francisco federal
grand jury that investigated BALCO and handed up the steroid conspiracy
indictments.

The names of Benard and Velarde have never before surfaced in connection
with the steroid investigation, which has roiled the upcoming 2004 Olympic
Games in Athens and, increasingly, the world of American professional sports
as well.

The probe began making worldwide headlines last October, after the head of
the agency that administers drug tests to U.S. Olympians alleged that Conte
and BALCO were at the center of an international sports doping scandal.

The scandal attracted the attention of President Bush, a former owner of the
Texas Rangers, who in his State of the Union address in January denounced
steroid abuse in baseball and football. Then, on Feb. 12, U.S. Attorney
General John Ashcroft convened a nationally televised press conference in
Washington to announce the 42-count indictment against Anderson, Conte,
famed track coach Remi Korchemny and BALCO Vice President James Valente.

The men are charged with conspiring to distribute performance-enhancing
drugs, including human growth hormone and a newly created steroid called THG
that allegedly had been designed to help elite athletes pass doping tests.

All four men have pleaded not guilty.

Ashcroft vowed to crack down on steroid abuse, saying it threatens the
integrity of sports and "fosters a destructive culture contrary to the
values that make sports such an important part of American life."

But even as it promised to get tough on steroids, the government took
unusual steps to turn the focus away from the elite athletes suspected of
using the illegal substances that BALCO allegedly supplied. Early on, the
government said it was not interested in prosecuting athletes for using
steroids, instead granting them immunity when they were called to testify
before the grand jury.

The government also has deleted from public court files the names of every
athlete who allegedly obtained illegal performance-enhancing drugs from
BALCO.

Court records show that agents of the Internal Revenue Service and Food and
Drug Administration had been investigating BALCO and Conte for 18 months
when they served search warrants on the lab and on Anderson's Burlingame
condominium Sept. 3. That was when agents were told the names of athletes
said to have been provided the illegal drugs.

In affidavits that don't name the athletes, investigators allege that
Anderson was the link between the baseball players and their source of
illegal steroids at BALCO. The indictment alleges that on two occasions,
once in November 2001 and another time in November 2002, Anderson
distributed human growth hormone to a "professional baseball player."

Agents claim that Anderson, Conte and Valente admitted their roles in
providing steroids to baseball players -- and in some cases named names.

Internal Revenue Service investigator Jeff Novitzky wrote that while agents
were searching Anderson's home on Sept. 3, the trainer allegedly told them
the names of the ballplayers to whom he had provided illegal
performance-enhancing substances.

"Anderson admitted that he had given steroids to several professional
baseball players whose names I was familiar with from my review of other
documents in this case," Novitzky wrote. Another IRS investigator, Brian
Watson, wrote that Conte, the BALCO president, had made a "confession" to
illegal steroid dealing to elite athletes. That also came on Sept. 3, after
agents had raided BALCO and Conte's San Mateo home.

Conte, the agent wrote, gave a "complete statement regarding his involvement
in knowingly, illegally, distributing steroids to numerous professional
athletes." Conte said he knew it was illegal and assumed Anderson knew that,
too, when allegedly receiving the steroids for professional baseball
players, the affidavit says.

Later, Conte is quoted as saying that in early 2003, he had given a "clear"
steroid-like substance to Anderson to give to a professional baseball
player. The agent acknowledges he was not sure whether the substance
qualified as a banned substance under federal law.

J. Tony Serra, Anderson's attorney, said last week that the affidavit
referred to a "100 percent legal" substance the weight trainer had offered
to Bonds. Bonds declined it, Serra said. Conte's attorney, Robert Holley,
couldn't be reached for comment. Last week, he told reporters that Conte
knew of "no illegal activity that has ever been done by Barry Bonds."

Anderson, 37, is a beefy former collegiate second baseman who has been
Bonds' friend since their boyhood days in the San Carlos Little League,
according to people who know the men. In 1998, the Giants star hired
Anderson as his weight trainer, and Anderson has been a presence in the
Giants' clubhouse since the team moved to Pacific Bell Park in 2000.

Anderson often conducted workouts for Bonds and other training clients at
the former World Gym near San Francisco International Airport, a few blocks
from BALCO. Conte and Anderson met through the gym. Later, the trainer
introduced Conte to Bonds.

Through Bonds, Anderson met several of the other baseball players said to
have obtained illegal substances from the trainer, according to a source who
knows the men.

Bonds befriended Giambi after the 2000 season, when Giambi, then the first
baseman for the Athletics, had won the American League Most Valuable Player
award, the source said.

After the 2002 season, Bonds and Giambi were part of a team of big leaguers
who traveled to Japan on a baseball barnstorming tour. Bonds brought
Anderson along on the trip, and the trainer got to know Giambi at that time.

Bonds also had been friendly with Sheffield since the outfielder's days with
the Florida Marlins in the 1990s. After the 2001 season, Sheffield, then
with the Atlanta Braves, moved to the Bay Area for several weeks so that he
could work out with Bonds. A source said Anderson had supervised some of the
workouts.

Anderson became acquainted with Benard and Santiago during the trainer's
visits to the Giants clubhouse, the source said.

Benard left the Giants after the 2003 season and signed a minor league
contract with the Chicago White Sox organization. Santiago also left the
Giants after 2003, signing with the Kansas City Royals. Velarde retired from
baseball in 2002.

During spring training on Monday, Bonds, Giambi and Sheffield declined to
discuss BALCO and steroids.

"You're asking me about something we don't want to discuss," Bonds said at
the Giants camp in Arizona. "... I'm tired of all these games."

At the Yankees camp in Florida, Giambi and Sheffield also declined comment.

Giambi referred to a conversation with reporters last week in which he
denied using steroids. "I addressed it,'' he said. "I've got nothing more to
say."

Sheffield also referred to his earlier statements in which he denied taking
steroids.

"The issue is done with, as far as I'm concerned," he said.

The BALCO case and its connection to some of baseball's biggest stars have
increased pressure on the sport to become more aggressive in the
commissioner's stated goal of zero tolerance toward steroids. Last year,
baseball implemented its first-ever plan to test for performance-enhancing
drugs, but the policy has been widely criticized as too soft by officials
from the Olympic movement as well as other sports governing bodies.

Contacted for comment Monday, Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig called
steroids "sinister and seductive" and said he was distressed about the
allegations about the players.

"We at Major League Baseball must strive for zero tolerance as it relates to
the use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs," Selig said in a
statement. "We will do everything in our power to get to zero tolerance as
soon as possible."

E-mail the writers at mfainaru-wada DeleteThis @sfchronicle.com and lwil
liams DeleteThis @sfchronicle.com.

Chronicle staff writers Henry Schulman in Arizona and John Shea in Florida
contributed to this report.

Page A - 1
Get 50% off home delivery of the Chronicle for 12 weeks!
©2004 San Francisco Chronicle | Feedback | FAQ