Anabolic Steroids

SAN FRANCISCO - The vice president of BALCO Laboratories told federal investigators last year that San Francisco Giants star Barry Bonds tried the company's new performance-enhancing drugs but didn't like how one of them made him feel - just one of many allegations included in revelatory documents disclosed by the government late Friday. According to the investigator's report, James Valente alleged that Bonds received "the clear" and "the cream" - code names for the steroid THG and a testosterone cream - from BALCO "on a couple of occasions."

New Town football player James Williamson felt like Ray Lewis was speaking directly to him, like they were the only ones in the room. The Ravens linebacker was actually delivering an anti- steroids message Thursday to 700 high school athletes at a hotel conference center, his voice thundering and his shifting weight causing the podium to sway. But Lewis' message — "Don't ever put anything in the body that changes who you are" — resonated deeply to Williamson, a 5-foot-11, 160-pound junior receiver and cornerback who, like many high school football players, sometimes fears he is too small to continue to excel in the sport.

On television, the American Gladiator known as Thunder is 280 pounds of major beefcake, although with considerably less fat on him than a McDonald's McLean burger.On the telephone, he's Bill Smith, an easygoing Towson guy with a wry sense of humor, who can speak knowledgeably about nutrition, biochemistry and anabolic steroids.Smith, 27, a graduate of Eastern Vocational-Technical High School in Essex, now lives in Los Angeles, but his parents, William Walter and Jeanette Smith, still live in White Marsh.

TAMPA, Fla. -A contrite and nervous Alex Rodriguez said yesterday that he injected a performance-enhancing drug repeatedly over three years of his career, again calling himself "stupid and naive" but failing to offer a further explanation for his use of a substance he said he didn't know was a steroid at the time. Rodriguez said he got the drug, which he referred to as "boli," from the Dominican Republic with the help of a cousin, whom he declined to name. He said he and the cousin took the drug - which he said was supposed to provide increased energy - perhaps twice a month for the six months of the baseball seasons from 2001 to 2003.

Drug tests conducted after last Saturday's Preakness uncovered no violations, the Maryland Racing Commission said yesterday. The horses were tested for twice as many substances as on a normal Pimlico race day because of the higher stakes, commission executive director J. Michael Hopkins said. Maryland normally does about 32 drug screens on a race day but conducted 65 after the Preakness. The substances tested for included stimulants and anti-inflammatories - but not anabolic steroids, which aren't regulated yet at Maryland tracks.

A few years after his HIV diagnosis, Nelson Vergel began wasting away. No matter how much he ate, no matter how many protein shakes he added to his diet, no matter how much iron he pumped, the chemical engineer could not regain 25 pounds the virus had stripped from his 5-foot-7 frame. He watched as dozens of HIV-infected friends progressively lost body fat and muscle -- and, ultimately, their lives. "Either I have to do something," Vergel thought, "or I'll be the next one." Then he found steroids.

If Orioles Miguel Tejada, Brian Roberts and Jay Gibbons have used anabolic steroids in the past, as former Orioles reliever Jason Grimsley alleges in a federal affidavit, the league wouldn't have publicized it before last season. But this much is certain: The trio did not fail tests for anabolic steroids since the start of 2005, when MLB's testing became public. In fact, no big league ballplayer has been suspended for failing a drug test since New York Yankees outfielder Matt Lawton on Nov. 2, 2005.

I've been reading about athletes taking steroids. It confuses me that people think this is terrible. My doctor prescribes Flonase for my allergies. This is an inhaled steroid. What's the difference? Some athletes have been abusing anabolic steroids. These are male hormones related to testosterone. Corticosteroids, like Flonase or prednisone, are related to cortisone, a natural anti-inflammatory compound. They are used to treat conditions such as asthma, allergy or arthritis. The benefits and risks of corticosteroids are completely different from those of anabolic steroids.

Moves Baseball DIAMONDBACKS: Announced retirement of 1B Mark Grace at end of the season. PADRES: Purchased contracts of P Sazi Guthrie and P Jake Upwood from Gary Shourthshore of Independent Northern League. Basketball GRIZZLIES: Signed F Shelton Jones, G Richard Jeter and G Robert O'Kelley. HAWKS: Re-signed G Dion Glover. JAZZ: Agreed to terms on two-year contract with free agent G Raja Bell, who had been with Mavericks. NUGGETS: Signed G Yuta Tabuse. TIMBERWOLVES: Agreed to terms with C Jason Collier, F-C Brandon Kurtz, F Quincy Lewis and G Keith McLeod.

SAN FRANCISCO - Victor Conte Jr., the president of BALCO, said yesterday that he had never provided steroids to San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds. "I want to inform the world I have never given anabolic steroids or any other performance-enhancing drug to Barry Bonds," Conte said during an impromptu news conference outside the federal courthouse. "In fact, I never had a discussion about anabolic steroids with Barry Bonds, and that's the truth." Conte, one of four people indicted in February for conspiracy to distribute steroids in the BALCO case, was speaking in public for the first time since the indictment.

The Maryland Racing Commission approved new restrictions on anabolic steroids for thoroughbreds yesterday that are expected to be in place by Jan. 1. The vote, which had been expected for weeks, followed a similar move last month by the Kentucky Racing Commission. New York, home of the Triple Crown's third jewel, the Belmont Stakes, is also considering stricter rules on doping. Delaware, Pennsylvania and Virginia have similar restrictions in place. The issue came to the forefront after filly Eight Belles collapsed in this year's Kentucky Derby and Big Brown trainer Rick Dutrow acknowledged having used the anabolic steroid stanozolol on the Derby and Preakness winner.

Whether or not Big Brown wins the Triple Crown tomorrow, the 3-year-old colt will have an active - and lucrative - post-racing career in the breeding shed. Never mind that he has a history of foot problems that surfaced again last week with a now famous quarter crack in his left front hoof. Forget the admission of trainer Rick Dutrow that the colt gets a dose of the anabolic steroid Winstrol once a month, although he told The New York Times that Big Brown skipped his May dose. And disregard the fact Big Brown's sire had an eight-race career, shortened by injury, punctuated with foot problems.

Drug tests conducted after last Saturday's Preakness uncovered no violations, the Maryland Racing Commission said yesterday. The horses were tested for twice as many substances as on a normal Pimlico race day because of the higher stakes, commission executive director J. Michael Hopkins said. Maryland normally does about 32 drug screens on a race day but conducted 65 after the Preakness. The substances tested for included stimulants and anti-inflammatories - but not anabolic steroids, which aren't regulated yet at Maryland tracks.

Major League Baseball officials have spoken of former Sen. George Mitchell's report on steroids as a way to put a stamp of understanding on the past and move toward a cleaner future. But those who have battled doping for much longer in cycling, track and field, and other sports said that's wishful thinking. Hard experience has taught them that the economic and competitive drives behind doping inevitably lead athletes to newer, more effective, less detectable substances and methods. "What we have to do is constantly look at the advances that are being made in medical science in a proper way and imagine how they might be abused by athletes," said David Howman, director general of the World Anti-Doping Agency.

While the release of the Mitchell Report sparked debates about major league baseball players' Hall of Fame worthiness and tainted record books, the issue of performance-enhancing drugs is much more personal to others. "This is more than about asterisks and cheating; it's about the lives and health of our kids," Don Hooton said Thursday at the Mitchell Report news conference in New York. Hooton's 17-year-old son, Taylor, committed suicide in 2003 after using anabolic steroids. Powered by ME!

When Major League Baseball's Mitchell Report on performance-enhancing drug use is released, likely later this week, at least one former Oriole fully expects to be mentioned prominently. Retired first baseman David Segui said yesterday he has experimented with anabolic steroids, bought shipments from his friend, former New York Mets clubhouse attendant and admitted drug distributor Kirk Radomski, and reiterated he used human growth hormone with a legal prescription from a Florida doctor.

In 1985, Maria Patino of Spain was not allowed to compete in women's events at the World University Games. She flunked a test that showed she had the genes of a man -- even though she had every physical feature of a woman, and none of a man. Such an injustice will not be repeated at this year's summer Olympic Games in Barcelona.The International Olympic Committee's medical commission recently decided the best way to tell if a woman is, in fact, a woman is to check her genitalia to see if she is physically built like a woman.

WASHINGTON - Steroid use is a problem for women as well as male athletes, the chairman of a House panel said yesterday. And it's not just athletes who are using, but also young girls "looking for a way to get thinner, to reduce body fat - to conform to an idea of beauty they feel pressured to emulate," House Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis said yesterday during a hearing. Studies have shown that "growing numbers of young girls" are beginning to use steroids, said Davis, a Virginia Republican.

Sports fans and commentators speak of human growth hormone as a magical substance that offers the same benefits as anabolic steroids but cannot be detected in urine tests. So when a player is linked to hGH, as Orioles outfielder Jay Gibbons was by an SI.com report, many presume the player was desperate to bulk up and power baseballs into the stands. The scientific community doesn't uniformly agree, however, that hGH would help an athlete do so. Several studies of senior patients have found that hGH helps build lean muscle mass but does not increase muscle strength.

If Orioles Miguel Tejada, Brian Roberts and Jay Gibbons have used anabolic steroids in the past, as former Orioles reliever Jason Grimsley alleges in a federal affidavit, the league wouldn't have publicized it before last season. But this much is certain: The trio did not fail tests for anabolic steroids since the start of 2005, when MLB's testing became public. In fact, no big league ballplayer has been suspended for failing a drug test since New York Yankees outfielder Matt Lawton on Nov. 2, 2005.