The guy owned it! Finally one of these guys comes out and owns it!
It doesn't matter that he admitted it only after he got caught. He got caught and fessed up...period! That is a lot more than can be said for some of the other superstars who are clearly lying through their teeth
Does that mean Yankee fans will embrace him now?
have they ever embraced him
3 things i take from the gammons interview
1. how the hell can you not know weather you passed or failed and let that go on for 5-6 years just eating away at your mind.if orza said to me you might have passed or failed i woulda asked orza flat out what the results were.
2. you said you were young and naive and didnt know any better. it was your 8th year in the majors thats hardly being young
3. katie couric flat asked out you back in 07 weather you took them and you denied that you did them, why not come out then instead of waiting a year and a half
yea he admitted it but the fact is he still did roids and lied.
Ron: I just don't feel like going out tonight
Sammi: Wanna just break up?
The one that would break my heart if caught up in the steroids thing...
Ken Griffey, Jr.
...
If there is a God... please, don't let Junior be a part of this.
The one that would break my heart if caught up in the steroids thing...
Ken Griffey, Jr.
...
If there is a God... please, don't let Junior be a part of this.
id stop watching baseball if his name and jeters name came up in these reports.also it wouldnt surprise me if mike piazza was named eventually in one of these reports
Ron: I just don't feel like going out tonight
Sammi: Wanna just break up?
it wouldnt surprise me if mike piazza was named eventually in one of these reports
It wouldn't surprise anyone! :shock: :shock:
Yeah, A-Rod was still lying to Gammons, BUT (even though I dislike him) I really wouldn't expect him (or anyone) to name teammates and/or their supplier.
If I had known then what I know now...
Vegas 93, Vegas 98, Vegas 00 (10 year show), Vegas 03, Vegas 06
VIC 07
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Seattle1 09, Seattle2 09, Salt Lake 09, LA4 09
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Portland 13, Spokane 13
St. Paul 14, Denver 14
I am not a huge follower of baseball, but one thing I never understood is why there is no repercussions to these positive tests. I mean if A-rod tested positive in 2001, why is the world only finding out about it now? Why wasn’t he suspended in 2001? And if there are no penalties why bother doing testing? So basically what I am thinking is if there are no penalties for doing steroids, then isn’t major league baseball basically saying it is acceptable? So why isn’t the league taking more criticism if for this when they are unofficially saying steriod use is within the rules?
I am not a huge follower of baseball, but one thing I never understood is why there is no repercussions to these positive tests. I mean if A-rod tested positive in 2001, why is the world only finding out about it now? Why wasn’t he suspended in 2001? And if there are no penalties why bother doing testing? So basically what I am thinking is if there are no penalties for doing steroids, then isn’t major league baseball basically saying it is acceptable? So why isn’t the league taking more criticism if for this when they are unofficially saying steriod use is within the rules?
Steroids are illegal in the country. There was no provision at the time in the collective bargaining agreement between major league baseball and the players' union to test for steroids in the time period in question. In 2003, as the steroids hysteria started becoming more and more mainstream, MLB instituted a policy where they would anonymously test the players that season and if more than 5% tested positive then they would change their drug policy.
A Rod was one of the 104 players who tested positive that year out of about 750 players which led to baseball instituting the steroids policy which includes suspensions and being kicked out of the league after a certain number of tests.
Technically because there was no drug policy in place in 2003, MLB can't suspend A Rod, but now his image is forever tarnished.
And MLB has taken a ton of criticism over the years for being so behinds in their drug policy.
Don't get me wrong.....I'm not "pro-steroids," but.......................
1) who the fuck decrees what is "legal" and what is not? e.g. cortisone shot, lasik, red tinted contacts, hyperbaeric chamber, artificial joint fluid. Everyone has always looked for (and found) an edge. It's the natural progression of not just ballplayers, but the human race.
2) What makes you so sure that Willie, Babe, Mickey, Hank, etc. wouldn't have taken steroids if they had a chance? Most would have.
P.S. I hate A-Rod, too.
If I had known then what I know now...
Vegas 93, Vegas 98, Vegas 00 (10 year show), Vegas 03, Vegas 06
VIC 07
EV LA1 08
Seattle1 09, Seattle2 09, Salt Lake 09, LA4 09
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Missoula 12
Portland 13, Spokane 13
St. Paul 14, Denver 14
Don't get me wrong.....I'm not "pro-steroids," but.......................
1) who the fuck decrees what is "legal" and what is not? e.g. cortisone shot, lasik, red tinted contacts, hyperbaeric chamber, artificial joint fluid. Everyone has always looked for (and found) an edge. It's the natural progression of not just ballplayers, but the human race.
The federal government. Taking anabolic steroids without a prescription is crime. Under federal law, first-time simple possession of anabolic steroids carries a maximum penalty of one year in prison and a $1,000 fine. For first-offense trafficking in steroids, the maximum penalty is five years in prison and a fine of $250,000. Second offenses double this penalty. In addition to federal penalties, state laws also prohibit illegal anabolic steroid use.
Don't get me wrong.....I'm not "pro-steroids," but.......................
1) who the fuck decrees what is "legal" and what is not? e.g. cortisone shot, lasik, red tinted contacts, hyperbaeric chamber, artificial joint fluid. Everyone has always looked for (and found) an edge. It's the natural progression of not just ballplayers, but the human race.
The federal government. Taking anabolic steroids without a prescription is crime. Under federal law, first-time simple possession of anabolic steroids carries a maximum penalty of one year in prison and a $1,000 fine. For first-offense trafficking in steroids, the maximum penalty is five years in prison and a fine of $250,000. Second offenses double this penalty. In addition to federal penalties, state laws also prohibit illegal anabolic steroid use.
So based on how you explained the "anonmous" testing program to me and your above description of steroid laws, would it be possible to charge the people who oversaw the testing program with obstruction of justice, or conspiracy or something like that. I mean if they know that laws are being broken don't they have a duty to report it (like to the FBI or the ATF or something), especially if they are doctors?
Don't get me wrong.....I'm not "pro-steroids," but.......................
1) who the fuck decrees what is "legal" and what is not? e.g. cortisone shot, lasik, red tinted contacts, hyperbaeric chamber, artificial joint fluid. Everyone has always looked for (and found) an edge. It's the natural progression of not just ballplayers, but the human race.
The federal government. Taking anabolic steroids without a prescription is crime. Under federal law, first-time simple possession of anabolic steroids carries a maximum penalty of one year in prison and a $1,000 fine. For first-offense trafficking in steroids, the maximum penalty is five years in prison and a fine of $250,000. Second offenses double this penalty. In addition to federal penalties, state laws also prohibit illegal anabolic steroid use.
So based on how you explained the "anonmous" testing program to me and your above description of steroid laws, would it be possible to charge the people who oversaw the testing program with obstruction of justice, or conspiracy or something like that. I mean if they know that laws are being broken don't they have a duty to report it (like to the FBI or the ATF or something), especially if they are doctors?
That's where it gets tricky. These drug test results were coded for each individual player so that the testers themselves wouldn't know whose samples they were testing. Each code corresponded to a player and I'm pretty sure the actual testers didn't know whose sample each was. These samples along with the player codes were supposed to be destroyed after the results were determined i.e. how many people tested positive. But the Federal government subpoenaed the results and the codes keeping them from being destroyed as part of the BALCO investigation. The samples still haven't been destroyed as the federal government is still battling with the courts to get the results from the company that administered the tests. That decision should be rendered sometime this year and when it does, either the samples will be destroyed or the rest of the names will be released.
I have long since stopped giving a damn who did and who didn't use steroids because it has become painfully obvious the overwhelming majority of the league was using the stuff and A-Rod's admission does not surprise me in the least.
I will say this though: he cited the extreme pressure he felt to do well in Texas as the driving force behind his usage, which supposedly lasted from 2001-03. And 2003 -- SURPRISE SURPRISE -- just happens to be the year he joined the Yankees, who still owe him somewhere in the neighborhood of $270mil if I am not mistaken.
This cat didn't get a whiff of what pressure was about in Texas compared to the pressure to succeed he felt from the day he landed in NYC, so I find it terribly hard to believe that he stopped doing the stuff before he joined the Yankees. That is especially true when I consider that the Yankees still owe him so much money and what the repurcussions of him admitting to using while with the team might be. Nice try at being upfront about the whole thing, A-Fraud, but I don't buy it.
THen again....he doesn't really give a shit what I think
All I have to do is revel in the everyday....then do it again tomorrow
They say every sin is deadly but I believe they may be wrong...I'm guilty of all seven and I don't feel too bad at all
Don't get me wrong.....I'm not "pro-steroids," but.......................
1) who the fuck decrees what is "legal" and what is not? e.g. cortisone shot, lasik, red tinted contacts, hyperbaeric chamber, artificial joint fluid. Everyone has always looked for (and found) an edge. It's the natural progression of not just ballplayers, but the human race.
The federal government. Taking anabolic steroids without a prescription is crime. Under federal law, first-time simple possession of anabolic steroids carries a maximum penalty of one year in prison and a $1,000 fine. For first-offense trafficking in steroids, the maximum penalty is five years in prison and a fine of $250,000. Second offenses double this penalty. In addition to federal penalties, state laws also prohibit illegal anabolic steroid use.
D'oh!!!! Point taken, Solat.
I could write 10,000 words on this stuff.....I almost can't stop. And, Solat, I respect your opinion but here's where I'm coming from....
I'm a life-long baseball fan...I won't even tell you how old I am, but will tell you I've seen a lot of the players from the "clean" time in person and that I have a lot of respect for them. Some of the "dirty" guys have broken records held by the players of my youth. But.....
There is a certain "reefer madness witch hunt" quality to the steroid era. We have sanctimonious politicians hyperventilating over "the kids" and what's "right " and "wrong." IMHO, we can forget about ever finding out the whole story of the steroids era. We would need all the players and Bud Selig and all the owners and all the agents, etc., etc. to tell the TRUTH and it's just not going to happen. So, cherry picking who we grill and giving, say Matt Williams, a pass is not accomplishing anything. I would like to see steroids out of the game. Is it possible? I kinda doubt it. And why is all the steroids outrage confined to baseball, when an NFL positive hardly rates a yawn? If we do rid sports of steroids, what's next? Genetic engineering?
HOF voting has always been based on looking at players in the context of their era....e.g. how did Ryne Sandberg stack up against the 2B of his time. That's why we have .260 hitting shortstops in the HOF. We can't exclude 1988-2008 from HOF consideration....and we can't say we "know" so-and-so was clean or dirty...because we don't really know (in most cases). I just think we need to end the hysteria, the grandstanding, the moral superiority, etc. and try to move forward. Knowledgeable fans know that many factors have always gone into the numbers. Most people consider Mays a superior ballplayer to Aaron and understand why Hank ended up with nearly 100 more career HRs. Sosa and McGwire and Bonds and A-Rod are never going to cause people to forget Babe and Willie and Mickey and Frank and the rest.
As I said, I could go on and on and on . Steroids blew up almost overnight but the forces of ego, money, competitiveness, etc. have always been there. And they'll continue to be there. Baseball is a business of entertainment. Like it or not, people at the pinnacles of their professions "cheat." Politicians cheat. Lawyers cheat. CEO's cheat. So let's just take a deep breath, worry about our economy, our soldiers, etc. and stop equating Barry Bonds et al to Public Enemy #1.
If I had known then what I know now...
Vegas 93, Vegas 98, Vegas 00 (10 year show), Vegas 03, Vegas 06
VIC 07
EV LA1 08
Seattle1 09, Seattle2 09, Salt Lake 09, LA4 09
Columbus 10
EV LA 11
Vancouver 11
Missoula 12
Portland 13, Spokane 13
St. Paul 14, Denver 14
Roy Oswalt says: "The few times we played them, when he (A-Rod) got hits, it could have cost me a game," Oswalt said. "It could have cost me money in my contract. He cheated me out of the game and I take it personally, because I've never done [PEDs], haven't done it, and they're cheating me out of the game."
SHUT THE FUCK UP! Your teammate Jeff Bagwell might have WON you some games. You played with Roger and Andy. Do you want to give up your 2005 World Series share? You've probably had some steroid enhanced relievers save your ERA a few times. So, just shut the fuck up. :x
P.S. Again, I can't stand A-Rod.......but I can't stand the hypocrisy even more.
If I had known then what I know now...
Vegas 93, Vegas 98, Vegas 00 (10 year show), Vegas 03, Vegas 06
VIC 07
EV LA1 08
Seattle1 09, Seattle2 09, Salt Lake 09, LA4 09
Columbus 10
EV LA 11
Vancouver 11
Missoula 12
Portland 13, Spokane 13
St. Paul 14, Denver 14
i dont believe one fucking word a rod had to say today.....
other than he took steroids....
i dont believe he ONLY took them for 3 years while in texas.....
i think he is a lying piece of shit as far as that statement goes......
he was young???
he was naive???
he was stupid????
nope....he was a fucking asshole!!!!
one of the NY papers dissected his interview, and pointed out several lies/inconsistencies. Did he say in the interview that he ha d no contact/talks with Boras about this?
The one that would break my heart if caught up in the steroids thing...
Ken Griffey, Jr.
...
If there is a God... please, don't let Junior be a part of this.
id stop watching baseball if his name and jeters name came up in these reports.also it wouldnt surprise me if mike piazza was named eventually in one of these reports
I've always suspected Griffey, just because of the way his body broke down on him. The guy is one odff the top athletes in the world, but every team he ran out a single, he risked blowing out a wheel.
I have long since stopped giving a damn who did and who didn't use steroids because it has become painfully obvious the overwhelming majority of the league was using the stuff and A-Rod's admission does not surprise me in the least.
I will say this though: he cited the extreme pressure he felt to do well in Texas as the driving force behind his usage, which supposedly lasted from 2001-03. And 2003 -- SURPRISE SURPRISE -- just happens to be the year he joined the Yankees, who still owe him somewhere in the neighborhood of $270mil if I am not mistaken.
This cat didn't get a whiff of what pressure was about in Texas compared to the pressure to succeed he felt from the day he landed in NYC, so I find it terribly hard to believe that he stopped doing the stuff before he joined the Yankees. That is especially true when I consider that the Yankees still owe him so much money and what the repurcussions of him admitting to using while with the team might be. Nice try at being upfront about the whole thing, A-Fraud, but I don't buy it.
THen again....he doesn't really give a shit what I think
I thought the exact same thing...you get traded to the yankees, become a teammate of former BFF Jeter, after almost being traded tot he Sox, and the pressure STOPS?
and in closing, i will say that the only way this ends is with blood tests, and the ouster of Fehr, Orza, and Interim commissioner for Life, the $17 million Man, Bud Selig. They can release the ARod 103, and talk about their stiff penalties all they want. But for all we know, the whole league, ARod included just made the switch from anabolic to HGH, which is outlawed, but not tested for, since it does not appear in urine
I thought the same thing about him not specifically saying steroids. But he's said more that other players have. Yet they still look for stuff to bash him on. I'm pretty sure verducci hates A-rod. And Selena Roberts is coming out with an unflattering book about him. From what I've heard.
and in closing, i will say that the only way this ends is with blood tests, and the ouster of Fehr, Orza, and Interim commissioner for Life, the $17 million Man, Bud Selig. They can release the ARod 103, and talk about their stiff penalties all they want. But for all we know, the whole league, ARod included just made the switch from anabolic to HGH, which is outlawed, but not tested for, since it does not appear in urine
You are absolutely right! Excellent article on the "do nothing, see nothing" commish:
It is past time for Selig to recognize that the successes he trumpets -- interleague play, the wild-card format, the explosion of new revenue streams, the World Baseball Classic -- have been enveloped by steroids. The problem is that he does not truly believe this, else he would have acted sooner and more definitively. But here is an immutable fact: Bud Selig, 74 years old, friend of Hank Aaron, will be known only as the commissioner who presided over an era when baseball's greatest players have disgraced themselves, and the front-office executives and field staff were all culpable and did nothing without being forced, all on his watch.
The history major in Selig is betting otherwise, that he will survive surely as Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens and Mark McGwire have not. He is wrong. It is over. The steroids era -- its players, its reputations, its taint, its records -- cannot be saved, but the sport can survive it.
This is no exaggeration.
The commissioner has put in place the strongest testing program available, but only under immense congressional pressure. He has the testing mechanisms, the will and the structure to move forward. He has failed by leaving all the toxic issues to others instead of addressing each directly.
He has left the judging of the players to the court of public opinion.
He has left the punishments to law enforcement and the federal government.
He has left the legacy questions to the Hall of Fame voters.
He has offered no road map of leadership to the questions that people care about the most. How do you determine who is eligible for the Hall of Fame? What do you do about the records?
The history major in Selig knows this: Lyndon Johnson should be remembered as perhaps the greatest domestic legislative president in history. But he is known for one word -- Vietnam.
Bud Selig has taken the game from the Armageddon of a 232-day players strike to its most financially profitable period in history. But if he doesn't move fast, he will be known for one word -- steroids.
If he does not know this, surely his people do. Selig can decide how far down he wants the bottom to drop. If he acts boldly, he can bring his game back into the light and end the steroids era once and for all. The question is whether he has the fiber to do it.
1. Record book
Selig must confront the record books directly by adding an asterisk to the period dating roughly from the 1994 strike to the end of the 2008 season. He must consult with the Hall of Fame, address the era and announce a binding statement that could read:
"During the years ranging from approximately 1994 to 2008, a high number of Major League Baseball players were involved with performance-enhancing drugs. The exact number of players who used these substances will always be unknown, but the impact on the baseball record book has been substantial.
"As such, the records during this period stand as valid but will be marked with an asterisk denoting the unfortunate and unusual circumstances during which they were set. All players who played during this period will be eligible for induction into the Hall of Fame."
If I had known then what I know now...
Vegas 93, Vegas 98, Vegas 00 (10 year show), Vegas 03, Vegas 06
VIC 07
EV LA1 08
Seattle1 09, Seattle2 09, Salt Lake 09, LA4 09
Columbus 10
EV LA 11
Vancouver 11
Missoula 12
Portland 13, Spokane 13
St. Paul 14, Denver 14
[1. Record book
Selig must confront the record books directly by adding an asterisk to the period dating roughly from the 1994 strike to the end of the 2008 season. He must consult with the Hall of Fame, address the era and announce a binding statement that could read:
"During the years ranging from approximately 1994 to 2008, a high number of Major League Baseball players were involved with performance-enhancing drugs. The exact number of players who used these substances will always be unknown, but the impact on the baseball record book has been substantial.
"As such, the records during this period stand as valid but will be marked with an asterisk denoting the unfortunate and unusual circumstances during which they were set. All players who played during this period will be eligible for induction into the Hall of Fame."
I always thought the idea of adding an asterisk to a record after the fact was kind of weasely. I mean in my mind you are either innocent or guilty. If they can't prove you are guilty of cheating it seems cheap to suggest you might be guilty by adding the asterisk. If they can prove you are guilty of cheating even after the fact your record should be removed and you should be banned from baseball. In they olympics they keep your drug test sample for 10 years and if say 8 years from now they discover a new test and determine someone who one a gold medal in Beijing was doping, goodbye medal.
Plus it seems like the kind of thing where for example Bonds, the MLB happily took the extra profits and exposure when he generated for them when he was setting those records (and didn't bother to drug test), but the idea that they might qualify those records to deflect some of the bad publicity they are getting seems dirty.
if Bud Selig wanted to do something "in the best interests of baseball," he would have investigated androstenedione the day it was spotted in Mark McGwire's locker back in 1998, rather than discrediting the reporter who found it and trying to pull his credential.
Or, in 2000, he could have looked into the accusations of Gary Sheffield, who said on HBO's "Real Sports" that "six or seven" members of every major league baseball team were on the juice.
Or he could have reacted to the 2002 allegations made by Ken Caminiti, who not only told Sports Illustrated that he was juicing in 1996 - the year he won the National League MVP award - but that fully half the players in the league were.
The point is, Selig has had plenty of chances to do something in the best interests of baseball, a power vested in his office, during the past 11 years.
He chose to do nothing.
Now it's too late for him to do anything but shut up and take his medicine. After all, he did as much as anyone to cause the sickness that continues to plague his game 11 years after it first showed symptoms.
For him even to suggest that he might suspend Alex Rodriguez or restore Hank Aaron's rightful place as baseball's all-time home run king not only makes him a hypocrite of the first order, but an even bigger grandstander than all these politicians who can see no more urgent problem to solve in our country right now than getting Barry Bonds off the streets.
Maybe his whole Jerry Lewis-as-The Nutty Professor thing isn't just a look. Selig may really be nuts. Or a comedian.
What we know for sure is, at $18.5 million a year, he is baseball's very own grossly overpaid, grotesquely underskilled and endlessly greedy CEO, spectacularly incompetent and shamelessly greedy.
His legacy will be that of a "leader" so asleep at the switch that he allowed a former clubhouse boy turned drug dealer named Kirk Radomski to become the most influential figure in baseball on his watch.
But then, what else could you expect of this former Chevy salesman who drove home every night in a Lexus? Honesty? Integrity? Consistency?
Selig, a toady of the owners throughout his tenure as commissioner, is so impotent that he once allowed two managers to talk him into calling off an All-Star Game that was tied because of a lack of pitchers.
He is so disingenuous that he once commissioned "an investigation" into andro that came back, surprise, surprise, with the conclusion that the stuff really didn't work.
When that didn't fly, it still took him nearly five years to quietly ban what everyone using it knew was over-the-counter rocket fuel.
He is so weak that for nearly a decade, the thought of going mano-a-mano with the players association on the issue of steroids sent him scurrying for a change of undershorts.
Now he wants to get tough, threatening to mete out a punishment he has neither the moral nor legal right to even consider.
The fact is, Selig is even more to blame than the union for the steroid mess that threatens to swallow up baseball and render most of the individual accomplishments of its last decade questionable, if not meaningless.
Unlike the MLBPA, whose allegiance is to its membership, the commissioner of baseball ostensibly is responsible for the health and integrity of the game.
And as dumb and helpless as he likes to appear - the better to disarm his critics and quietly push his own agendas - even Selig has got to know that he has no chance of making a ban of A-Rod stick long enough for the ink to dry on the news release.
How can you suspend a guy who a) was told by you he was being tested anonymously, and b) was engaging in behavior that not only was not explicitly banned by the rules of baseball, but quite strongly encouraged, at least tacitly, by the Office of the Commissioner, its 30 little fiefdoms and the MLBPA?
During the past 15 years, the only thing the players and owners seemed to agree on was that baseball needed some kind of jolt to recover from the wounds they inflicted upon themselves with the work stoppage of 1994.
Steroids and HGH were baseball's bailout, and ownership and the players gladly accepted it. Now one side is trying to claim it never wanted any part of it.
There's an appropriate response to that, and although I can't reproduce it here in a family newspaper, I will tell you that the shorthand for it is BS.
As in, Bud Selig.
Ron: I just don't feel like going out tonight
Sammi: Wanna just break up?
The one that would break my heart if caught up in the steroids thing...
Ken Griffey, Jr.
...
If there is a God... please, don't let Junior be a part of this.
id stop watching baseball if his name and jeters name came up in these reports.also it wouldnt surprise me if mike piazza was named eventually in one of these reports
I've always suspected Griffey, just because of the way his body broke down on him. The guy is one odff the top athletes in the world, but every team he ran out a single, he risked blowing out a wheel.
griffiey's body hasnt changed at all since he broke into the bigs. i think he just caught the injury bug big time. but his stock as an all time great just got bigger if he's proven to be clean.
Ron: I just don't feel like going out tonight
Sammi: Wanna just break up?
but his stock as an all time great just got bigger if he's proven to be clean.
Get back to us, when you (or anyone else) "proves" that.
If I had known then what I know now...
Vegas 93, Vegas 98, Vegas 00 (10 year show), Vegas 03, Vegas 06
VIC 07
EV LA1 08
Seattle1 09, Seattle2 09, Salt Lake 09, LA4 09
Columbus 10
EV LA 11
Vancouver 11
Missoula 12
Portland 13, Spokane 13
St. Paul 14, Denver 14
This guy Radomski should be shoot in a field....and have his corpse pissed on by woodland criters FOREVER.He called WFAN NY last week to say AROD was outed by 4 other players...yet he knows the names and wont release them?????WTF is up with this stool pidgeon? What u think your an honarable guy, your a RAT fuck.
McNamee is another one. FEDS/COPS should never cut deals with people who have ruined so many lives, just to take a celeb/athlete down.....its disguisting.All it does is cause a feeding frenzy. Its like letting Sammy the rat get off for 20,30,40+ murders just make a splash.
ALL THE NAMES NEED TO COME OUT....PERIOD. If there out there, than why not?
McNamee is another one. FEDS/COPS should never cut deals with people who have ruined so many lives, just to take a celeb/athlete down.....its disguisting.All it does is cause a feeding frenzy.
I can't really agree with you, crojam :? . McNamee didn't take Clemens down; Clemens took Clemens down. Guys like McNamee are just providing a service and trying to pay their bills.
I will agree, though, that the FEDS role is all of this has been a blatant abuse of power for no other reason than grabbing headlines and putting sanctimonious politicians on TV.
If I had known then what I know now...
Vegas 93, Vegas 98, Vegas 00 (10 year show), Vegas 03, Vegas 06
VIC 07
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Seattle1 09, Seattle2 09, Salt Lake 09, LA4 09
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Missoula 12
Portland 13, Spokane 13
St. Paul 14, Denver 14
Who's on trial in the Bonds case? Not just Barry.
by Jon Pessah
On March 2, the Barry Bonds trial will begin, and a jury will decide if he lied under oath about using steroids. But the trial really isn't about Bonds—most of us decided long ago what to think of the home run king. No, this trial is about federal agent Jeff Novitzky (above, left), who has spent seven years and millions of dollars dragging Bonds to court. It's also about whether we want the government policing sports.
Until September 2003, Novitzky was an anonymous IRS special agent working drug and fraud crimes in Silicon Valley. Then his investigation into BALCO blew the lid off steroids. Soon he had the backing of Congress, President Bush—who included steroids in a State of the Union—and the U.S. attorney general, who announced the BALCO indictment on national TV. That's a lot of clout for an IRS agent. Maybe too much.
That's certainly how it looked in 2004 when Novitzky raided Comprehensive Drug Testing, the nation's largest sports-drug testing company. What happened on that day is complicated but boils down to this: Novitzky walked into CDT with 11 armed agents and a search warrant for the confidential test results of 10 baseball players with ties to BALCO. Hours later, he walked out with more than 4,000 medical files, including those of every major league baseball player, a bunch of NFL and NHL pros, and workers from three businesses. Maybe one that employs you.
Three federal judges reviewed the raid. One asked, incredulously, if the Fourth Amendment had been repealed. Another, Susan Illston, who has presided over the BALCO trials, called Novitzky's actions a "callous disregard" for constitutional rights. All three instructed him to return the records. Instead, Novitzky kept the evidence, reviewed the results and received clearance from an appeals court to pursue 103 MLB players who, those records revealed, had tested positive for steroids. (That investigation is pending another appeals court decision, expected this fall.)
An IRS watchdog unit has found cause to question the agent's methods too. One of Novitzky's handpicked subordinates said his boss talked openly about cashing in on the BALCO investigation with a book deal. Novitzky told the watchdogs he had spoken of a deal, but only in jest, admitting his words "might have been misconstrued." He was also asked about leaks in his investigation, the most damning of which was a record of his interrogation of BALCO founder Victor Conte. In it, Novitzky wrote that Conte admitted to giving Bonds steroids. Conte denied the report, but the story all but convicted Bonds in the court of public opinion long before he could be tried in a court of law. Novitzky denied he was the source of any leaks.
Then there was the missing evidence: $600 of the $63,920 confiscated in the raid on the home of Greg Anderson, Bonds' former trainer. Novitzky couldn't account for the missing cash, but a 150-page report from the IRS watchdogs cleared him of any wrongdoing in regard to the money and other accusations. Nevertheless, former high-ranking Justice Department officials say the missing evidence could blow Novitzky's credibility in the Bonds perjury trial.
That's the thing about running a very high-profile, very expensive federal investigation: You're supposed to be both careful and judicious with your power. On too many occasions over the past seven years, the man leading the government's steroids probe was neither. Case in point: After Anderson served three months in jail for dealing steroids and money laundering, Novitzky and the feds put him back in for 13 more for refusing to testify against Bonds. They also waited three years to return $41,420 of the seized $63,920, violating Anderson's plea agreement. And most recently, they opened tax investigations on his wife and mother-in-law, neither of whom has anything to do with Bonds, to force the trainer to testify.
No matter what you think of Novitzky's tactics, he has changed the landscape. Keeping sports clean was once a confidential matter, overseen by scientists with test tubes. Novitzky has ushered in an era of stiffer laws in which the feds run point; in which suspect athletes now face armed raids and tapped phone lines; in which Congress pours millions of dollars into the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, a quasi-governmental outfit that uses aggressive tactics to go after amateurs it suspects of using steroids.
Now the Novitzky era reaches a climax with the March 2 trial. Whatever the verdict, Bonds' reputation has been ruined. And since U.S. attorney general Eric Holder and President Obama have said leagues—not governments—should police steroids, Novitzky's crusade will likely end. And that leaves a question for the rest of us to ask: Was it really worth it?
McNamee is another one. FEDS/COPS should never cut deals with people who have ruined so many lives, just to take a celeb/athlete down.....its disguisting.All it does is cause a feeding frenzy.
I can't really agree with you, crojam :? . McNamee didn't take Clemens down; Clemens took Clemens down. Guys like McNamee are just providing a service and trying to pay their bills.
I will agree, though, that the FEDS role is all of this has been a blatant abuse of power for no other reason than grabbing headlines and putting sanctimonious politicians on TV.
Normally in Society its the other way around. DRUG DEALERS are always the one's cops are concerned with. McNamee was more than happy to tell his regular frenz...hey you see Clemens....me and him are frenz.And probably felt like he was a big shot....he only voluntered info......AFTER HE GOT CAUGHT....JUST LIKE A GOOD RAT DOES.If he was forthcoming,proactive and decided, OMG what am I doing....I need to turn my life around......but no,no only when a prosecuter is threating him with major jail time he's willing to comply.
And yes my friend Clemens is a total ass(like A-Rod in many ways) he deserves what he is getting.His arrogance is shocking.....But dont think for a second McNamee is "JUST TRYING TO PAY BILLS".....so am I and probably the rest of us on this board...we dont sell something that will screw your man region up forever
Comments
3 things i take from the gammons interview
1. how the hell can you not know weather you passed or failed and let that go on for 5-6 years just eating away at your mind.if orza said to me you might have passed or failed i woulda asked orza flat out what the results were.
2. you said you were young and naive and didnt know any better. it was your 8th year in the majors thats hardly being young
3. katie couric flat asked out you back in 07 weather you took them and you denied that you did them, why not come out then instead of waiting a year and a half
yea he admitted it but the fact is he still did roids and lied.
Sammi: Wanna just break up?
he played those 3 years in Texas. The balls fly over there. And he was 25-27years old. Safeco and Yankee Stadium aren't right handed hitter ballparks.
Sammi: Wanna just break up?
Fair point.
It wouldn't surprise anyone! :shock: :shock:
Yeah, A-Rod was still lying to Gammons, BUT (even though I dislike him) I really wouldn't expect him (or anyone) to name teammates and/or their supplier.
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other than he took steroids....
i dont believe he ONLY took them for 3 years while in texas.....
i think he is a lying piece of shit as far as that statement goes......
he was young???
he was naive???
he was stupid????
nope....he was a fucking asshole!!!!
Till there aint nothing left worth taking away from me.....
he is a cheater, plain and simple.
and a despicable liar. and also very, very well paid as a result.
hmmm....what's wrong with this picture?
Steroids are illegal in the country. There was no provision at the time in the collective bargaining agreement between major league baseball and the players' union to test for steroids in the time period in question. In 2003, as the steroids hysteria started becoming more and more mainstream, MLB instituted a policy where they would anonymously test the players that season and if more than 5% tested positive then they would change their drug policy.
A Rod was one of the 104 players who tested positive that year out of about 750 players which led to baseball instituting the steroids policy which includes suspensions and being kicked out of the league after a certain number of tests.
Technically because there was no drug policy in place in 2003, MLB can't suspend A Rod, but now his image is forever tarnished.
And MLB has taken a ton of criticism over the years for being so behinds in their drug policy.
- 8/28/98
- 9/2/00
- 4/28/03, 5/3/03, 7/3/03, 7/5/03, 7/6/03, 7/9/03, 7/11/03, 7/12/03, 7/14/03
- 9/28/04, 9/29/04, 10/1/04, 10/2/04
- 9/11/05, 9/12/05, 9/13/05, 9/30/05, 10/1/05, 10/3/05
- 5/12/06, 5/13/06, 5/27/06, 5/28/06, 5/30/06, 6/1/06, 6/3/06, 6/23/06, 7/22/06, 7/23/06, 12/2/06, 12/9/06
- 8/2/07, 8/5/07
- 6/19/08, 6/20/08, 6/22/08, 6/24/08, 6/25/08, 6/27/08, 6/28/08, 6/30/08, 7/1/08
- 8/23/09, 8/24/09, 9/21/09, 9/22/09, 10/27/09, 10/28/09, 10/30/09, 10/31/09
- 5/15/10, 5/17/10, 5/18/10, 5/20/10, 5/21/10, 10/23/10, 10/24/10
- 9/11/11, 9/12/11
- 10/18/13, 10/21/13, 10/22/13, 11/30/13, 12/4/13
1) who the fuck decrees what is "legal" and what is not? e.g. cortisone shot, lasik, red tinted contacts, hyperbaeric chamber, artificial joint fluid. Everyone has always looked for (and found) an edge. It's the natural progression of not just ballplayers, but the human race.
2) What makes you so sure that Willie, Babe, Mickey, Hank, etc. wouldn't have taken steroids if they had a chance? Most would have.
P.S. I hate A-Rod, too.
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The federal government. Taking anabolic steroids without a prescription is crime. Under federal law, first-time simple possession of anabolic steroids carries a maximum penalty of one year in prison and a $1,000 fine. For first-offense trafficking in steroids, the maximum penalty is five years in prison and a fine of $250,000. Second offenses double this penalty. In addition to federal penalties, state laws also prohibit illegal anabolic steroid use.
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- 4/28/03, 5/3/03, 7/3/03, 7/5/03, 7/6/03, 7/9/03, 7/11/03, 7/12/03, 7/14/03
- 9/28/04, 9/29/04, 10/1/04, 10/2/04
- 9/11/05, 9/12/05, 9/13/05, 9/30/05, 10/1/05, 10/3/05
- 5/12/06, 5/13/06, 5/27/06, 5/28/06, 5/30/06, 6/1/06, 6/3/06, 6/23/06, 7/22/06, 7/23/06, 12/2/06, 12/9/06
- 8/2/07, 8/5/07
- 6/19/08, 6/20/08, 6/22/08, 6/24/08, 6/25/08, 6/27/08, 6/28/08, 6/30/08, 7/1/08
- 8/23/09, 8/24/09, 9/21/09, 9/22/09, 10/27/09, 10/28/09, 10/30/09, 10/31/09
- 5/15/10, 5/17/10, 5/18/10, 5/20/10, 5/21/10, 10/23/10, 10/24/10
- 9/11/11, 9/12/11
- 10/18/13, 10/21/13, 10/22/13, 11/30/13, 12/4/13
So based on how you explained the "anonmous" testing program to me and your above description of steroid laws, would it be possible to charge the people who oversaw the testing program with obstruction of justice, or conspiracy or something like that. I mean if they know that laws are being broken don't they have a duty to report it (like to the FBI or the ATF or something), especially if they are doctors?
That's where it gets tricky. These drug test results were coded for each individual player so that the testers themselves wouldn't know whose samples they were testing. Each code corresponded to a player and I'm pretty sure the actual testers didn't know whose sample each was. These samples along with the player codes were supposed to be destroyed after the results were determined i.e. how many people tested positive. But the Federal government subpoenaed the results and the codes keeping them from being destroyed as part of the BALCO investigation. The samples still haven't been destroyed as the federal government is still battling with the courts to get the results from the company that administered the tests. That decision should be rendered sometime this year and when it does, either the samples will be destroyed or the rest of the names will be released.
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- 9/28/04, 9/29/04, 10/1/04, 10/2/04
- 9/11/05, 9/12/05, 9/13/05, 9/30/05, 10/1/05, 10/3/05
- 5/12/06, 5/13/06, 5/27/06, 5/28/06, 5/30/06, 6/1/06, 6/3/06, 6/23/06, 7/22/06, 7/23/06, 12/2/06, 12/9/06
- 8/2/07, 8/5/07
- 6/19/08, 6/20/08, 6/22/08, 6/24/08, 6/25/08, 6/27/08, 6/28/08, 6/30/08, 7/1/08
- 8/23/09, 8/24/09, 9/21/09, 9/22/09, 10/27/09, 10/28/09, 10/30/09, 10/31/09
- 5/15/10, 5/17/10, 5/18/10, 5/20/10, 5/21/10, 10/23/10, 10/24/10
- 9/11/11, 9/12/11
- 10/18/13, 10/21/13, 10/22/13, 11/30/13, 12/4/13
I will say this though: he cited the extreme pressure he felt to do well in Texas as the driving force behind his usage, which supposedly lasted from 2001-03. And 2003 -- SURPRISE SURPRISE -- just happens to be the year he joined the Yankees, who still owe him somewhere in the neighborhood of $270mil if I am not mistaken.
This cat didn't get a whiff of what pressure was about in Texas compared to the pressure to succeed he felt from the day he landed in NYC, so I find it terribly hard to believe that he stopped doing the stuff before he joined the Yankees. That is especially true when I consider that the Yankees still owe him so much money and what the repurcussions of him admitting to using while with the team might be. Nice try at being upfront about the whole thing, A-Fraud, but I don't buy it.
THen again....he doesn't really give a shit what I think
They say every sin is deadly but I believe they may be wrong...I'm guilty of all seven and I don't feel too bad at all
D'oh!!!!
I could write 10,000 words on this stuff.....I almost can't stop. And, Solat, I respect your opinion but here's where I'm coming from....
I'm a life-long baseball fan...I won't even tell you how old I am, but will tell you I've seen a lot of the players from the "clean" time in person and that I have a lot of respect for them. Some of the "dirty" guys have broken records held by the players of my youth. But.....
There is a certain "reefer madness witch hunt" quality to the steroid era. We have sanctimonious politicians hyperventilating over "the kids" and what's "right " and "wrong." IMHO, we can forget about ever finding out the whole story of the steroids era. We would need all the players and Bud Selig and all the owners and all the agents, etc., etc. to tell the TRUTH and it's just not going to happen. So, cherry picking who we grill and giving, say Matt Williams, a pass is not accomplishing anything. I would like to see steroids out of the game. Is it possible? I kinda doubt it. And why is all the steroids outrage confined to baseball, when an NFL positive hardly rates a yawn? If we do rid sports of steroids, what's next? Genetic engineering?
HOF voting has always been based on looking at players in the context of their era....e.g. how did Ryne Sandberg stack up against the 2B of his time. That's why we have .260 hitting shortstops in the HOF. We can't exclude 1988-2008 from HOF consideration....and we can't say we "know" so-and-so was clean or dirty...because we don't really know (in most cases). I just think we need to end the hysteria, the grandstanding, the moral superiority, etc. and try to move forward. Knowledgeable fans know that many factors have always gone into the numbers. Most people consider Mays a superior ballplayer to Aaron and understand why Hank ended up with nearly 100 more career HRs. Sosa and McGwire and Bonds and A-Rod are never going to cause people to forget Babe and Willie and Mickey and Frank and the rest.
As I said, I could go on and on and on
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SHUT THE FUCK UP! Your teammate Jeff Bagwell might have WON you some games. You played with Roger and Andy. Do you want to give up your 2005 World Series share? You've probably had some steroid enhanced relievers save your ERA a few times. So, just shut the fuck up. :x
P.S. Again, I can't stand A-Rod.......but I can't stand the hypocrisy even more.
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one of the NY papers dissected his interview, and pointed out several lies/inconsistencies. Did he say in the interview that he ha d no contact/talks with Boras about this?
I've always suspected Griffey, just because of the way his body broke down on him. The guy is one odff the top athletes in the world, but every team he ran out a single, he risked blowing out a wheel.
I thought the exact same thing...you get traded to the yankees, become a teammate of former BFF Jeter, after almost being traded tot he Sox, and the pressure STOPS?
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/w ... index.html
I thought the same thing about him not specifically saying steroids. But he's said more that other players have. Yet they still look for stuff to bash him on. I'm pretty sure verducci hates A-rod. And Selena Roberts is coming out with an unflattering book about him. From what I've heard.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/s ... id=3899274
One excerpt:
It is past time for Selig to recognize that the successes he trumpets -- interleague play, the wild-card format, the explosion of new revenue streams, the World Baseball Classic -- have been enveloped by steroids. The problem is that he does not truly believe this, else he would have acted sooner and more definitively. But here is an immutable fact: Bud Selig, 74 years old, friend of Hank Aaron, will be known only as the commissioner who presided over an era when baseball's greatest players have disgraced themselves, and the front-office executives and field staff were all culpable and did nothing without being forced, all on his watch.
The history major in Selig is betting otherwise, that he will survive surely as Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens and Mark McGwire have not. He is wrong. It is over. The steroids era -- its players, its reputations, its taint, its records -- cannot be saved, but the sport can survive it.
This is no exaggeration.
The commissioner has put in place the strongest testing program available, but only under immense congressional pressure. He has the testing mechanisms, the will and the structure to move forward. He has failed by leaving all the toxic issues to others instead of addressing each directly.
He has left the judging of the players to the court of public opinion.
He has left the punishments to law enforcement and the federal government.
He has left the legacy questions to the Hall of Fame voters.
He has offered no road map of leadership to the questions that people care about the most. How do you determine who is eligible for the Hall of Fame? What do you do about the records?
The history major in Selig knows this: Lyndon Johnson should be remembered as perhaps the greatest domestic legislative president in history. But he is known for one word -- Vietnam.
Bud Selig has taken the game from the Armageddon of a 232-day players strike to its most financially profitable period in history. But if he doesn't move fast, he will be known for one word -- steroids.
If he does not know this, surely his people do. Selig can decide how far down he wants the bottom to drop. If he acts boldly, he can bring his game back into the light and end the steroids era once and for all. The question is whether he has the fiber to do it.
1. Record book
Selig must confront the record books directly by adding an asterisk to the period dating roughly from the 1994 strike to the end of the 2008 season. He must consult with the Hall of Fame, address the era and announce a binding statement that could read:
"During the years ranging from approximately 1994 to 2008, a high number of Major League Baseball players were involved with performance-enhancing drugs. The exact number of players who used these substances will always be unknown, but the impact on the baseball record book has been substantial.
"As such, the records during this period stand as valid but will be marked with an asterisk denoting the unfortunate and unusual circumstances during which they were set. All players who played during this period will be eligible for induction into the Hall of Fame."
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I always thought the idea of adding an asterisk to a record after the fact was kind of weasely. I mean in my mind you are either innocent or guilty. If they can't prove you are guilty of cheating it seems cheap to suggest you might be guilty by adding the asterisk. If they can prove you are guilty of cheating even after the fact your record should be removed and you should be banned from baseball. In they olympics they keep your drug test sample for 10 years and if say 8 years from now they discover a new test and determine someone who one a gold medal in Beijing was doping, goodbye medal.
Plus it seems like the kind of thing where for example Bonds, the MLB happily took the extra profits and exposure when he generated for them when he was setting those records (and didn't bother to drug test), but the idea that they might qualify those records to deflect some of the bad publicity they are getting seems dirty.
if Bud Selig wanted to do something "in the best interests of baseball," he would have investigated androstenedione the day it was spotted in Mark McGwire's locker back in 1998, rather than discrediting the reporter who found it and trying to pull his credential.
Or, in 2000, he could have looked into the accusations of Gary Sheffield, who said on HBO's "Real Sports" that "six or seven" members of every major league baseball team were on the juice.
Or he could have reacted to the 2002 allegations made by Ken Caminiti, who not only told Sports Illustrated that he was juicing in 1996 - the year he won the National League MVP award - but that fully half the players in the league were.
The point is, Selig has had plenty of chances to do something in the best interests of baseball, a power vested in his office, during the past 11 years.
He chose to do nothing.
Now it's too late for him to do anything but shut up and take his medicine. After all, he did as much as anyone to cause the sickness that continues to plague his game 11 years after it first showed symptoms.
For him even to suggest that he might suspend Alex Rodriguez or restore Hank Aaron's rightful place as baseball's all-time home run king not only makes him a hypocrite of the first order, but an even bigger grandstander than all these politicians who can see no more urgent problem to solve in our country right now than getting Barry Bonds off the streets.
Maybe his whole Jerry Lewis-as-The Nutty Professor thing isn't just a look. Selig may really be nuts. Or a comedian.
What we know for sure is, at $18.5 million a year, he is baseball's very own grossly overpaid, grotesquely underskilled and endlessly greedy CEO, spectacularly incompetent and shamelessly greedy.
His legacy will be that of a "leader" so asleep at the switch that he allowed a former clubhouse boy turned drug dealer named Kirk Radomski to become the most influential figure in baseball on his watch.
But then, what else could you expect of this former Chevy salesman who drove home every night in a Lexus? Honesty? Integrity? Consistency?
Selig, a toady of the owners throughout his tenure as commissioner, is so impotent that he once allowed two managers to talk him into calling off an All-Star Game that was tied because of a lack of pitchers.
He is so disingenuous that he once commissioned "an investigation" into andro that came back, surprise, surprise, with the conclusion that the stuff really didn't work.
When that didn't fly, it still took him nearly five years to quietly ban what everyone using it knew was over-the-counter rocket fuel.
He is so weak that for nearly a decade, the thought of going mano-a-mano with the players association on the issue of steroids sent him scurrying for a change of undershorts.
Now he wants to get tough, threatening to mete out a punishment he has neither the moral nor legal right to even consider.
The fact is, Selig is even more to blame than the union for the steroid mess that threatens to swallow up baseball and render most of the individual accomplishments of its last decade questionable, if not meaningless.
Unlike the MLBPA, whose allegiance is to its membership, the commissioner of baseball ostensibly is responsible for the health and integrity of the game.
And as dumb and helpless as he likes to appear - the better to disarm his critics and quietly push his own agendas - even Selig has got to know that he has no chance of making a ban of A-Rod stick long enough for the ink to dry on the news release.
How can you suspend a guy who a) was told by you he was being tested anonymously, and b) was engaging in behavior that not only was not explicitly banned by the rules of baseball, but quite strongly encouraged, at least tacitly, by the Office of the Commissioner, its 30 little fiefdoms and the MLBPA?
During the past 15 years, the only thing the players and owners seemed to agree on was that baseball needed some kind of jolt to recover from the wounds they inflicted upon themselves with the work stoppage of 1994.
Steroids and HGH were baseball's bailout, and ownership and the players gladly accepted it. Now one side is trying to claim it never wanted any part of it.
There's an appropriate response to that, and although I can't reproduce it here in a family newspaper, I will tell you that the shorthand for it is BS.
As in, Bud Selig.
Sammi: Wanna just break up?
Sammi: Wanna just break up?
you're kidding, right?
Get back to us, when you (or anyone else) "proves" that.
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McNamee is another one. FEDS/COPS should never cut deals with people who have ruined so many lives, just to take a celeb/athlete down.....its disguisting.All it does is cause a feeding frenzy. Its like letting Sammy the rat get off for 20,30,40+ murders just make a splash.
ALL THE NAMES NEED TO COME OUT....PERIOD. If there out there, than why not?
RANT OVER
I can't really agree with you, crojam :? . McNamee didn't take Clemens down; Clemens took Clemens down. Guys like McNamee are just providing a service and trying to pay their bills.
I will agree, though, that the FEDS role is all of this has been a blatant abuse of power for no other reason than grabbing headlines and putting sanctimonious politicians on TV.
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by Jon Pessah
On March 2, the Barry Bonds trial will begin, and a jury will decide if he lied under oath about using steroids. But the trial really isn't about Bonds—most of us decided long ago what to think of the home run king. No, this trial is about federal agent Jeff Novitzky (above, left), who has spent seven years and millions of dollars dragging Bonds to court. It's also about whether we want the government policing sports.
Until September 2003, Novitzky was an anonymous IRS special agent working drug and fraud crimes in Silicon Valley. Then his investigation into BALCO blew the lid off steroids. Soon he had the backing of Congress, President Bush—who included steroids in a State of the Union—and the U.S. attorney general, who announced the BALCO indictment on national TV. That's a lot of clout for an IRS agent. Maybe too much.
That's certainly how it looked in 2004 when Novitzky raided Comprehensive Drug Testing, the nation's largest sports-drug testing company. What happened on that day is complicated but boils down to this: Novitzky walked into CDT with 11 armed agents and a search warrant for the confidential test results of 10 baseball players with ties to BALCO. Hours later, he walked out with more than 4,000 medical files, including those of every major league baseball player, a bunch of NFL and NHL pros, and workers from three businesses. Maybe one that employs you.
Three federal judges reviewed the raid. One asked, incredulously, if the Fourth Amendment had been repealed. Another, Susan Illston, who has presided over the BALCO trials, called Novitzky's actions a "callous disregard" for constitutional rights. All three instructed him to return the records. Instead, Novitzky kept the evidence, reviewed the results and received clearance from an appeals court to pursue 103 MLB players who, those records revealed, had tested positive for steroids. (That investigation is pending another appeals court decision, expected this fall.)
An IRS watchdog unit has found cause to question the agent's methods too. One of Novitzky's handpicked subordinates said his boss talked openly about cashing in on the BALCO investigation with a book deal. Novitzky told the watchdogs he had spoken of a deal, but only in jest, admitting his words "might have been misconstrued." He was also asked about leaks in his investigation, the most damning of which was a record of his interrogation of BALCO founder Victor Conte. In it, Novitzky wrote that Conte admitted to giving Bonds steroids. Conte denied the report, but the story all but convicted Bonds in the court of public opinion long before he could be tried in a court of law. Novitzky denied he was the source of any leaks.
Then there was the missing evidence: $600 of the $63,920 confiscated in the raid on the home of Greg Anderson, Bonds' former trainer. Novitzky couldn't account for the missing cash, but a 150-page report from the IRS watchdogs cleared him of any wrongdoing in regard to the money and other accusations. Nevertheless, former high-ranking Justice Department officials say the missing evidence could blow Novitzky's credibility in the Bonds perjury trial.
That's the thing about running a very high-profile, very expensive federal investigation: You're supposed to be both careful and judicious with your power. On too many occasions over the past seven years, the man leading the government's steroids probe was neither. Case in point: After Anderson served three months in jail for dealing steroids and money laundering, Novitzky and the feds put him back in for 13 more for refusing to testify against Bonds. They also waited three years to return $41,420 of the seized $63,920, violating Anderson's plea agreement. And most recently, they opened tax investigations on his wife and mother-in-law, neither of whom has anything to do with Bonds, to force the trainer to testify.
No matter what you think of Novitzky's tactics, he has changed the landscape. Keeping sports clean was once a confidential matter, overseen by scientists with test tubes. Novitzky has ushered in an era of stiffer laws in which the feds run point; in which suspect athletes now face armed raids and tapped phone lines; in which Congress pours millions of dollars into the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, a quasi-governmental outfit that uses aggressive tactics to go after amateurs it suspects of using steroids.
Now the Novitzky era reaches a climax with the March 2 trial. Whatever the verdict, Bonds' reputation has been ruined. And since U.S. attorney general Eric Holder and President Obama have said leagues—not governments—should police steroids, Novitzky's crusade will likely end. And that leaves a question for the rest of us to ask: Was it really worth it?
http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3896270
Normally in Society its the other way around. DRUG DEALERS are always the one's cops are concerned with. McNamee was more than happy to tell his regular frenz...hey you see Clemens....me and him are frenz.And probably felt like he was a big shot....he only voluntered info......AFTER HE GOT CAUGHT....JUST LIKE A GOOD RAT DOES.If he was forthcoming,proactive and decided, OMG what am I doing....I need to turn my life around......but no,no only when a prosecuter is threating him with major jail time he's willing to comply.
And yes my friend Clemens is a total ass(like A-Rod in many ways) he deserves what he is getting.His arrogance is shocking.....But dont think for a second McNamee is "JUST TRYING TO PAY BILLS".....so am I and probably the rest of us on this board...we dont sell something that will screw your man region up forever