Granted it was an amphetamine test and won't get a suspension.. But still...

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2727325



Report: Bonds failed amphetamine test
Associated Press

NEW YORK -- Barry Bonds failed a test for amphetamines last season and originally blamed it on a teammate, the Daily News reported Thursday.

Barry Bonds
Bonds is still under investigation as to whether he perjured himself when he testified in 2003 that he never knowingly used performance-enhancing drugs.

When first informed of the positive test, Bonds attributed it to a substance he had taken from teammate Mark Sweeney's locker, the New York City newspaper said, citing several unnamed sources.

"I have no comment on that," Bonds' agent Jeff Borris told the Daily News on Wednesday night.

"Mark was made aware of the fact that his name had been brought up," Sweeney's agent Barry Axelrod told the Daily News. "But he did not give Barry Bonds anything, and there was nothing he could have given Barry Bonds."

Bonds, who has always maintained he never has tested positive for illegal drug use, is already under investigation for lying about steroid use.

A federal grand jury is investigating whether the 42-year-old Bonds perjured himself when he testified in 2003 in the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative steroid distribution case that he never knowingly used performance-enhancing drugs. The San Francisco Giants slugger told a 2003 federal grand jury that he believed his trainer Greg Anderson had provided him flaxseed oil and arthritic balm, not steroids.

Under baseball's amphetamines policy, which went into effect last season, players are not publicly identified for a first positive test. A second positive test for amphetamines results in a 25-game suspension. The first failed steroids test costs a player 50 games.

Bonds did not appeal the positive test, which made him subject to six drug tests by MLB over the next six months, according to the Daily News.

"We're not in a position to confirm or deny, obviously," MLB spokesman Rich Levin told the Daily News.

According to the newspaper, Sweeney learned of the Bonds' positive test from Gene Orza, chief operating officer of the Major League Baseball Players Association. Orza told Sweeney, the paper said, that he should remove any troublesome substances from his locker and should not share said substances. Sweeney said there was nothing of concern in his locker, according to the Daily News' sources.

An AP message for Sweeney was not immediately returned late Wednesday.

The Giants are still working to finalize complicated language in the slugger's $16 million, one-year contract for next season -- a process that has lasted almost a month since he agreed to the deal Dec. 7 on the last day of baseball's winter meetings.

The language still being negotiated concerns the left fielder's compliance with team rules, as well as what would happen if he were to be indicted or have other legal troubles.

Borris has declined to comment on the negotiations. He didn't immediately return a message from the AP on Wednesday night.

The 42-year-old Bonds is set to begin his 15th season with the Giants only 22 home runs shy of surpassing Hank Aaron's career record of 755.

Bonds, considered healthy again following offseason surgery on his troublesome left elbow, has spent 14 of his 21 big-league seasons with San Francisco and helped the Giants draw 3 million fans in all seven seasons at their waterfront ballpark.

After missing all but 14 games in 2005 following three operations on his right knee, Bonds batted .270 with 26 homers and 77 RBIs in 367 at-bats in 2006. He passed Babe Ruth to move into second place on the career home run list May 28.

Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press

1/11/2007 3:20:47 AM

even i don't care

1/11/2007 6:17:07 AM

the interesting thing is that any positive test spurs an automatic 6 month testing period, and we haven't heard what (if anything) has come from that.

1/11/2007 9:05:00 AM

bttt since people cant read past the first 10 threads

1/11/2007 10:01:10 AM

Fuck Barry Bonds

1/11/2007 12:24:46 PM

he didn't try to appeal either.

1/11/2007 12:25:29 PM

you're looking at that backwards wlb .. because it caused a mandatory testing period and we didnt hear anything MEANS he didnt test positive for steroids...



which begs more the question , not if people are using steroids, but how they are managing not to get caught.

1/11/2007 12:29:41 PM

Hopefully the guys who shot up Darrent Williams's limo have fled to SF and will put some caps in Barry Bonds too.




[Edited on January 11, 2007 at 12:43 PM. Reason : hg]

1/11/2007 12:43:01 PM

The authors of the book "Game of Shadows" are going to end up serving 18 times more jailtime than Victor Conte will. So, how does that make you feel?

1/11/2007 12:47:33 PM

makes feel like reporters are cheaters too

1/11/2007 12:50:23 PM

Quote :

"which begs more the question , not if people are using steroids, but how they are managing not to get caught."

same way they do in football - bladders of clean urine strapped to their backs with a tube running around their leg. players unions don't allow for testers to actually witness them pissing. the players that are getting busted with steroids in their possession are being busted with drugs that take 12-18 months to clear the bloodstream. what does that tell you?

1/11/2007 12:50:29 PM

this is easily going to be the most overblown story of the past year.

1/11/2007 1:28:45 PM

The Original Whizzinator

1/11/2007 1:40:33 PM

Quote :

"originally blamed it on a teammate"

"I did not knowingly ingest amphetamines. I thought they were actually steroids"

1/11/2007 1:43:27 PM

Quote :

"you're looking at that backwards wlb .. because it caused a mandatory testing period and we didnt hear anything MEANS he didnt test positive for steroids..."

but it took 6 months for this to come out, right?

1/11/2007 1:57:01 PM

likeomgrlywowthatissuchasuprise

1/11/2007 2:12:50 PM

you're looking at it backwards ssclark...because he got bloated and had his best hitting seasons at an age where most other players are in a decline MEANS he is a fucking steroid using cheater

1/11/2007 2:16:09 PM

likeomgrlywowthatissuchasuprise

1/11/2007 2:18:42 PM

^^it means he beat the system and is a winner.

1/11/2007 2:40:21 PM

i wont disagree that he beat the system but unfortunately for him the vast majority of non-idiots are all but 100% certain that he is a fucking roider

hey Mark McGwire only got ~25% votes (you need like 60-75% or somethin) to get into the Hall of Fame...hmmm...I wonder why? Maybe because he's a fucking cheater?

1/11/2007 2:42:04 PM

mcgwire admitted to using andro, which wasn't banned at the time.


they should just require every player to juice

[Edited on January 11, 2007 at 2:49 PM. Reason : .]

1/11/2007 2:49:10 PM

andro doesn't do shit. mcgwire was juicing from the time he met Conseco until he retired.

seeing as how steroids weren't banned from baseball during that era, they technically weren't cheaters - just opportunists.

[Edited on January 11, 2007 at 2:52 PM. Reason : just wait until the first steroid/HGH bust happens in professional golf.]

1/11/2007 2:51:12 PM

Personally, I think if Bonds records aren't officially recognized I think the Carolina Panthers sould have to forfeit every game they won in the Super Bowl season.

1/11/2007 2:53:57 PM

I say, if the players want to trade years of their life and shitty health while they are alive for a few years of noteable performance in their respective sport.......what the hell, go for it, makes for a better show.

1/11/2007 2:56:26 PM

Bonds is a Piece of Shit....He should not only not get in the hall....but they should kick his ass out of baseball.....

1/11/2007 2:57:24 PM

^^^would they have to forfeit scores that came on special teams plays when the O-Line wasnt in the game?

or defensive touchdowns?

[Edited on January 11, 2007 at 3:12 PM. Reason : hg]

1/11/2007 3:12:03 PM

^sauerbrun

1/11/2007 3:13:17 PM

Quote :

"I say, if the players want to trade years of their life and shitty health while they are alive for a few years of noteable performance in their respective sport.......what the hell, go for it, makes for a better show. "

what makes you think they are trading years off their lives? the whole anti-aging movement is based around the same substances.

1/11/2007 3:16:41 PM

i guess NYM is right...I mean the Panthers were about to break the most notable record in the history of the sport by cheating

1/11/2007 3:17:29 PM

nobody gives a shit about baseball though. football is sacred.

1/11/2007 3:18:22 PM

^ huh? Football is more popular throughout the country without a doubt but I think that people care MORE about steroids in baseball because the baseball records are the most sacred in American sports.

What, in football, was comparable to the single season HR record, or alltime HR record, or even consecutive games played by Ripken..

[Edited on January 11, 2007 at 3:20 PM. Reason : x]

1/11/2007 3:20:23 PM

not true...people in new york, boston and chicago care about baseball...thats about it, but they do care

^i guarantee you that if it came out that ladainian failed a test for roids there would be a huge debate about if he has the record of shaun alex has it

[Edited on January 11, 2007 at 3:21 PM. Reason : .]

1/11/2007 3:20:32 PM

Of course there would be but that record is not held in nearly the same esteem as the HR records. They just aren't. I mean Peyton Manning breaking the TD record in a season was a nice story for a few weeks, but I highly doubt they'll be books about it and movies made about it like Roger Maris in 1961.

Football is the most popular sport in America. Baseball is the most romanticized sport in America.

Quote :

"I mean the Panthers were about to break the most notable record in the history of the sport by cheating"

Actually, well yeah. The one thing that is more sacred in American sports than the MLB HR records might just be the Super Bowl. Some members of the Panthers cheated to put themselves in to position to win it..

[Edited on January 11, 2007 at 3:28 PM. Reason : x]

1/11/2007 3:22:28 PM

Quote :

"what makes you think they are trading years off their lives? the whole anti-aging movement is based around the same substances."

http://www.umes.edu/atod/abuse/drugs/steroids.htm


I think it's safe to say in general, abusing roids will cause ill effects in your life down the line.

[Edited on January 11, 2007 at 3:33 PM. Reason : .]

1/11/2007 3:33:11 PM

SUPRISE

1/11/2007 3:36:42 PM

73*

1/11/2007 3:37:58 PM

wow, this is ALL over the news, turned on ESPN and heard it 3x in 12 mins

1/11/2007 3:45:48 PM

What's he doing in another player's locker anyway?

1/11/2007 3:53:59 PM

Quote :

"I think it's safe to say in general, abusing roids will cause ill effects in your life down the line. "

these guys aren't really abusing them. they have bloodwork done like clockwork and follow the advice of doctors and medical experts constantly. that was the whole point of companies like BALCO, and there are plenty of private doctors across the country that do the exact same thing.

1/11/2007 3:59:13 PM

^^looking for roids...duh

Quote :

"follow the advice of doctors and medical experts constantly"

except the parts about not using steroids

[Edited on January 11, 2007 at 4:00 PM. Reason : .]

1/11/2007 3:59:17 PM

doctors don't tell people that. do you think they are prescription medications because doctors tell people NOT to use them?

[Edited on January 11, 2007 at 4:01 PM. Reason : a few do, but not all of them]

1/11/2007 4:01:28 PM

my point is, for all the bloodwork they get and all the tests and analysis, and the monitoring of what goes into their system, there sure are a lot of liars saying "oh i thought these were just flax seeds, my body is why i get paid millions of dollars but i didnt know what i was putting in it"

1/11/2007 4:03:04 PM