http://cbs.sportsline.com/mlb/story/9921732

 

NEW YORK -- Barry Bonds failed a test for amphetamines last season and originally blamed it on a teammate, the Daily News reported Thursday.

 

When first informed of the positive test, Bonds attributed it to a substance he had taken from teammate Mark Sweeney's locker, the New York City newspaper said, citing several unnamed sources.

 

"I have no comment on that," Bonds' agent Jeff Borris told the Daily News on Wednesday night.

 

"Mark was made aware of the fact that his name had been brought up," Sweeney's agent Barry Axelrod told the Daily News. "But he did not give Barry Bonds anything, and there was nothing he could have given Barry Bonds."

 

Bonds, who always has maintained he never has tested positive for illegal drug use, already is under investigation for lying about steroid use.

 

A federal grand jury is investigating whether the 42-year-old Bonds perjured himself when he testified in 2003 in the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative steroid distribution case that he never knowingly used performance-enhancing drugs. The San Francisco Giants slugger told a 2003 federal grand jury that he believed his trainer Greg Anderson had provided him flaxseed oil and arthritic balm, not steroids.

 

Under baseball's amphetamines policy, which went into effect last season, players are not publicly identified for a first positive test. A second positive test for amphetamines results in a 25-game suspension. The first failed steroids test costs a player 50 games.

 

The Giants still are working to finalize complicated language in the slugger's $16 million, one-year contract for next season -- a process that has lasted almost a month since he agreed to the deal Dec. 7 on the last day of baseball's winter meetings.

 

The language still being negotiated concerns the left fielder's compliance with team rules, as well as what would happen if he were to be indicted or have other legal troubles.

 

Borris has declined to comment on the negotiations. He didn't immediately return a message from the AP on Wednesday night.

 

The 42-year-old Bonds is set to begin his 15th season with the Giants only 22 home runs shy of surpassing Hank Aaron's career record of 755.

 

Bonds, considered healthy again following offseason surgery on his troublesome left elbow, has spent 14 of his 21 big league seasons with San Francisco and helped the Giants draw 3 million fans in all seven seasons at their waterfront ballpark.

 

After missing all but 14 games in 2005 following three operations on his right knee, Bonds batted .270 with 26 homers and 77 RBI in 367 at-bats in 2006. He passed Babe Ruth to move into second place on the career home run list May 28.

AP NEWS

The Associated Press News Service

God forbid he take responsibility for making a mistake....don't blame a teammate

What a classy guy. :Clap

Can folks deny him being a cheater?

I don't even know what to think anymore... So far, he's blamed his trainer for giving him something he didn't know were steroids.. and now he's blaming Mark Sweeney. What bugs me about this one is that Sweeney was one of the new guys last season that reached out and really tried to make the clubhouse fun. The whole American Idol spoof, when Barry dressed as Paula Abdul, was all Sweeney's doing.

 

One part of me just wants this to be over to see Barry break Aaron's record and help the Giants win some games this season. But another part of me wants to see someone new manning LF for the Giants this season. I'm so tired of all Giants talk going back to Barry Bonds. There are 24 other guys on that team that just want to play the game and win...

I've seen low, but this guy just surpassed my expectations, how can a man be such a little B****!

I'm not someone who think Bonds should be kept out of the Hall of Fame, but everyone can agree that his inlfuence on the game has been overwhelmingly negative. It's really a shame. He must be very unhappy.

Riddle me this:

 

If this greenie test is meant to be kept "anonymous" yet a paper can dreg up this information, really seems to solidify that he never had an "anonymous" steroid test failed, doesn't it?

 

:whistle

Riddle me this:

 

If this greenie test is meant to be kept "anonymous" yet a paper can dreg up this information, really seems to solidify that he never had an "anonymous" steroid test failed, doesn't it?

 

:whistle

Just because anonymity failed in one instance doesn't mean that it will fail in all instances. Does the same lab perform tests for both substances? Is it the same personnel? There are too many variables and unknowns for that to be valid reasoning.

 

(Not that I'm saying Bonds is definitively guilty for steroid use, just that this reasoning just doesn't help to absolve him in my mind)

Riddle me this:

 

If this greenie test is meant to be kept "anonymous" yet a paper can dreg up this information, really seems to solidify that he never had an "anonymous" steroid test failed, doesn't it?

 

:whistle

Just because anonymity failed in one instance doesn't mean that it will fail in all instances. Does the same lab perform tests for both substances? Is it the same personnel? There are too many variables and unknowns for that to be valid reasoning.

 

(Not that I'm saying Bonds is definitively guilty for steroid use, just that this reasoning just doesn't help to absolve him in my mind)

 

Oh of course there are logical holes in my argument as no two situations are ever perfect.

 

HOWEVER

 

Bonds has been a marked man for the better part of 5 years and arguably the last decade. If nothing could be scrounged up on him with (and I'm just assuming here) a very high bounty for smoking gun evidence, it really screams to me that it doesn't exist. Draw whatever conclusions you want from that, but I really think the lack of existence is almost indisputable now.

A person like this breaking Hanks record will be the biggest travesty in sports

well last year was the first year they tested for greenies from what i know....

 

 

also from what i know, greenies are the bigger problem in baseball than steroids.

What a piece of sh*t.

Hard to believe a guy with a track record like Bonds for ALWAYS taking the high road to blame this on a teammate. I'm truly stunned NOT! It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy, I'll have to think of a new nick name for Sterry Bonds.

Hard to believe a guy with a track record like Bonds for ALWAYS taking the high road to blame this on a teammate. I'm truly stunned NOT! It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy, I'll have to think of a new nick name for Sterry Bonds.

I just call him BALCO Bonds.

I'm quite partial to the old "Barroid"

People do understand the difference between amphetamines and steroids, correct?

 

And, FWIW, I do know that Cabrera and many other Marlins used amphetamines for day games after night games, but this was before they were tested for.

People do understand the difference between amphetamines and steroids, correct?

 

And, FWIW, I do know that Cabrera and many other Marlins used amphetamines for day games after night games, but this was before they were tested for.

all major leagues teams would do that. BTW a lot of people were on the juice as well to help recover from injuries faster but Bonds went on the Juice with a different intent...alledgedly

People do understand the difference between amphetamines and steroids, correct?

 

And, FWIW, I do know that Cabrera and many other Marlins used amphetamines for day games after night games, but this was before they were tested for.

all major leagues teams would do that. BTW a lot of people were on the juice as well to help recover from injuries faster but Bonds went on the Juice with a different intent...alledgedly

 

Uuuuuuuuuuh huh

And, FWIW, I do know that Cabrera and many other Marlins used amphetamines for day games after night games, but this was before they were tested for.

 

How do you know this?

A person like this breaking Hanks record will be the biggest travesty in sports

 

 

 

That little game between the Pacers and Pistons begs to differ.

 

:whistle

And, FWIW, I do know that Cabrera and many other Marlins used amphetamines for day games after night games, but this was before they were tested for.

 

How do you know this?

 

A little birdie told me.

And, FWIW, I do know that Cabrera and many other Marlins used amphetamines for day games after night games, but this was before they were tested for.

 

How do you know this?

 

A little birdie told me.

tee hee

And, FWIW, I do know that Cabrera and many other Marlins used amphetamines for day games after night games, but this was before they were tested for.

 

How do you know this?

I believe him to be accurate from what I hear from several ex-ballplayers. This was a common practice in all locker rooms. Not anymore! Not since new testing guidelines. It wasn't cheating, not really, because of this people weren't performing any better. just avoided physical breakdowns

I don't see why it's a big deal for players to take something that helps them heal quicker. If these are not "performance enhancing drugs" then what's the big deal... Now, I'll admit.. I know absolutely nothing about steroids, but I would think a professional athlete would need something to help heal quicker from an injury..

 

As for Barry, I like the fact that he came out with a statement right away to clear Sweeney's name. As I said earlier, Mark Sweeney was the one new guy who reached out to Barry and became a good friend of his. It was nice to see him come out with that statement so quickly, instead of waiting for someone to ask him in Spring Training..

 

And while I don't agree with steroid use, I'll just leave it at this... It's evident that steroids have been in baseball for a very long time. Nobody has come close to the production that Barry Bonds has. It's unfortunate that the only reason people dislike him so much is essentially due to the fact that he's close to breaking baseball's precious homerun record. And Barry was a hall of famer before all of the homeruns anyways, so I'm tired of hearing everyone say he won't get in..

 

Anyways, I think this conversation has been had on this board at least 45,000 times. I look forward to the day that I can look up the MLB section on this site and see nothing related to steroids.