Chapter[ VII. Major League Baseball and the BALCO Investigation ]
Section[ B. 1. Information About Possible Steroid Sales By Greg Anderson Before the Raid on BALCO ]
1. Information About Possible Steroid Sales By Greg Anderson Before the Raid on BALCO
In 2000, Stan Conte became the head athletic trainer for the San Francisco Giants,
having served in more junior positions within the organization before then. (Conte is not related
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to BALCO founder Victor Conte.) According to Conte, he first met Greg Anderson and Harvey
Shields during the Giants’ spring training that year. Anderson advised Conte that he was a
“strength weightlifting guru” whom Bonds had sought out for assistance. Bonds, in turn, told
Conte that Anderson’s presence was not a reflection on Conte, but that Bonds needed special
attention as he got older. Shields also provided personal training services for Bonds.
Conte asked Anderson for a resume during spring training. In response, Anderson
supplied a one-page document indicating that Anderson had graduated from high school and that
everything else was “pending.” The resume did not reveal, and Conte was unaware of, any
education or expertise that Anderson might have that would qualify him to train a professional
athlete.
Conte observed Anderson training in the weight room with Bonds on numerous
occasions during 2000 spring training. Conte was concerned that the workouts involved heavier
weights than Conte would have recommended, which, in Conte’s view, created a heightened risk
of injury. When Conte asked Anderson about Bonds’s weight training program, Anderson
responded that “I’m doing what Barry tells me to.”
During spring training, Conte met with Giants general manager Brian Sabean to
express his concerns about the presence of Anderson and Shields in the clubhouse, weight room,
and other restricted areas. Conte felt strongly that personal trainers should not have such access,
particularly where, as here, he viewed the trainers to be unqualified.
Sabean told Conte that if Conte objected to Anderson and Shields being in the
clubhouse, Conte should order them out himself. Conte said he would do this if Sabean would
support him when Bonds complained, which Conte believed would be the result of his actions.
Sabean did not respond to this request for support, leading Conte to believe that Sabean would
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not do so if Bonds protested. Conte therefore decided to take no action to deny Anderson or
Shields access to restricted areas.332
During winter meetings in 2001, Kevin Hallinan, the director of security for the
Commissioner’s Office, lectured team physicians and athletic trainers about the importance of
clubhouse security generally. Conte said that after Hallinan’s prepared remarks, San Francisco’s
assistant athletic trainer Barney Nugent stood up and said that there were issues with clubhouse
security in San Francisco that seemed beyond the capability of local security to control. After
the lecture, Nugent and Conte told Hallinan about security issues related to Bonds’s entourage.
According to Conte, Hallinan seemed to be familiar with the issue and promised that “we’re
going to do something about this, it’s an issue and we know what you’re talking about.”333
In January 2002, Peter Magowan, the Giants’ president and managing general
partner, met with Bonds in connection with the renewal of his contract with the Giants. In a
subsequent letter to Bonds, Magowan set forth a series of “discussion points” that they agreed to
during that meeting and that Magowan assured Bonds would “remain consistent” during the
duration of Bonds’s new contract (covering the 2002-2006 seasons). Along with a number of
other accommodations to Bonds, the Giants agreed that:
Barry will provide the Club with a list of the personnel typically and
historically needed. We will also work closely with Barry’s publicists to
assure them of the proper access. In return, we agree that any of the
approved personnel are not allowed to bring along any friends or
associates or family members and the personnel’s access should be limited
to their area of responsibility to Barry.334
332 Sabean did not recall such a conversation with Conte in 2000 about either Shields or
Anderson.
333 Giants assistant athletic trainer Dave Groeschner confirmed Conte’s recollection of
events. Hallinan did not remember Nugent’s statement at the meeting or the conversation with
Conte, Groeschner, and Nugent after his lecture.
334 Letter from Peter A. Magowan to Barry Bonds, dated Feb. 11, 2002.
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In August 2002, the Giants were visiting Atlanta for a series with the Braves. At
the time, Anderson was traveling with the Giants. Conte recalls that during this series a Giants
player asked Conte about anabolic steroids. Conte refused to identify the player to us, citing
athletic trainer privilege. According to Conte, the player told him that he was considering
obtaining steroids from Greg Anderson and wanted to know the health issues associated with the
use of steroids. In response, Conte explained at some length the health hazards of steroid use
and lectured the player about the unfairness to other players posed by the illicit use of steroids.
Conte believed that it was “a good lecture” and that he put considerable doubt in the player’s
mind.
Conte stated that he reported the incident to general manager Brian Sabean within
an hour of its occurrence. He told Sabean he was concerned that Anderson might be distributing
steroids to Giants players. While he refused to identify the player who had approached him,
Conte otherwise described the conversation to Sabean in detail. Sabean suggested Conte
confront Anderson and Bonds about the matter, which Conte refused to do. In Conte’s view, it
was not the responsibility of the athletic trainer to address such an issue.
Sabean confirmed in his interview that Conte’s recollection of their conversation
was accurate. He also acknowledged that he did not raise the issue with Bonds or Anderson.
Instead, he asked Conte if he knew anyone who could “check out” Anderson. Conte said that he
knew a Drug Enforcement Administration agent, and Sabean suggested Conte call the agent to
check into Anderson. The DEA agent later told Conte that he did not find any information about
Anderson. Conte relayed this to Sabean.
Sabean told me that he believed that if Anderson was in fact selling drugs illegally
the government would have known about it. So when he received the report from Conte, Sabean
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did not report the issue to anyone in the Giants organization or the Commissioner’s Office, he
did not confront Bonds or Anderson, and he did not take any steps to prohibit Anderson from
gaining access to Giants facilities. Sabean said that he was not aware at the time of the Major
League Baseball policy that required him to report information regarding a player’s drug use to
the Commissioner’s Office.
Sabean explained that he was in a very difficult situation regarding disclosure of
this information because, as a result of the clubhouse culture in baseball, he felt he could not risk
“outing” Conte as the source of the information. He said that if he had insisted on Anderson’s
ouster from the clubhouse, Bonds would have vigorously objected, just as he did when the
Giants tried to bar Harvey Shields in response to the later (February 2004) mandate from the
Commissioner’s Office barring personal trainers from restricted areas.
During spring training in 2003, Hallinan and one of his deputies asked Conte to
join them in the dugout for a private meeting. Hallinan asked Conte if there was anything the
security department could do to help him. Conte responded to the effect that “the horse had
already left the barn and there’s no need to close the door now.” He did not report to Hallinan
the conversations he had had with Sabean about Anderson the previous season, because, he said,
the incident did not cross his mind at that time.
In September 2003, published reports revealed that a search warrant was executed
on Anderson’s residence in connection with the BALCO investigation and that Anderson was
under investigation for the alleged distribution of anabolic steroids.335 Even after he became
335 See Mark Fainaru-Wada, IRS searches home of Bonds’ personal trainer, S.F. Chron.,
Sept. 9, 2003, at A15; see also Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, Sports and Drugs; How
the doping scandal unfolded; Fallout from BALCO probe could taint Olympics, pro sports,
S.F. Chron., Dec. 21, 2003, at B1.
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aware of this event, Sabean did not inform anyone in the Commissioner’s Office or within the
Giants organization of his earlier conversation with Conte about Anderson.
Peter Magowan, the Giants’ managing partner and chief executive officer,
recalled asking Sabean directly whether the Giants “had a problem” after reading the news
reports of the BALCO raids. Magowan said that what he meant by his inquiry was to ask
whether the Giants had a problem with Anderson dispensing steroids; he wanted to know
whether Sabean had any reason to know of such a problem. According to Magowan, Sabean
responded that he was not aware of any problem the Giants might have. However, Sabean
strongly denied that such a conversation occurred.
Magowan said that in September 2003, following the publicity surrounding the
execution of the BALCO search warrants, Anderson was barred from the Giants clubhouse.
According to Giants clubhouse records, by that time Anderson had visited the clubhouse on
94 different days since March 2002. On February 12, 2004, Anderson and others were indicted
by a federal grand jury in San Francisco on charges that included conspiracy to distribute
anabolic steroids.336
In a February 20, 2004 memorandum to all major league clubs, Commissioner
Selig and Sandy Alderson, then his executive vice president for baseball operations, reiterated
the importance of clubhouse security in light of “[r]ecent events.” The memorandum imposed
regulations that restricted who would be granted access to clubhouses, dugouts, and other areas
of ballparks in Major League Baseball. Under the policy, access to restricted areas was limited
to authorized club personnel, immediate family, and authorized representatives of Major League
Baseball or the Players Association. In addition, accredited media were granted limited access to
336 Jack Curry, 4 Indicted in a Steroid Scheme That Involved Top Pro Athletes,
N.Y. Times, Feb. 13, 2004, at A1.
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portions of the clubhouse during specified periods before and after games. The policy expressly
prohibited access to restricted areas by “friends, associates, agents, attorneys [and] personal
trainers.”337
In April 2005, published news reports indicated that Bonds was still training with
Anderson outside of Giants facilities.338 Magowan said that after learning this the Giants
contacted the Commissioner’s Office, which advised that the Giants could not control Bonds’s
choice of persons he trained with while away from the club’s facilities.
Nevertheless, according to Magowan, the Giants asked Bonds to stop working
with Anderson. The Giants also instructed Harvey Shields and Greg Oliver, who were then both
members of the Giants training staff and worked with Bonds extensively, to have no contact with
Anderson. On July 16, 2005, Anderson pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute
anabolic steroids and one count of money laundering.339
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