Friday, January 12, 2007, 2:22 PM
We often go back and forth on the issue of whether or not Barry Bonds did or didn't use steroids, but what if this was a court of law? Without positive test results on the defendants, would we be able to gain a conviction on circumstantial evidence?
When Bonds came into the league his weight was listed at 185. Now he is listed at 228. In 1997 Bonds was listed at 206 lbs with 8% body fat, in 2002 he was listed at 228 and 6.2% body fat. His biggest jump, from what I can find on the Internet is 18 lbs of muscle in one off-season, a huge jump for an athlete already in prime condition. And, oh yes, at the age of 34 he grew one inch in height. What does this all mean?
Think of the finely tuned athlete as a cars engine. An elite athlete's body is kept at its peak over a long period of time. Years. Working out year round, keeping fit and tuned. A couch potato who is 50 lbs overweight could lose 75 lbs and drop his body fat drastically and it would be expected. But an athlete who is in his prime, with a body that is already at the edge of performance, who suddenly gains 18 lbs and loses more body fat? In one off-season?
Think of the car engine again.
Your going as fast as the car will go, lets say, 150 mph. If you keep your foot on the floor, the car might gain another mile an hour after a period of time, and maybe another mile an hour after a while longer. But because this motor is tuned to the maximum, you are going as fast as it can go and the speed advances will be incrementally slower. Now, take that same motor, running at its peak and throw the switch to the nitrous oxide. BANG. In moments you are running past 175 mph. The motor is on its own kind of steroids. Does this sound familiar?
Through 2000, Bonds' Slugging Percentage was .569 while the league average was .404 - a difference of roughly 40%. For the next four seasons Bonds' Slugging Percentage was .805 while the league average was .425. The difference between Bonds' and the league average is now an astonishing 90%! And during this time the league average slugging percentage rose only 5.0% while Bonds' rose 41%
Greg Anderson - Bonds' Personal Trainer
When Anderson's apartment was raided, investigators found steroids, growth hormones and $60,000 in cash. Though Anderson claimed he never gave Bonds any steroids, investigators found calendars detailing the doping schedule for Bonds. Papers found at the apartment detailed payments from Bonds for an assortment of steroids and growth hormones, including Depotestosterone, Clomiphene pills and the "Cream and the Clear". A calendar for 2002 (February) showed the schedule for the cream and the clear plus the growth hormone Clomid.
Investigators found evidence in BALCO's trash, of Bonds' blood being tested for steroids.
Witness Evidence
Kimberly Bell, Bonds' girlfriend at the time, told the grand jury that Bonds had admitted to her in 2000 the he was using steroids, according to him it was only to help him recover from injuries. Sprinter Tim Montgomery, in 2003, told a grand jury that Victor Conte told Montgomery he was giving Winstrol (steroid) to Bonds.
Recently Greg Anderson has refused to testify in grand jury trials and has been sent to federal prison twice for contempt. In my book, not testifying, can sometimes be construed as testifying.
According to an article in the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine (1995) Harvard psychiatrist Harrison Pope, a mental health expert with regards to the effects of steroid abuse, has come up with a mathematical formula to help decide whether or not a person may be using steroids. The "Fat-Free Mass Index" predicts steroid use by using computations via the subject's height, weight and percentage of body fat, or the lean muscle mass, among other inputs. The average 30- year old male scores 20. Pope uses former Mr. America Steve Reeves as his pre-steroid era muscle man - Reeves scored a 25. A score of 25 or higher may indicate steroid use. At 228 and 6.2% body fat, along with other computations, Bonds scores 28.
I didn't know I was taking steroids!
How does a man who has spent his whole life working out, making his body the best it can be, working with professional trainers, nutritionists and other health experts, not question one specific point. If he was using the cream and clear, and he didn't know it, why didn't he question the trainer's decision to have him work out longer hours, more often?
This next part is overly simplified, so that it may be more easily understood. You see, steroids in and of themselves don't make you bigger. You can't take them orally, by injection or in cream form and then sit on the couch and watch yourself grow. You must workout. A normal workout, as most people know, involve on and off days. As an example, Mondays may be strength, lifting weights, building muscle. Tuesdays aerobics and conditioning. Wednesdays back to strength. Thursdays aerobics and conditioning. Fridays strength... and so on.
It's done this way because it takes time for muscles to repair and recover from the workout, each recovery improving your muscle condition, making them larger, stronger. Lifting weights on a specific muscle set everyday of the week won't do you much good. Your muscles don't have time to recuperate, thus the schedule of one day weights, one day conditioning and so on. You can lift weights everyday, it's just that you shouldn't work the same muscle groups consecutively. You could work as back and arms on Monday, legs and abs on Tuesday, as an example. This way each muscle group would have a days rest to recuperate.
Now imagine that your trainer says, "Here, rub this on you every day." And then begins a regimen of lifting weights, not only every day, but quite possibly after just a few hours! Wouldn't you question this? Wouldn't you be afraid of getting injured? Why would you follow blindly? Wouldn't you think... is he giving me steroids???
But this is what steroids do. They allow you to work out at a ferocious pace. Think of it like this. If you went to the gym right now and started working out three times a week, what would your body look like in, say, eight weeks? That's 24 workouts. You might see some decent improvements. Abs, biceps and such.
Now imagine you could work out three times a day! A weeks worth of results in one day! Seven weeks worth of results in one week. Now how would you look in eight weeks? Or after an off season?
Guilty or not guilty?
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