Bonds, Giambi, others subpoenaed in steroid investigation

Drake Tungsten · October 21, 2003, 11:32

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New York Yankees first baseman Jason Giambi is among the players subpoenaed by a federal grand jury investigating a company that prescribes nutritional supplements for elite athletes.

Giambi is among the 40 big-name athletes -- Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants and world-class sprinter Kelli White included -- who have been asked to testify in the budding steroid scandal.

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Burlingame (Calif.)-based BALCO, whose clients also include Oakland Raiders linebacker Bill Romanowski and sprinters Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery, was raided last month by agents of the Internal Revenue Service and a San Mateo County narcotics task force.

Also raided was the home of Greg Anderson, a personal trainer for Bonds.

Authorities have refused to discuss the case, and the focus of the grand jury is unclear. Officials with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, however, have said that earlier this year, a coach sent them a syringe containing the designer steroid tetrahydrogestrinone, or THG, that the coach said he got from Conte.

Conte has denied being the source of the substance in the syringe.

"In my opinion, this is about jealous competitive coaches and athletes that all have a history of promoting and using performance-enhancing agents being completely hypocritical in their actions," he said.

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Conte told the San Jose Mercury News and The Chronicle that seven professional football players and five Major League Baseball players were among those compelled to testify in hearings on the West Coast that are expected to begin this week.

In the June issue of Muscle & Fitness magazine, Bonds enthused about Conte's physical fitness regimen and nutritional advice, saying, "I'm just shocked by what they've been able to do for me."

The doping scandal erupted earlier this week when news broke that three track and field athletes who flunked drug tests had been subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury that is investigating what one anti-doping official calls "an international doping conspiracy."

The three athletes were tested at the U.S. Track & Field Nationals in Palo Alto, Calif., in June and one of the athletes was a client of BALCO. The controversial nutritionist boasts of a roster of professional and Olympic sports stars as customers, and one source close to the case said Thursday that "the names I've heard are some of the biggest names in sports."

"I know of no other drug bust that is larger than this involving the number of athletes involved," anti-doping official Terry Madden, director of the U.S Anti-Doping Agency, told The Associated Press on Friday. He refused to reveal the names or genders of the athletes, or to be more specific about how many had tested positive.

On Thursday, Madden identified Conte as the alleged supplier of the previously undetected steroid THG, which was detected in the three athletes.

"What we have uncovered appears to be intentional doping of the worst sort," Madden said during a news conference. He called the case "a conspiracy involving chemists, coaches and certain athletes to defraud their competitors, and the American and world public who pay to attend sporting events."

http://espn.go.com/oly/news/2003/1020/1642261.html

Does this mean Bonds is finally going to get caught for steroid abuse? I sure hope so; it was really embarassing when MLB looked the other way and played up the home-run record chase of such an obviously doped up individual. Hopefully he gets the record stripped from him.

It would warm my heart if Romo went down as well.

Kropotkin · October 21, 2003, 11:36

USA, the DDR of the 21th century.

Drake Tungsten · October 21, 2003, 11:38

Jesus, can't you take your trolling somewhere else? I don't go and say absurd things in your threads about curling or whatever gay sport you guys play...

Q Classic · October 21, 2003, 11:44

when i saw ddr first, i didn't think deutsche demokratische republik.

i thought dance dance revolution.

Arrian · October 21, 2003, 12:26

It's not immediately clear what the supenoa is all about. What testimony does the court want from Bonds, Giambi, et al?

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Authorities have refused to discuss the case, and the focus of the grand jury is unclear. Officials with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, however, have said that earlier this year, a coach sent them a syringe containing the designer steroid tetrahydrogestrinone, or THG, that the coach said he got from Conte.

Giambi is the one guy on the Yankees who looks like he's on 'roids.

-Arrian

Q Classic · October 21, 2003, 12:28

are they getting mcgwire for the andro---- that he was taking?

Drake Tungsten · October 21, 2003, 12:49

Andro isn't a steroid, as far as I know. Odds are McGwire was probably on the juice as well, though, but it's probably too late to catch him. It's really a shame that Maris lost his record to men who were probably cheating their ass off.

vlad · October 21, 2003, 13:18

Yeah but in the days of Maris and Mantle they took amphetamines like they were candy and some in the early sixties were already taking anabolic steroids.
The testimony will actually not be really about them taking the steroids, but about the company they dealt with, Balco, run by Victor Conte. Baseball still has little to no steroid testing done, only if they have a problem player. The baseball union is pretty strong on the testing issues, probably because most baseball players take some type of supplemnets and they want to keep it that way.

Drake Tungsten · October 21, 2003, 13:25

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Baseball still has little to no steroid testing done, only if they have a problem player.

Wouldn't Bonds qualify as a "problem player"? It's completely obvious that he's on steroids, yet nothing's ever done about it. Makes me lose a lot of respect for baseball and I sure I'm not the only one.

vlad · October 21, 2003, 13:34

Well problem means they are attacking other players, beating their wife, puking all day etc etc, the kinds of things you would expect from a drug addict or drunk. It's pretty hard to find a problem with someone putting into their body anything that naturally occurs in a greater amount when they are younger such as testosterone or growth hormone and makes them feel better, produce more and in general keep them healthier for the short term. Funny thing is people get on athletes cases when they use them, but no one complains when everyone in Hollywood uses them, presidents use them, playboy models use them etc etc We as ticket buyers and stats players and tv watchers insist on being entertained more and more by our athletes, which is why they get paid more and need to become more like machines and less like humans with weaknesses and faults. It's an endless cycle. For now it's still drugs and super substances, next it will be genes and DNA improvements, which will lead to 80 homeruns, .400 average, 400 Ks, and perhaps even more importantly someone as hot as Anna Kournikova winning a tennis title

Drake Tungsten · October 21, 2003, 13:41

Daniela Hantuchova: hot as hell and actually a good tennis player.

vlad · October 21, 2003, 13:45

I think she needs some steroids to bulk up a bit though, on the skinny side. I guess a few years of winning will fatten her up a bit, as long as she doesn't pig out like Monica Seles did

Arrian · October 21, 2003, 13:51

She's scary skinny.

There was a Russian girl at the US Open this year, though... lost to Capriati I think... what the hell was her name?

Ah-hah, gottta love the internet: Elena Demetieva.

-Arrian

vlad · October 21, 2003, 13:58

Wow she has some hearty legs on her, very eastern european looking, mmm I like that LMAO

Drake Tungsten · October 21, 2003, 13:58

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She's scary skinny.

She'd be pretty normal over here, actually. Japan may be skewing my thought processes a bit.

As for Elena Dementieva, I'm just not seeing it. She's got a decent bod, but her face ain't the greatest. No competition for Kournikova, at any rate.

Arrian · October 21, 2003, 14:01

I'll agree: it's the body, not the face. I was up in the upper deck of the main stadium, so my best views of her were on the big screen (still far off). You can judge body from there, but not face. Still, she looks like an attractive athelete, as opposed to a model trying to play a sport (Anna).

Don't get me started about asian women.

My girlfriend is beautiful and I love her.
My girlfriend is beautiful and I love her.
My girlfriend is beautiful and I love her.
My girlfriend is beautiful and I love her.
My girlfriend is beautiful and I love her.
My girlfriend is beautiful and I love her.
My girlfriend is beautiful and I love her.

Ok, I'm better now.

-Arrian

Drake Tungsten · October 21, 2003, 14:04

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Don't get me started about asian women.

Don't get me started. Talk about taking subtlety to ridiculous and impossible to understand extremes...

Drake Tungsten · October 21, 2003, 14:05

BTW, isn't it great how skillfully I jacked my own thread?

vlad · October 21, 2003, 14:07

Well having been engaged to a russian woman for a few years and spending time over there I sure have an attraction to that style of look. Asian women are not my fancy, although living here on Vancouver Island I see my share of pretty ones. I guess for most men it's putting a beautiful face on top of an athletic body that we find so attractive, yet when it really comes down to it we wouldn't want to be with a woman that has to train 10 hours a day and earns millions while we sit around and get fat, ummmmmmm hmmm let me rethink that

Arrian · October 21, 2003, 14:11

Excellent threadjack, yeah, but vlad started it.

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Don't get me started. Talk about taking subtlety to ridiculous and impossible to understand extremes...

I'd be useless over there, then. "Subtle" and me don't mix. I'm capable of missing the blatantly obvious, let alone the subtle.

They're hot, though.

****. My girlfriend is beautiful and I love her....

-Arrian

Drake Tungsten · October 21, 2003, 14:14

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They're hot, though.

True. That's not such a good thing when a lot of them are your students, however.

Arrian · October 21, 2003, 14:15

Japanese schoolgirls, eh? Uniforms and all?

Be strong, Drake. Be strong.

-Arrian

Kropotkin · October 21, 2003, 14:18

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Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
Jesus, can't you take your trolling somewhere else? I don't go and say absurd things in your threads about curling or whatever gay sport you guys play...

Hey, you little *****. Who's the ****ing troll here? As you might have, or might not have, noticed. This is not just about athletes in 'american' sports so that has nothing to do with it. Keli White, Tim Montgomery and Marion Jones etc. The sports organizations in the US has a number of times shown a lack of effort to do anything about things like this. They are hardly alone with this attitude but a serious will from the US is vital to establish some damn order and control over this. As it is now, every damn athlete is using illegal drugs to get their results.

Drake Tungsten · October 21, 2003, 14:19

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Japanese schoolgirls, eh? Uniforms and all?

Yes.

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Be strong, Drake. Be strong.

I've been resisting it pretty well so far. They're getting more bold, however, which could complicate matters. Had my ass grabbed the other day, which was both flattering and extremely, extremely akward...

Drake Tungsten · October 21, 2003, 14:22

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Keli White, Tim Montgomery and Marion Jones etc.

All Americans, so it's none of your business. I'll ask for your opinion when Sven Gustafson gets busted for cheating in the reindeer races.

Kropotkin · October 21, 2003, 14:26

None of my business? As far as I can see it, it's as much my business as it's your business. Unless you're actually a professional athlete that has lost because of this. Something I really doubt. They're going over all the tests from that little competition in Paris this summer that did involve a little more than the US because of this.

Drake Tungsten · October 21, 2003, 14:31

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Unless you're actually a professional athlete that has lost because of this.

Actually, I was defeated by Marion Jones at the World Championships last year, so it's very much my business. Despite my burning hatred for Jones, however, I still don't want you silly foreigners butting into what is a matter for us U.S. athletes to deal with. Go back to your snowshoe races and let us deal with this.

Kropotkin · October 21, 2003, 14:35

I don't give much for what you want, silly foreigner.

I don't like cheaters, no matter the country. But It's one thing when it's in Russia or some other backward country. The US should be able to do better than they are. The world of sports is full of cheating like this, but the people in charge look the other way. That my short comment makes you mad is not my problem. If you post it here you'd expect 'international' comments.

Arrian · October 21, 2003, 14:40

The threadjack was more fun.

-Arrian

Drake Tungsten · October 21, 2003, 14:40

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That my short comment makes you mad is not my problem.

I'm not mad. I just like making fun of morons who compare the U.S. with East Germany. Now begone, Eurocommie!