Steroids

After years of suffering from chronically inflamed and infected sinuses, I finally decided I'd had enough. I chose to do what 500,000 other Americans do every year - have sinus surgery. It wasn't an easy decision. I had to balance my need for a fix against my fear of surgery and research that raised questions about the procedure. I was miserable. My sinuses, those supposedly hollow spaces around the nose, had become clogged by scar tissue and the build-up of thickened mucus from decades of infections and inflammation.

WASHINGTON - Prosecutors finally have some momentum in their perjury case against Roger Clemens, even if it means dragging in former major leaguer David Segui, a witness who is apparently so reluctant to testify that the judge threatened: "If he doesn't show up, he'll be arrested like anyone else. " US District Judge Reggie Walton indicated Wednesday he was leaning heavily toward allowing prosecutors to call Segui to counter an overall impression left by Clemens's lawyers during the six-week-old trial.

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WASHINGTON - During another seven grueling hours of cross-examination that frustrated all sides, Roger Clemens's accuser explained the evidence he kept in a beer can - and why his story about it has changed. Brian McNamee was on the stand Thursday for a fourth day in the perjury trial of the seven-time Cy Young Award-winning pitcher, holding firm to his testimony that he injected Clemens with steroids from 1998 to 2001 and human growth hormone in 2000. But Clemens's longtime strength coach again conceded that his memory of some details has evolved over the years, and that he initially told some...

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Seattle Mariners rookie shortstop Mike Morse was suspended 10 days yesterday for violating baseball's steroids policy, and said he was still being punished for an "enormous mistake" he made in 2003. Morse became the ninth major league player penalized under the sport's tougher drug rules. He hit a go-ahead single in the seventh inning for a 3-2 victory over the Oakland Athletics Tuesday night, and yesterday the grievance by the players association to overturn the suspension was denied by arbitrator Shyam Das. "This result is unfair and unfortunate.

Nomar Garciaparra flatly denied yesterday that he has used steroids, responding to a Bob Ryan column in yesterday's Globe that referred to questions about steroids without accusing the shortstop of using them. "Without question, that is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard," Garciaparra told assembled reporters after the Cubs-Pirates game had been postponed. "If I was taking steroids, should I send them back and get the good ones? Apparently I got the wrong one. They didn't work.

IT'S BEEN another boom summer for steroid controversies. First, former professional cyclist and onetime Lance Armstrong teammate Tyler Hamilton accused Armstrong of having shot himself up with performance-enhancing drugs. Then, last month, former pitcher Roger Clemens went to court for lying about using performance-enhancing drugs and was the beneficiary of a mistrial. Everyone knows by now that steroids unlevel the playing field, that they endanger the integrity of sports, and that they are a high-tech form of cheating.

Major league players and owners agreed yesterday to drop the possibility of fines for steroid use, leaving suspensions as the only discipline, according to management's top labor lawyer. Congressmen repeatedly criticized baseball for the fine possibility during Thursday's hearing before the House Government Reform Committee. Management officials told the committee they were willing to eliminate the fine provision, held over from baseball's first drug-testing agreement in 2002. "We do have an agreement with union head Donald Fehr that the language after the disjunctive...

Bill Romanowski used steroids and human growth hormone supplied by Victor Conte , the former NFL linebacker tells the CBS news show "60 Minutes" in an interview to be broadcast Sunday. The former Boston College star said he took illegal steroids for a two-year period starting in 2001 and got them from Conte, the former head of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, which has been at the center of a steroids controversy in several sports. "I took [human growth hormone]

FAYETTEVILLE, Ga. -- Professional wrestler Chris Benoit strangled his wife, suffocated his 7-year-old son, and placed a Bible next to their bodies before hanging himself with the pulley of a weightlifting machine, authorities said yesterday. Investigators found prescription anabolic steroids in the house and are investigating whether the man was unhinged by the drugs, which can cause paranoia, depression, and explosive outbursts known as "roid rage. " Authorities offered no motive for the killings, which were spread out over a weekend, and would not...

During another seven grueling hours of cross-examination that frustrated all sides, Roger Clemens' accuser explained the evidence he kept in a beer can — and why his story about it has changed. Brian McNamee was on the stand Thursday for a fourth day in the perjury trial of the seven-time Cy Young Award-winning pitcher, holding firm to his testimony that he injected Clemens with steroids from 1998 to 2001 and human growth hormone in 2000. But Clemens' longtime strength coach again conceded that his memory of some details has evolved over the years, and that he initially told...

WASHINGTON - Speaking softly, nervously, and in detail, Brian McNamee testified about the life-changing moment when, he said, he first gave Roger Clemens a "booty shot" of steroids. The government's star witness in the Clemens perjury retrial took the stand Monday and told the jury that he injected one of baseball's greatest pitchers with steroids about 8-10 times when they were with the Toronto Blue Jays in 1998. "I knew what I was doing was illegal," McNamee said. "I wish to God I could take it back.

Speaking softly, nervously and in detail, Brian McNamee testified about the life-changing moment when, he said, he first gave Roger Clemens a "booty shot" of steroids. The government's star witness in the Clemens perjury retrial took the stand Monday and told the jury that he injected one of baseball's most successful pitchers with steroids about eight to 10 times when they were with the Toronto Blue Jays in 1998. "I knew what I was doing was illegal," McNamee said. "I wish to God I could take it back.

Former President Bill Clinton defended President Obama and his handling of the nation's economic recovery Sunday night, saying "we are beating the clock" historically in comparison to Japan and other economies that have been through similar tumult. "If you go back 500 years, whenever a country's financial system collapses, it takes between five and 10 years to get back to full employment," Clinton said as he introduced Obama at a fund-raiser for his longtime friend Terry McAuliffe.

Barry Bonds will find out Friday whether he will go to prison for his conviction in the BALCO steroids case. The feeling in legal circles is he won't, though prosecutors still hope a federal judge will see things their way and put him behind bars for up to 15 months. That Bonds is a convicted felon should be victory enough for the investigators and attorneys who built the case against him. They finally got the biggest name in baseball, a slugger whose home run totals seemed to rise exponentially with the size of his head.

Ryan Braun certainly doesn't fit the image fans conjure up when they hear that a baseball slugger has been accused of using performance-enhancing drugs. Since he joined the Milwaukee Brewers in 2007, Braun has belted big home runs not with cartoonishly large muscles, but with a sweet swing and an ultra-quick bat. Last season, he helped drive the Brewers to the playoffs and was voted the NL's Most Valuable Player. Now Braun finds himself fighting a 50-game suspension after news leaked that he has tested positive for a banned substance.

NEW YORK -- Jason Giambi agreed yesterday to meet with baseball steroids investigator George Mitchell and apologized for his conduct, becoming the first active player known to cooperate with the former senator. "I alone am responsible for my actions and I apologize to the commissioner, the owners, and the players for any suggestion that they were responsible for my behavior," Giambi said. The decision came two weeks after commissioner Bud Selig requested the meeting and followed long negotiations between lawyers for the players' union and Major League Baseball.

Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ’Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big , By Jose Canseco, Regan, 290 pp, $25.95 Approaching Jose Canseco's book on steroids, one might expect a dose of contrition paired with predictable warnings to youth about the dangers of dabbling in drugs. Whatever else it may be, "Juiced" does not deal in platitudes. It is not a conventional apologia. To the contrary, Canseco revels in his role as "the Chemist" or, as he fashions himself, "the godfather of steroids in baseball.

Retired NHL enforcer Georges Laraque says in a new book that steroid use was commonplace for years in hockey dressing rooms. And it wasn't limited to just the league's bruisers, Laraque wrote in "The Story of the NHL's Unlikeliest Tough Guy. " "I have to say here that tough guys weren't the only players using steroids in the NHL," Laraque wrote. "It was true that quite a lot of them did use this drug, but other, more talented players did too. "Most of us knew who they were, but not a single player, not even me, would ever think of raising his hand to break the silence and...