BALCO's Steroids Tests Were Kind of Sketch

my tax dollars at work...george mitchell should be brought up on charges of willfully misappropriating tax payers funds.........j.t....

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This has nothing to do with George Mitchell, and the only tax dollars Mitchell is spending is from his pension from the Senate (if he has one).

As for this, those tests should not count for anything if that is true. Also, if they were willing to use these tests for the indictment, and have had them for a while, Anderson going to be getting a nice check for sitting in jail for no reason.

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Wait a minute -- are you saying Bonds' defense will be that the tests, ordered and paid for by Victor Conte, were somehow sabotaged or accidentally switched to turn up positive for Bonds, Victor Conte's client?

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No, I think he's saying that Conte routinely subjected all his clients, even those who were using only his vitamin supplements, to urine testing. The tests were also capable of detecting 30 different steroids. Conted die this in order to see if the masking agents (like "the cream") he was prescribing were effective. For instance, if any of the tests came up "positive," which, apparently some did, then he would either adjust the dosage or do something else to remedy the situation. Whether the results were positive or negative, he wanted to know. PostmanR can disagree if I'm misstating it.

The ''clear'' has been identified by agents as a code name for the steroid THG. Conte told agents that he also gave Anderson a "cream" containing a steroid and a steroid- masking agent.

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I wish politicians would let baseball manage its own house; we do not need the self-righteous politicians to protect baseball's "purity" especially when they cannot safeguard their own "purity." There are many real issues for Congress to concern itself with, e.g., the war in Iraq, social security (which these self-appointed champions of baseball have raided on a regular basis for decades, and not to mention, have never contributed a nickle of their own monies towards.

Barry Bonds is the greatest player and most feared person to ever have graced this game. Bonds will be vindicated. . .

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tc -- Right, but if they're going to claim those tests turned up a false positive through a chain-of-custody error, then we have all sorts of questions to answer.

Chain of custody is a pretty big issue when you're talking about, say, a lab whose methods have been questioned and an athlete who has never triggered any suspicion aside from that one test. If the lab is negligent, the test in question could have been switched with another athlete who happened to be positive. If the lab is outright dirty, the test could have been sabotaged.

If Conde's testing program is as you've described -- and I'll have to be careful here to say I haven't heard that directly -- then a negligent positive would be a long shot and a sabotaged positive would be ... well, a bit hard to believe.

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There's no reliable chain of custody for the evidence. This alone will ruin the prosecutors case. Not only have they wasted all the taxpayer's money on an investigation that's been going on for over three years now, but they won't come close to getting a conviction and they're going to have to pay through the nose for Greg Anderson's jail time when he successfully sues them. What a total joke. Bonds is a jerk of the highest magnitude, but this has been a witch hunt from the beginning. Greg Anderson may not win any man of the year awards, but at least he's not a rat.

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I have had enough of the media and white america making african american athletes the poster children for whatever goes wrong in sports or this country. You take a look at all the baseball players accused of taking steroids and Barry Bonds is held accountable for the entire league. It is not a black thing or a white thing, its and illegal drug thing...so why doesn't the media run the names of Mark McGwire, Ralpheo Palmario, Jose Canseco, Lance Armstrong through the mud as they do Barry. Is it because Barry is Black...It sure seems that way.

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The sloppy testing procedures may be indicitave of the sloppy case that the Justice Department has against Bonds. It should be noted that the indictment of Bonds came only hours before it was announced that Joseph Russoniello had been nominated by the Bush Administration to become the U.S. Attorney in the Northern District in California, replacing acting U.S. Attorney Scott Schools. It has been speculated that the politics of this appointment dictated the timing of the Bonds indictment, since Russoniello could have decided to drop the case altogether. This suggests that the indictment of Bonds might have been a last-gasp act of desperation by the acting U.S. Attorney Schools, and not the culmination of an airtight case against Bonds. It also suggests that the Justice Department has no more evidence against Bonds than it had when it declared that the testimony of Greg Anderson was essential to make its case for perjury, sending Anderson to prison for contempt of court. Stay tuned.

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this case is already falling apart and it isnt even in court yet and it was doomed from the get go already by the media spotlight and if all this is true no one independently labeling bonds pee there is no way of knowing it isnt tampered or even his and since he went to conte for a dietary regimen they cant prove he knowingly took steroids without anderson or someone else close ratting him out and bonds can probably pay whomever may rat him out more than the us will

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Convicting Bonds in San Francisco will be extremely difficult for three reasons. First, convicting a celebrity of a crime is difficult in itself. Second, when the celebrity is a hero in the community where the trial is being held, (and sadly, Bonds is a hero to many in the Bay area), a conviction is even more difficult. And third, when the charges are based on the use of drugs and the trial is in one of the drug capitals of the country, the prosecution has a huge hurdle to cross. But the prosecutors are aware of all of these factors and still believe that they have the ability to prove their case.

The drug tests are only one of the pieces of evidence. There is also the testimony of his mistress, the chemist, Victor Conte (and other employees of BALCO) and possibly other athletes. There are also the statistics, themselves. Between the ages of 36 through 40, Bonds statistics did not fall due to his age like just about every other player in baseball, but rather rose by an incredible 25%.

And finally, if Bonds is acquitted despite overwhelming evidence of his guilt, his acquittal will carry the same weight as the acquittal of O. J. Simpson (namely none). So at least all of the facts will become public and baseball fans can then reach their own conclusions.

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If the syringe doesn't fit, you must acquit!

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To be honest. Barry Bonds sucks and he's a cheater and should never be a legend in baseball. But he does not belong in jail. He is in no way a danger to society, even if he is a d-bag. If he was not a celebrity he would not be going to court. So, although I hate him, I think this is a little bit absurd.

nikki
nikkicookers@aol.com
http://www.fitconnect.com

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You guys might want to peek at this:
http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/barry-bonds-a-guide-to-help-you-cut-through-the-noise/

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Beau Dure - Thanks for the reference. A really good summary.

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