Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig will seek a meeting soon with San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds to discuss Bonds’ role in the ongoing controversy over steroid use in the major leagues.
According to highly placed baseball sources, Selig may offer Bonds some type of leniency if he admitted the use of steroids and/or other performance-enhancing drugs such as human growth hormone.
The six-time National League Most Valuable Player appeared before a San Francisco grand jury investigating the activities of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO) on Dec. 4. In 5 1/2 hours before the panel, Bonds is said to have testified he never “knowingly” used steroids or THG.
Bonds has acknowledged being a BALCO client, obtaining nutritional supplements from the firm, and his personal trainer, Greg Anderson, was one of four men indicted earlier this year on 42 charges of steroid distribution and money-laundering. All four had ties to BALCO, including the firm’s founder, Victor Conte.
BALCO, located in San Mateo, Calif., has been identified as the source of THG, the previously undetectable “designer steroid” whose discovery at last year’s World Track and Field Championships touched off a doping scandal that has mushroomed into the largest in sports history, touching athletes in baseball, football and boxing, as well as track and field.
Reached in his Milwaukee office Friday, Selig said he is not conducting his own investigation of Bonds and declined to comment on whether he planned to meet with him.
However, baseball sources say Selig may be endeavoring to head off more serious problems for Bonds. Federal prosecutors involved in the BALCO case have said they will seek perjury charges against any witnesses believed to have given false testimony before the San Francisco grand jury.
In addition, those prosecutors have issued subpoenas for the urine samples of all players linked to BALCO. The samples were collected last season as Major League Baseball implemented a steroid-testing program that has been criticized widely as toothless and ineffective, even though 5 to 7 percent of all players tested positive. If Bonds was among those testing positive, the results could be revealed as the BALCO case heads for trial.
“I’ll just say this,” one highly placed MLB source said. “People around the Giants are extremely nervous, and maybe they have reason to be.”
According to Rob Manfred, MLB’s executive vice president for labor relations, both Selig and officials with the players union have tried to keep those test results confidential.
“We made an agreement with the players’ association that this testing was supposed to be not only confidential but anonymous,” Manfred said. “At every step thus far, we’ve done everything we can to defend that agreement.”
Manfred acknowledged the urine samples were to be destroyed but cited the intervention of federal prosecutors.
“The subpoenas were served before the destruction that was contemplated by the agreement could have been effectuated,” he said. “We didn’t intend to leave a paper trail.”
The urine samples are not the only threat to Bonds. MLB could be forced to take action against Bonds if Anderson testifies Bonds knew he was being given steroids or other banned substances, such as human growth hormone. According to the New York Daily News, Bonds told the San Francisco grand jury he never “knowingly” has used steroids.
MLB almost certainly would suspend Bonds if it were revealed he lied to the grand jury. His response in coming days could help determine how long his pursuit of Henry Aaron’s home run record is interrupted.
It would not be unprecedented for Selig to ask Bonds about his steroid use. According to the source, the commissioner has asked several players this spring if they used steroids. They have replied consistently that, no, they haven’t but they know some players who have.
The commissioner directed some hard questions to the Cubs’ Sammy Sosa when he met with him earlier this spring, according to the source. Sosa told Selig that he never has used steroids. The source said the commissioner has yet to discuss steroid use with Bonds.
According to the source, MLB officials will tell Bonds the consequences will be “much worse” if he professes innocence and is revealed later as a steroid user.
Bonds enters this season with 658 home ruins, only two behind his godfather, Willie Mays, for third place on the all-time list. He trails Babe Ruth by 56 and Aaron by 97. He has hit at least 45 homers each of the last four seasons, making him a good bet to catch Aaron in 2006.
Selig would be in an interesting position if a possible Bonds suspension came his way. He remains extremely close with Aaron, who hit 354 of his 755 home runs from 1954 through 1965, when the Braves’ franchise was based in Milwaukee. He ended his career playing for the Milwaukee Brewers, which Selig owned.
