FanHouse JeffNovitzky

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.

Yesterday, FanHouse's Pat Lackey asked if you've ever sat down to read the paper and thought to yourself, "Did I really just read that?" He was responding to something said by Roger Clemens's attorney Rusty Hardin and it's a feeling I know well after reading something Hardin said to the New York Times on Sunday.

It was part of an article discussing Jeff Novitzky's plans to attend Wednesday's congressional hearing involving Clemens, Brian McNamee and the rest of the gang. Novitzky's an IRS agent who spearheaded the federal government's investigation into BALCO's finances and, thus, became well versed in the world of performance enhancers. He also led McNamee and Kirk Radomski to George Mitchell. Since the government has deals with each of those men and could have a case to make against Clemens one day, Novitzky's presence seems like a pretty routine thing.

Unless you're Rusty Hardin. Then it's "brazen" and "unbelievable." That's not the part where I asked myself if I really just read that, though. Nor when Hardin accused him of thinking he's on "a sacred mission from God to mess up everybody's life." No, this is the part that made me sit up a little straighter in my chair.

"I can tell you this: If he ever messes with Roger, Roger will eat his lunch."

Threatening the IRS has never backfired before. Hope all your deductions are on the up and up, Rusty.

So, if you were under the impression the Jason Grimsley affidavit was officially on blast for all to see, you were only half right. It was released back in the summer of '06, but let us not forget, there were still some names blacked out. And, darn it, if we've learned anything about this whole PED baseball mess, it's that we want names and lots of them.

Today, the document was unsealed with no blacked out names to speak of, and here's what we got:

Jose Canseco, Lenny Dykstra, Glenallen Hill and Geronimo Berroa were accused of using steroids by former major league pitcher Jason Grimsley in a federal agent's affidavit unsealed Thursday.

Grimsley also accused Chuck Knoblauch of using human growth hormone; David Segui and Allen Watson of using performance-enhancing drugs; and Rafael Palmeiro and Pete Incaviglia of taking amphetamines, according to IRS Special Agent Jeff Novitzky's sworn statement.

All but Incaviglia, Berroa and Watson were mentioned last week in the Mitchell Report on doping in baseball.

Whoa, no way ... Jose Canseco? I guess no one is safe from the terrors of steroids. At any rate, nothing overly shocking or astounding here. What is of interest, though, is how Roger Clemens' name was allegedly in this thing according to the L.A. Times, but his name never surfaced. I suppose that has to do with Brian McNamee being mentioned by Grimsley as referer for PEDs.

So yes: it looks as if the Grimsley chapter is all read and closed. Don't worry though, there's plenty more to come.