Major League Baseball
Talk of steroids gets bulky

By Seattle Times news services

	MORRY GASH / AP San Francisco's Barry Bonds is at the center of focus on the growing concern of alleged illegal steroids use.
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As the question of steroid use clouded another day of spring training, the major-league players' union defended itself against charges made by an increasing number of its members that baseball's steroid testing program is hopelessly ineffective.

"No one at the union is in favor of steroid use," Michael Weiner, associate general counsel, said yesterday. "We're in favor of a fair agreement that deals with the problem and protects players' rights, and that's what I think we have."

Three of baseball's most prominent sluggers — Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi and Gary Sheffield — received steroids illegally from Bonds' personal trainer, the San Francisco Chronicle reported yesterday, citing information provided to federal investigators. The Chronicle said that information did not explicitly show the players had used the substances.

Greg Anderson, the trainer, is one of four men indicted on charges of trafficking in steroids and other performance-enhancing substances through BALCO, the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, in Burlingame, Calif.

Federal authorities also were told that Anderson provided human growth hormone to Bonds and steroids to baseball players Marvin Benard, Benito Santiago and Randy Velarde and NFL player Bill Romanowski, the Chronicle reported. Romanowski was released yesterday by the Oakland Raiders after failing a physical examination.

	JEFF GROSS / GETTY IMAGES Some have no doubt Barry Bonds has used steroids during his career. Bonds reportedly obtained steroids from his personal trainer, Greg Anderson.

The pressure is so suffocating that commissioner Bud Selig imposed a gag order on the subject yesterday, USA Today reported.

Selig's directive, a copy of which was obtained by the paper, tells club officials and employees "to refrain from further comment on the BALCO proceedings specifically and performance enhancing drugs generally."

According to The Associated Press, Bonds, who has denied using steroids, told reporters gathered around him Tuesday at the San Francisco Giants' Arizona training camp to "get out of my locker." New York Yankee teammates Sheffield and Giambi also have denied steroid use, and Sheffield told reporters at the Yankees' Florida camp, "If you're not guilty, why would you worry?"

At baseball's New York headquarters, U.S. Rep. John Sweeney (R-N.Y.) announced the introduction of a bill to broaden the definition of illegal steroids and stiffen penalties for steroid distribution.

Greg Anderson

He said union "leadership chooses to ignore their own membership and isn't concerned about the overriding public health issue."

Selig, in a statement issued from his office in Milwaukee, and president Bob DuPuy pledged a commitment to "zero tolerance" of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs.

Selig reiterated that minor-leaguers are subject to year-round, random testing, "and the penalties, beginning with the first offense, are meaningful." In the major leagues, where union approval is required, Selig described the program of in-season random testing as a "first step."

He also reiterating that owners cannot act without the cooperation of the union.

While administrators of drug testing in Olympic sports have dismissed the major-league protocol as meaningless — citing in part the absence of year-round testing and the failure to suspend players for a first offense — a growing number of players have criticized the program as well during spring training.

	MORRY GASH / AP Bud Selig

"I don't think anything is going to change," Texas Rangers pitcher Kenny Rogers told The Dallas Morning News. "Nothing. You'd have to be a complete moron to get suspended. And if you get suspended, the first time, it's really not much more than a few extra tee times."

The union first accepted drug testing in the 2002 collective bargaining agreement, but only after owners agreed to an initial year in which penalties would not be imposed.

After 5 percent to 7 percent of steroid tests given to major-leaguers came back positive last year, a protocol was triggered in which a player would be put into treatment after a first positive test but not suspended or identified. Players could be suspended only for repeat offenses, and five offenses would be required for a one-year suspension.

"Personally, I think guys who test positive should be identified," Angels pitcher Jarrod Washburn said. "If you're breaking the rules and get caught, you should be penalized for that, but that's not how it is."

Former major-leaguer Andy Van Slyke, who played with Bonds on the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1987-92, told Sporting News Radio he believes Bonds used steroids.

"Unequivocally he's taken them," Van Slyke said. "I can say that with utmost certainty. Now, I never saw him put it into his body, but look ... the physical evidence is there. People do not gain 35 pounds of muscle in their late 30s without a little bit of help."

Under the agreement between owners and the union, the only players subject to a two-year suspension would be those guilty of a second offense for selling or distributing drugs. A first offense for the sale or distribution of an illegal substance calls for a suspension of no longer than 90 days.

Weiner, the union official, spoke to reporters after meeting with Anaheim Angels players on a routine spring training visit. He denied the union had impeded strengthening of the testing program.

Last spring, several players on the Chicago White Sox threatened to refuse to take the drug test, hoping to help trigger testing with penalties this year, since every refusal would have been counted as a positive test. The union ordered the players to cooperate. And, last week, after Sheffield volunteered to take a drug test for anyone who asked, union executive Gene Orza told him not to take outside tests.

"This union agreed, and these players agreed, to a testing program," Weiner said. "There's going to be testing for steroids of every major-league player this year. I don't think it's fair for people to criticize that program before it's even begun. ...

"We had a survey last year, and people said at the time that the survey is a joke, the threshold will never be met, and there won't be any more testing. It turned out the survey was serious, the threshold was met and now we have testing individually."

Rob Manfred, Major League Baseball's executive vice president for labor relations, said any changes to the drug program must be accepted by the union, but declined to say if it's being seriously discussed. "We have ongoing conversations with the players association about the topic of performance-enhancing drugs, in a variety of contexts," he said.

Said shortstop David Eckstein, the Angels' player representative: "This is a first step. Let's see how this works. If the players and the union don't think it will work, we'll make an adjustment."

Weiner declined to discuss the report of players receiving steroids, noting no players have been charged with a crime or targeted in the San Francisco grand jury investigation that triggered the indictments. Anderson and the other three men have pleaded not guilty.

In a statement, the attorney for Bonds, Michael Rains, said: "We continue to adamantly deny that Barry was provided, furnished or supplied any illegal substances at any time by Greg Anderson. This latest pronouncement is a complete disregard to the truth."

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