Barry Bonds took another round from the U.S. prosecutors who put his trial on hold in March 2009.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, upholding the ruling of the lower court, determined that Bonds will not be faced at his federal trial for perjury and obstruction of justice, with positive results from certain urine samples.

That’s because the tests were administered privately by Bonds’ BFF and former trainer, Greg Anderson, not Major League Baseball.

The evidence would have to be introduced in court by the person who was responsible for them and knew the results, and Anderson has refused to testify.

His refusal has been consistent over the years. Read about Anderson’s undying loyalty. Anderson, served more than a year in jail during the course of two periods of incarceration. He chose punishment for contempt of court citations rather than spill what he knows about Bonds.

It’s not as if the government didn’t try every way it could to gain his cooperation. Anderson’s wife and mother-in-law have been implicated in a tax evasion scheme that the former trainer believes is a bold attempt at trading his testimony for lightening up on his wife. Anderson’s lawyer said the IRS was worse than the Mafia.

The case against Bonds is the final one on the calendar that stems from athletes testifying in front of the grand jury that investigated the now defunct BALCO Lab. Bond’s testified that he unknowingly took steroids supplied by BALCO.

The government has one positive urine test to use in its case. Interestingly, when taken in 2003 by MLB it resulted in a negative result. It was only a year later when the feds got a hold of the sample that they tested it for THG and got the positive.

Among the other evidence the government has and will use, is a tape recording taken secretly by Bonds’ former assistant, Steve Hoskins.

It reportedly contains statements made by Anderson during a 2003 conversation with Hoskins related to how and where Bonds got injected by Anderson.

The government took this fifteen month time-out because they believe the excluded evidence is crucial to a conviction.

It is anyone’s guess if the case will proceed after this latest setback. There is another appeal that can be made to the full Ninth Circuit bench and of course the ultimate arbiter of things such as this, the U.S. Supreme Court.

in the meantime, Bonds, who hasn’t played a game of baseball in three years has refused to officially retire. Bonds tells Giants’ fans “I haven’t retired.”

I certainly don’t speak for teams in MLB but I don’t think a contract will be forthcoming any time soon.

MORE: Roger Clemens Remains Under Investigation for Perjury

Re-printed with permission of the author.

Paula Duffy is a national sports columnist for Examiner.com and the Huffington Post and regularly comments on sports/legal matters for radio affiliates of ESPN and Fox Sports. She founded the sports information site, Incidental Contact, is the author of a line of audio books designed for sports novices and in her spare time practices law in Los Angeles. 

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – Barry Bonds is back in the news after making some interesting comments to a group of reporters recently. Bonds told reporters he was “proud” of Mark McGwire’s steroid admission.

Question via Colleen Dominguez of ESPN: What was your reaction to Mark McGwire’s steroid admission?

Bonds: I have a really good friendship with Mark McGwire. I’m proud of him. I have a great relationship through our entire life and career and I’m proud of what he did and I’m happy for him.

Question: Been swinging a bat, (Barry)?

Bonds: Actually, I went down to Florida to work out with Ryan Howard during the wintertime and coached him a little bit and he’s doing very, very well and hasn’t said one thing about me yet. (Laughs.) But I love him and I’m glad he’s doing well.

Still, Barry hasn’t given much thought to following in McGwire’s footsteps and becoming a Major League hitting instructor. Though he enjoys sharing tips with his fellow hitters — something he was notorious for not doing during his playing career.

Bonds: I was given a gift with the things that I know and can do in this game and sooner or later I will be able to pass that along and whoever wants it, I’ll just talk to them about it. I can see things that they don’t understand how I can see it. I have a very good talent in the game of baseball, especially for hitting. If you want it, I’ll be happy to share with you. I didn’t think it would be something I would do, but I really enjoy helping out others. God gave me a gift and it’s nice to let someone else see what God has given to me.

MLB’s all-time homerun king also reiterated that he hasn’t retired, but wouldn’t comment in much detail about it — in part because the Player’s Association is forming a collusion case against MLB. When he was asked directly about the suit mum was the word.

Question: The Players’ Association is preparing a collusion case against MLB. To what extent do you plan to be a part of that case?

Bonds: You know what, I’m sorry brother, this is the first time I heard about this. First time. I’m sorry, brother. I’d help you out but I can’t.

While Bonds avoided the perpetual black cloud that follows him daily — steroids — a different former Giants outfielder got something off his chest.

Speaking to San Francisco Chronicle beat writer, Henry Schulman, Benard admitted that he used performance-enhancing drugs while playing for the Giants.

“To be honest with you, it was an embarrassing moment that you can’t take back,” Benard told Schulman. “When you’re playing you do some dumb things, thinking, ‘This is going to help me.’ You realize later on they were stupid.”

Benard played parts of nine seasons in San Francisco, and never was healthy enough to earn a job after he left the team following the ’03 season. He’s now 40 and living in Washington with his son and second wife.

Also in attendance for the 2000 reunion aside from Bonds and Benard were Rich Aurilia, Ellis Burks, Felipe Crespo, Shawn Estes, Mark Gardner, Jeff Kent, Robb Nen, Armando Rios, Kirk Rueter, and J.T. Snow.

Re-printed with permission of the author.

Theo is a staff reporter and feature writer for the Marin Independent Journal where he covers local prep and college sports. As an Associate Production Manager for ESPN, he helped produce Sunday Night Baseball among other national ESPN and ABC Sports telecasts. Besides his contributions to Examiner.com, the I.J. and Sports Climax, Theo is the play-by-play voice for Sonoma State University baseball and softball.

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax™

Mark McGwire decided to come clean and finally admitted using steroids throughout his career, including the year he broke the single-season home run record.

McGwire had basically fallen off the map since dodging the steroid question in front of a congressional committee in March 2005. Now that the former Major League Baseball player is preparing to coach this season for the St. Louis Cardinals he must have thought it was best to address the issue prior to the season to avoid a media circus when spring training starts (Google Alex Rodriguez).

During an interview with the Associated Press, McGwire apologized. “The toughest thing is my wife, my parents, close friends have had no idea that I hid it from them all this time,” said McGwire. “I knew this day was going to come. I didn’t know when.”

McGwire went on to admit using steroids and HGH throughout a decade and during the time he broke Roger Maris’ home run record in 1998.

“I wish I had never touched steroids,” McGwire said. “It was foolish and it was a mistake.”

According to the AP, McGuire called Commissioner Bud Selig, St. Louis manager Tony La Russa and Maris’ widow, Pat to personally break the news then called the AP for the interview.

“It was a wrong thing what I did. I totally regret it. I just wish I was never in that era,” he said.

McGwire finished his career with 583 home runs, tied for eighth on the all-time list. His record of 70 home runs in 1998 only held up for three years then it was surpassed by Barry Bonds’ 73 homers in 2001. In addition, his resume includes 1987 AL Rookie of the Year and 12 trips to the All-Star Game.

Ironically this admission comes just days after the latest Hall Of Fame vote that saw McGwire get a mere 23 percent vote, well below the 75 percent necessary to make it to Cooperstown.

“This has nothing to do with the Hall of Fame,” he said. “This has to do with me coming clean, getting it off my chest, and five years that I’ve held this in. There’s no way a pill or an injection will give you hand-eye coordination or the ability or the great mind that I’ve had as a baseball player,” he said. “I was always the last one to leave. I was always hitting by myself. I took care of myself.”

He said he first used steroids between the 1989 and 1990 seasons, after helping the Oakland Athletics to a World Series sweep when he and Jose Canseco formed the Bash Brothers.

“When you work out at gyms, people talk about things like that. It was readily available,” he said. “I tried it for a couple of weeks. I really didn’t think much of it.”

He said he returned to steroids after the 1993 season after being told steroids might speed his recovery.

“I did this for health purposes. There’s no way I did this for any type of strength purposes,” he said.

McGwire’s 70 homers in 1998 was part of a head-to-head battle with Chicago Cubs Sammy Sosa who finished with 66. Sosa, like McGuire, has brushed off and denied using steroids thus far and was reprimanded when he was caught using an illegal bat around that same time.

Selig praised McGwire, saying, “This statement of contrition, I believe, will make Mark’s re-entry into the game much smoother and easier.” If anyone knows about damage control it’s Selig. The commissioner has had his hands full over the years with the New York Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez admitting using steroids, Bonds facing criminal charges accused of lying when questioned about steroids and Roger Clemens currently being investigated for possibly lying to Congress concerning his involvement in steroid use.

Rafael Palmeiro is another player who denied using steroids but then tested positive for one later that year.

“I’m sure people will wonder if I could have hit all those home runs had I never taken steroids,” McGwire said. “I had good years when I didn’t take any, and I had bad years when I didn’t take any. I had good years when I took steroids, and I had bad years when I took steroids. But no matter what, I shouldn’t have done it and for that I’m truly sorry.”

Related Articles:

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Aaron Says Bonds Should Keep Home Run Record – Sports Climax

Copyright © 2010 – Sports Climax

ATLANTA – While Barry Bonds prepares for his trial and Roger Clemens awaits word on perjury charges, Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig remains on the hot seat following New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez’ press conference yesterday in Tampa.While the media spends their time over-analyzing how much truth A-Rod’s statements contained, many people still question whether Selig has spent the past decade ignoring his league’s steroid abuse problem.

Selig is quick to deflect the blame.

During a Newsday interview, Selig continued defending his reputation, “I don’t want to hear the commissioner turned a blind eye to this or he didn’t care about it,” said Selig. “That annoys the you-know-what out of me. You bet I’m sensitive to the criticism.”

“A lot of people say we should have done this or that, and I understand that. They ask me, ‘How could you not know? When I look back at where we were in ’98 and where we are today, I’m proud of the progress we’ve made.”

“Starting in 1995, I tried to institute a steroid policy,” Selig continued. “Needless to say, it was met with strong resistance. We were fought by the union every step of the way.”

Many of us close to baseball assumed there was enhancement help of some kind during the 1998 home run race between Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire. Why would it suddenly be possible for not only one, but two players to breeze past Maris’ HR record the same year with one guy nailing 70 out of the park.

I remember driving down the interstate in Chicago during that summer of ’98 with my wife and most every day that week the numbers on the banner keeping tabs on Sosa’s race were increasing by the day, reaching far past Roger Maris’ record of 61. Sosa ended up with 66 that year, four behind McGuire’s record-setting 70.

When asked about that home run race, Selig continues to defend himself and the league. In diminutive defense of Selig, the MLBPA union and the owners did not implement a joint drug program until 2002 with that agreement allowing punishment starting in 2004 so his argument is that his hands were somewhat tied.

“It is important to remember that these recent revelations relate to pre-program activity,” Selig told Newsday. “Under our current drug program, if you are caught using steroids and/or amphetamines, you will be punished. Since 2005, every player who has tested positive for steroids has been suspended for as much as 50games.”

While receiving a little bit of help from icons like Hank Aaron, Selig remains in a difficult position, being asked to throw his players and league under the bus and may be forced to remain in the damage-control mode for many months to come.

The Commish could always consider deflecting some of the recent attention of the ’98 home run race by blaming Sosa’s corked bats.

Copyright © 2009 – Sports Climax

ATLANTA – As the Barry Bonds’ March 2 trial grows closer and pieces of the prosecutors’ case against MLB’s home run record- holder continue to go public, if there was any doubt whether Hank Aaron supports Bonds as home run king, those questions may have been answered.

In an interview Aaron this week with the Atlanta-Journal-Constitution, the retired player made his opinion clear saying the HR record belongs to Bonds and should not be taken away.

“In all fairness to everybody, I just don’t see how you really can do a thing like that and just say somebody isn’t the record holder anymore, and let’s go back to the way that it was,” Aaron told the AJC.

“If you did that, you’d have to go back and change all kinds of records. It (the home run record) is probably the most hallowed record out there, as far as I’m concerned, but it’s now in the hands of somebody else. It belongs to Barry.”

“Really, it’s sort of a tricky call when you start going down that road of who is legitimate,” Aaron added in the interview.

These are strong points made by one of baseball’s greatest players of all time. If Bonds is stripped of the record, does that force MLB to strip A-Rod of his MVP award he won in 2003 and Roger Clemens, if convicted, of his laundry-list of strikeout records and seven Cy Young awards.

The list would go on and on. Major League Baseball would have to rewrite their record books and Cooperstown would have to apply asterisks to or garage sale many of their memorabilia displays.

Copyright © 2009 – Sports Climax

As expected, MLB’s home run king Barry Bonds pleaded not guilty to perjury charges related to his testimony in the much-publicized steroid investigation.The slugger faces 10 counts of lying under oath to a grand jury as well as one charge for obstruction of justice.

The case is finally going to trial on March 2, 2009 after prosecutors had to twice revise the charges because of “legal technicalities”. In fact, this is the third time Bonds has entered a plea in the case.

Yesterday the judge presiding in the case released hundreds of documents related to the case including documentation of conversations involving the left-handed slugger Bonds discussing injections and other docs confirming failed drug test.

Those failed tests in question relate to evidence prosecutors say was collected in a September 2003 raid of BALCO. The defense questions the validity of those tests and are asking they be removed.

Some feel Bonds is being singled out but the bottom line is, if Bonds lied under oath, after hitting 762 over the fence he may be spending two years behind one; a taller one decorated in barbed wire.

Copyright © 2009 – Sports Climax

Full story here

Judge Susan Illston dropped three of the charges against ex-San Francisco Giants slugger, Barry Bonds, lightening the load of perjury charges he will be facing in his upcoming March trial.That’s a decent start but it’s time to drop the remaining 10 charges as well, unless the government charges everyone else who has outright lied in front of Congressional committees.

Bonds has been singled out, period!

In March 2005, Rafael Palmeiro pointed his finger at a Congressional committee to emphasis his statement and said these words, “I have never used steroids. Period!”

In a blood test that followed later that season, the potent anabolic steroid, stanozolol, was detected.

Doesn’t that indicate Palmeiro’s statement to the committee may have been a lie?

Questions followed and Palmiero was quick to use the name-dropping defense. Political contribution records show that on July 23, 2003 and August 17, 2004, the ex-Texas Ranger slugger donated $2,000 each time to the Bush/Cheney campaign.

Battling the media’s direct hammering of questions about the statements he made in front of Congress, Palmeiro said he was “a personal friend of President George Bush”.

Shortly after, the Palmeiro scenario was quickly brushed under the rug.

Roger Clemens had a similar response as Palmeiro. When Clemens was questioned under oath by a Congressional committee about steroid use, he responded, “I know the ex-President Bush and he was able to find me when I was hunting so . . . ”

What is with the name-dropping! It has no relevance whatsoever to whether or not these guys took a needle full of illegal substances in the glutes from a trainer.

Mindy McCready recently was interviewed about her affair with Clemens. Her statements as well as photos of a party at Jose Canseco’s home all contradict Clemens’ testimony.

Hard not to wonder what the hold-up is on pressing charges on these other players who have appeared in front of Congress and had questionable interviews.

It’s time to charge all of these players or drop all the charges against Bonds.

Full Story Here

Copyright © 2008 – Sports Climax

As stern criticism concerning Jose Canseco’s lack of character, ill-intentions and sleaze factor mounts, there seems to be a sudden shift in gears with his public relations strategy.

After glowing in the spotlight as MLB’s snitch of the century and taking in tons of cash, Canseco decides it’s time to say he is sorry and he does it in his new A&E documentary called, “Last Shot.”

Now bankrupt, Canseco said he is sorry he ever created his book ‘Juiced”, and sorry for outing his fellow MLB players for taking illegal steroids.

The following quotes from the book and other interviews have revealed a  character unconcerned about his fellow athletes and former friends.

During a past interview with Mike Wallace: “When the cameras stopped rolling, Wallace asked me if we could talk, off-camera. He kept me there for another hour, clearly curious about steroids. . . . He wondered how the steroids and human growth hormones (HGH) might help him, a man in his 80s, live a longer, healthier life. He wanted to know everything.”

In his book: “I met Mags (Magglio Ordonez) in 2001, when I was with the White Sox. When it was all said and done, when Maggs had the information he needed, he told me he was in. A few days later, we went into the back room in the clubhouse, and I jabbed a needle into his butt. ‘Ow,’ he said. ‘That hurt.’ ‘You’ll get used to it,’ I said.”

Canseco also mentioned the comments he made about Roger Clemens were edited out of interviews he had with ESPN and 60 Minutes and attributed that to the fact Clemens, who is a member of our Famous Mugshots Gallery, is from Texas and is very close to the Bush family.  “Clemens is a personal friend of Bush Sr. and his wife, Barbara. Clemens still has a standing invitation from Bush Jr. to visit the White House anytime. Getting the picture? Maybe the President of the United States, or his daddy, the ex-President, made some calls and took care of things for good ol’ Roger.”

In another chapter: “So A-Rod, if you’re reading this book, and if I’m not getting through to you, let’s get clear on one thing: I hate your — guts.”

Canseco’s National-Enquirer-like tale has ruined the careers, reputations and lives of several people including Clemens, Barry Bonds and Mark McGuire to name only a few.

Canseco’s life since retiring from baseball, has taken the route of a desperate man, whoring himself out to productions like Celebrity Boxing along the way; it doesn’t get much more pathetic than that.

Celebrity Boxing has included other people over the years who were trying desperately to cling to fame. There was a Tonya Harding vs. Clinton-sleaze Paula Jones, Refrigerator Perry vs. Manute Bol; and even a Partridge-family member vs. Brady Bunch member bout.

Canseco was knocked out in his bout by a sportscaster, Vai Sikahema. Canseco, 6-ft 4in, 245 lbs. got pummeled by the much smaller Sikahema, 5ft 9in, 205 lbs.

Sikahema knocked Canseco down with a left hook and again with a flurry of punches, both in the first round and the fight was called after just one round.

Entertainment? Depends who you ask.

Is his book ‘Juice’ entertainment? Depends who you ask.

So how sorry is Canseco, really?

Canseco recently released a second book slamming steroid use as well as the A&E documentary. Creating more negative exposure against the same sport and people he threw under the bus sounds more like a PR and marketing tour. It’s no wonder most people do not see any sincerity in his apology and look at it as another money-making scheme.

When filmmakers make a movie, they go on tour, doing interviews to draw attention to their movie and stir interest . . . the exact things Canseco is doing. If Canseco was sorry and concerned about the damage he has done why give it more exposure.

In this interview on A&E he recites a script that many feel are nothing but words without meaning, “I should not have written that book. The more I think about it the more I regret mentioning these players in my book because I admired them, I respected them.”

Respected them so much, that instead of trying to brush it under the rug; he writes a second book then goes in front of a camera talking about them.

Canseco goes on in his interview making statements that does nothing more than question his intelligence, “I never really realized this was going to blow up as big as it was going to blow up and hurt so many people.”

What planet has he been living on?

“If I could meet with Mark McGuire and these players I would definitely apologize to them because the more I think about it, the more wrong I was.”

If he were really sorry he would help pay for Bond’s and Clemen’s legal fees and pursue getting Mark McGuire into the Hall of Fame instead of going on his PR tour.

The only thing Canseco is sorry about is that very few people care what he has to say anymore so his new book sales are down and bill collectors are said to be banging on his door.

His greed and lack of concern for his fellow players and his sport will make him remembered as nothing but a greedy snitch who stabbed his friends in the back.

Copyright © 2008 – Sports Climax