Report: Bonds failed amphetamine test
01/12/2007 4:57 AM ET
Giants slugger initially said substance came from teammate
By Barry M. Bloom / MLB.com
NEW YORK -- Giants slugger Barry Bonds failed a test under Major League
Baseball's amphetamine policy last season, the New York Daily News reported
in Thursday's editions.
The Daily News, quoting several sources, said that Bonds tested positive and
then initially blamed the results on a substance he used that he found in the
locker of teammate Mark Sweeney. A source told MLB.com that the story is
accurate.
In a statement released on Thursday night, Bonds said he did not receive
amphetamines from Sweeney.
"I would like to address the allegations regarding Mark Sweeney. He is both
my teammate and my friend," the statement read. "He did not give me anything
whatsoever and has nothing to do with this matter, contrary to recent
reports.
"I want to express my deepest apologies especially to Mark and his family as
well as my other teammates, the San Francisco Giants organization and the
fans," he said.
Neither Bonds nor his agent, Jeff Borris, returned phone calls from MLB.com.
The Giants issued a two-paragraph statement on Thursday.
"Last night was the first time we heard of this recent accusation against
Barry Bonds," the statement said. "Under Major League Baseball's collective
bargaining agreement with Major League Baseball Players Association, clubs
are not notified after a player receives a first positive test for
amphetamines.
"The San Francisco Giants are strongly opposed to the use of performance
enhancing substances, including stimulants, by Major League players. Major
League Baseball has a strong policy in place to deal with the issue of
performance-enhancing substances. The Giants will continue to be supportive
of baseball's efforts in this area. Consistent with requirements of the Basic
Agreement, the club will have no further comment on allegations with respect
to any player's testing history."
Commissioner Bud Selig attended a Brewers event in Milwaukee on Thursday
night, but declined to talk about the report.
"I don't have any comment about Bonds," Selig said. "We have a policy, we
have a very strong amphetamine policy, and obviously everybody knows what it
is. ... The confidentiality of this matter is kept between Rob Manfred of our
staff and Michael Weiner of the player's association. Anything I know about
this I've read, and I don't know any more. There's no appropriate comment I
can make."
Bob DuPuy, Major League Baseball's president and chief operating officer,
declined to comment on the report when reached Thursday morning. MLB, in
conjunction with the Players Association, has strict rules in its Joint Drug
Policy about divulging the name of a player who tests positive, as well as
the substance involved, unless it is so stipulated in the policy.
Rich Levin, a spokesman for MLB, also said that the rules in the drug policy
precluded him from making a statement other than "under the parameters of the
drug agreement, a player (testing positive for amphetamines) goes into
counseling for a first positive test and is suspended 25 games for a second."
Under the rules for amphetamine testing, which were adopted last year, a
first positive test is supposed to remain anonymous, with the player going
into a clinical tract and subject to subsequent increased testing. A second
positive test for amphetamine use nets the release of the player's name and a
25-game suspension.
This differs from the steroids policy, which was strengthened last year, but
has been in effect in some shape or form since 2003. For steroids, MLB uses
the so-called "three strikes and you're out" approach with no anonymity
attached to a positive test. A first positive results in a 50-game
suspension, a second a 100-game suspension and the third a lifetime ban with
the ability to appeal for reinstatement after two years.
Asked whether he regretted that the amphetamines policy does not make
offenders' names public after the first positive test, Selig said he does
not.
"No," Selig said. "Amphetamines have been around for seven or eight decades,
and this is the first time, on the advice of doctors and everybody else, that
we dealt with it. But in fairness to people, it is very complicated, so I
have no second thoughts about that at all. We banned amphetamines, and we're
going to continue to monitor this all very closely.
"The important thing here is that we have a program, that program is being
administered and everybody is tested."
The report comes at a time when Bonds remains unsigned for the 2007 season,
although he has agreed in principle on the financial terms of a one-year, $16
million contract with the Giants, who are in the midst of haggling over
contract language with Bonds and eight of their other incoming free agents.
Bonds, who with 734 career home runs is just 21 shy of Hank Aaron's Major
League record of 755, is still under investigation for allegedly committing
perjury before a grand jury in 2003 that was investigating a federal break-in
at the headquarters of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO). During
the hearing, Bonds reportedly told the grand jury that he had never knowingly
used steroids.
But Greg Anderson, his former personal trainer, was one of five people
indicted by the grand jury. He subsequently pleaded guilty and served three
months in prison and three months under house arrest. Anderson is currently
back in jail for refusing on numerous occasions to testify before another
grand jury investigating whether Bonds perjured himself in the early phases
of the case. At least three grand juries are known to have been empanelled in
San Francisco to investigate BALCO and its aftermath.
In addition, the two San Francisco reporters, Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance
Williams, who printed the leaked grand jury testimony of Bonds and others who
testified in the case, are also under indictment for declining to reveal
their sources. The testimony was published at the time in the San Francisco
Chronicle and later in a book authored by the reporters entitled, "Game of
Shadows," which was released last year.
Their indictment is on appeal, but they are being threatened with jail time
if they don't reveal their sources.
Sweeney declined comment about his involvement in Bonds' amphetamine
situation, but the Daily News reported that his agent, Barry Axelrod, said
Sweeney complied with the investigation.
"Mark was made aware of the fact that his name had been brought up, but he
did not give Barry Bonds anything and there was nothing he could have given
Barry Bonds," Axelrod said.
Sources told the Daily News that Sweeney, a reserve player, first heard about
the test when Gene Orza, the chief operating officer of the Players
Association, called him.
Orza told Sweeney to remove any problematic items from his locker and not to
share substances with other players. Sweeney told Orza that there was nothing
in his locker that would be of concern, the Daily News reported.
Orza, who could not be reached on Thursday to comment, declined to confirm or
deny the report. He did tell the Daily News about Bonds: "I can say
unequivocally in my 22 years I've known Barry Bonds he has never blamed
anyone for anything."
Sweeney reportedly confronted Bonds, and Bonds told him that Orza
misunderstood and he had not intended to implicate his teammate.
Among his teammates, Sweeney was one of the Giants closest to Bonds last
season, having personally paid for engraved champagne flutes to toast Bonds
on the occasion of the left-handed swinger passing Babe Ruth for second place
on MLB's all-time home run list. Bonds hit his 715th homer in San Francisco
against the Rockies on May 28.
It was known last year that Bonds was playing with the help of numerous
prescription drugs that were helping him cope with the pain of strengthening
his thrice surgically repaired right knee, and a left elbow that locked up
during Spring Training because of floating bone chips. Bonds didn't try to
hide his prescription drug use, keeping the bottles in his locker at AT&T
Park and taking the pills openly.
Bonds underwent arthroscopic surgery on the elbow a day after the season
ended.
Bonds underwent the three knee surgeries in 2005 and missed all but 14 games
of that season. He returned last year to hit 26 homers, lead the Majors with
a .454 on-base percentage and the National League with 115 walks, extending
his MLB career mark to 2,426.
He hit .270 with 23 doubles, 77 RBIs and 74 runs scored in 130 games, despite
hitting .235 as late as Aug. 19. His double in his final at-bat of the season
was his 99th hit of the year, pulling him 159 short of the 3,000-hit mark.
The RBI count has him 69 away from 2,000
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