FanHouse Balco

The list of prosecution witnesses in the government's case against Barry Bonds includes one NFL player: New England Patriots special teams captain Larry Izzo.

Izzo, who has played for the Patriots since 2001, will reportedly testify that he received performance-enhancing drugs from Bonds' friend and personal trainer Greg Anderson in 2003. He will apparently not testify that he has any specific knowledge of Bonds' steroid use, but building the case that Anderson distributed steroids is part of the government's effort to prove that Bonds lied to federal investigators about his own involvement with performance-enhancing drugs.

After former NFL player Dana Stubblefield pleaded guilty to lying to investigators about his own steroid use last year, he began cooperating with prosecutors, naming names of fellow players, agents and trainers who were involved with steroids. As a result, prosecutors are recommending that Stubblefield get off with probation when he is sentenced Friday afternoon.

Stubblefield, who played defensive tackle from 1993 to 2003 with the 49ers, Redskins and Raiders, was involved in the BALCO scandal and is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Susan Illston, the same judge who is presiding over the Barry Bonds case.

While Barry Bonds is still thinking about playing baseball again -- even after undergoing hip surgery recently -- there is still that tiny matter of possibly lying to a grand jury about his alleged steroid use to deal with. Back in November, Bonds scored a minor victory when three of the charges against him were dropped, but that news is nothing compared to a report from Yahoo!'s Jonathan Littman today.

Now whether or not Bonds ever lied to a grand jury about steroid use is still up for debate, but we can now be confident that he wasn't lying to the jury if all he ever took was the Clear. That's because Yahoo! did some digging through the grand jury testimony and guess what they found out? Turns out the Clear was not only absent from the banned substances list when Bonds allegedly took it, but it wasn't even considered a steroid.

We now interrupt our playoff programming to bring you an update on baseball's greatest villain: Barry Bonds.

In case you forgot about it, Barry Bonds is getting ready to go to court as part of that whole BALCO investigation we used to hear so much about. Bonds faces possible jail time if he's found guilty of perjury for lying to the grand jury during the investigation, but he did get some good news on Friday.

Tammy Thomas is a former bicyclist who was on trial for the same crime in the same BALCO investigation, and she won't have to serve any prison time even though she was found guilty.

In U.S. District Court in San Francisco, Judge Susan Illston sentenced Tammy Thomas to six months of home confinement on her four felony convictions for perjury and obstruction of justice.

Some experts said the decision was a hopeful sign for Bonds. He is scheduled to go on trial in Illston's court in March, accused of the same offenses as Thomas and facing the same prosecution team. He has pleaded not guilty.

The prosecutors had asked for Judge Illston to sentence Thomas to 30 months in prison, but the judge said that would be incredibly unfair considering that Victor Conte -- the man who ran the BALCO lab -- only had to serve four months in prison.

Of course, as some legal experts point out, this doesn't necessarily mean that Bonds will be dealt the same fate. Thomas is essentially a nobody -- had you heard of her before reading this? -- while Bonds is a very well known athlete. Sentencing Bonds to jail time would send a very loud message to anybody thinking about lying to a grand jury in the near future.

We now return to our regular playoff programming.

There's nothing quite as annoying as a reformed smoker. They always walk up to you while you're having that one cigarette you set aside in the day for me time. Telling you how to fix your life by quitting. I'm sure it's true, but there's a time and a place for that kind of talk. And this isn't it.

Oddly enough, the International Olympic Committee might be having these same exact feelings following reformed steroid peddler, Victor Conte's latest interview.

"The Olympics are a fraud. It's all about money," Conte told BBC Sport. "Those who control the money, control the anti-doping policies. They are still inept to this day."

Yup, this is the same guy that served jail time for conspiracy to distribute and money laundering. And to be honest, he sounds a lot like Jose Canseco if you watch the video portion of the interview. I'm not knocking the guy. If he's out to clean up drug testing in sports, I'm all for it.

He did meet with former Anti-doping Agency head,....wait for it....Dick Pound. And gave pointers on how his operation worked. And he isn't afraid to call out Olympic officials in general.

"I have been told by Olympic officials that there have been positive drug tests that have been covered up," he revealed. "They (the officials) have direct knowledge of this and at some point this information will come out

I hope, unlike Jose Canseco, he doesn't start dropping names (oops!). It's enough that he inform officials about how to get around their testing practices. Even if he is exaggerating just a little, Conte doesn't paint a pretty picture of the competence of drug testing in Olympic and professional sports. And given recent events in baseball, it's not hard to believe. It will be interesting to see a response from the IOC or any professional sports. Or if any respond at all. I would like to know the sports I follow are clean. Even if that meant a reduction in performance. And if you see me off smoking a cigarette by myself, how's bout you give me a few minutes peace.

A verdict was reached Friday in the first trial related to the BALCO investigation, and Olympic cyclist Tammy Thomas has been convicted of three counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice for lying to a grand jury about her steroid use.

Testimony in Thomas's trial drew attention for the changes that steroids had on Thomas's body, including facial hair, chest hair, a beard and male pattern baldness.

The feds' investigation of BALCO cast a wide net, with eight of the accused already pleading guilty. Thomas was the first to fight the charges at trial, and her conviction is bad news for Barry Bonds, whose case closely resembles Thomas's.

Among those who have taken guilty pleas are BALCO founder Victor Conte, former Olympic sprinter Marion Jones, Bonds' trainer Greg Anderson and chemist Patrick Arnold.

BALCO founder and "Ape Walk" song creator, Victor Conte, is a free man today. His encarciration for criminal probation expired at midnight last evening. (I hope they let him out in the dead of the night.)

And it looks like Mr. Conte is wasting no time spinning his tales of steroid debauchery into a tell-all book. From the NY Daily News:

Slated for publication in September under the Skyhorse imprint, the book's working title is "BALCO: The Straight Dope on Barry Bonds, Marion Jones and What We Can Do To Save Sports." Conte, in conjunction with co-author Nathan Jendrick, promises to share "the dirt, the drugs, the doses, the names, dates and places, and a 'prescription' for a brighter future."

He promises the "complete truth in its honest, unadulterated and raw form" and says he is "ready to tell the world everything."

Whoa, whoa, whoa wait a second here. This sounds like a complete knockoff. Didn't Will Leitch already tell us how to save sports? And isn't Jose Canseco already releasing his second tell-all book on a similar subject? Although, i do like my truth in it's "unadulterated and raw form," so I guess I can give this one a shot.

I'm a big fan of Kanye West, and I'm guessing from this point on, Barry Bonds will be too. After all, we learned from Juan Pierre that once a rapper mentions you in a song, you use it as your at-bat music. Bonds however, is not just getting a mere mention; Bonds is having an entire song named after him.

Lil Wayne has made the final cut and will appear on a track called "Barry Bonds," Roc-A-Fella/ Def Jam confirmed Tuesday (August 14).

Bonds - Major League Baseball's controversial, newly crowned home-run king - is apparently a metaphor for how big West thinks the record will be. The chorus goes, "Here's another hit, Barry Bonds."

As he's been doing on "Can't Tell Me Nothing," its remix and "Stronger," [Kanye] West uses "Barry Bonds" in part to proclaim his continued evolution as one of the top lyricists in the game.

How 'bout that? Talk about some serious respect -- Bonds is the inspiration for a song about evolution. What you won't hear on Kanye's album is the track "Reggie Miller," nor the hit jam "Bless BALCO." Hope this album drops soon, you know, before Barry retires -- or gets indicted. Whatever, so long as Stacey Dash is in the music video, I'm sold.
Sorry, No Photos

It's been a long time coming, and rightfully so, I was prepared for the moment. The moment when Barry Bonds would push all legitimacy aside, and prove to the country that it doesn't matter what rules and laws you violate on your way to the top. Barry Bonds hit his 756th career home run, and did so with no doubt in my mind that several of his home runs were hit thanks in large part to the consumption of performance-enhancing substances. Tuesday night was not a good moment for baseball. Nor was it a good moment for the country.

Tuesday night was a bad night for the youth of America. It was a terrible moment for kids and parents to experience. To watch and see all the glory that Barry received -- the praise and undying adulation of thousands of fans blinded by the power of the almighty home run -- only sends one message. It tells people that the way to ascend to the mountaintop of sports is by throwing all ethics aside in exchange for an "arthritic balm and flaxseed oil" that will augment your career.

Barry Bonds went from being an outstanding player to being a superhuman being on the diamond. He went from being one the greatest 20 players of all-time, to being considered one of the top five, if not top three, in the game's history. He went from averaging 33 home runs in his first 13 seasons in the bigs -- years that included most athlete's natural primes -- to averaging 52 home runs in his next five seasons at a time when most athletes are winding down their careers. All the while, his power was bolstered, his walk totals went up, his strikeouts decreased, and he became quite possibly the most feared hitter the game had ever seen.

This has been quite the whirlwind week for Barry Bonds. Not that we'd expect anything less from potentially the most controversial figure in all of sports, but this is taking it to new heights. First, Bonds got into a war of words with Bob Costas over BALCO chemist Patrick Arnold's accusations that Bonds and Gary Sheffield took performance-enhancers. Luckily for Barry, the negativity of those allegations were offset by the compliments he received from Gary Sheffield who called him the best player ever, and Joe Montana, who recorded a video that showed support of Barry. Now we have come to learn that another prominent figure in sports has also shown his support for Barry Bonds after Barry belted career home run No. 754 on Friday night. It was none other than Michael Jordan:

When he jogged out to left field, a video message was played on the scoreboard from Michael Jordan, the National Basketball Association star who has six rings playing for the Chicago Bulls. Jordan congratulated Bonds for his accomplishments.

"Hey, Barry, it's Michael Jordan," he said. "I just want to congratulate you on your historic event. I'm very happy for you. Ever since the first day I saw you in the batting cage, you've been working towards this for a long period of time. So I want to wish you and [wife] Elizabeth and that beautiful girl of yours congratulations. I'm very happy for you."

Barry's got friends ... in high places. Now, if they've already shown Joe Montana and Michael Jordan -- and it doesn't get much bigger than Joe Montana and Michael Jordan when it comes to sports -- it makes me wonder. What could they possibly have in store for 755 and 756???? A message from Babe Ruth? Satchel Paige? Roy Hobbs? How the heck can you top Montana and MJ?

Previously at FanHouse:
Joe Montana Supports Barry Bonds
Barry Bonds Says Bob Costas Practices 'Irresponsible Journalism'
BALCO Chemist Says Barry Bonds and Gary Sheffield Took Performance-Enhancers
Gary Sheffield: Bonds Is Best Player Ever
Barry Bonds News
Home Run Chase