Marlin labels Bonds cheater

MIAMI – On the day of the Barry Bonds bombshell – a story revealing the San Francisco slugger used steroids supplied by his personal trainer – a member of the Florida Marlins labeled baseball’s best player a cheat, and another cast doubt on Bonds’ claim that he did so inadvertently.

The revelation in the San Francisco Chronicle – which followed by a day the newspaper’s report that former American League Most Valuable Player Jason Giambi had admitted using steroids knowingly – created a firestorm of reaction in the sport.

“As far as I’m concerned, they cheated,” Marlins pitcher Matt Perisho said. “Anything they’ve done in their big-league career is tainted. It doesn’t help you see the ball or swing the bat, but it’s still an illegal chemical and they cheated. If a guy is bigger, faster and stronger than everybody else, then it’s tainted. But Bonds is still the best player in baseball.”

In an interview with WSVN-Fox 7, Marlins third baseman Mike Lowell did not address Bonds specifically but alluded to his rapid transformation from a slender ballplayer to a slugger with a bodybuilder’s physique. “I can’t gain 30 pounds in four months,” Lowell said. “I can’t do it unless you use … help.”

The news the National League’s seven-time Most Valuable Player used steroids casts a negative light on a sport whose drug policy has been criticized by members of Congress, among others. Many joined the chorus calling for the sport to toughen its drug testing policy.

Baseball commissioner Bud Selig said he preferred a tougher steroid policy during the last labor negotiations, but did not want to risk a work stoppage.

“I instituted a very, very tough program in the minor leagues on steroids in 2001,” Selig told reporters Thursday in Washington, D.C. “We need to have that program at the major league level. We’re going to leave no stone unturned until we have that policy in place by spring 2005.”

Some wonder whether baseball wants to even fix the problem.

“I don’t see either side really pushing unless there’s an outcry from the fans,” former Arizona first baseman Mark Grace told the Arizona Republic. “Unless people stop coming to games, nothing is going to change. The owners are making too much money off guys hitting home runs and the players are making too much money off home runs.”

Although Bonds said his steroid use was unwitting, the Chronicle reported a day earlier that Yankees slugger Giambi had testified before the same grand jury that he knowingly used steroids for three years. He said he got some of them from Bonds’ trainer, sometimes injecting them into his buttocks.

“If someone gives me something to put in my body, I would find out what it is,” said Marlins infielder Mike Mordecai. “Eventually, steroids will kill you. And people are going to have to look at themselves in the mirror and if they’re happy with that, then they’re probably the guys using steroids. It probably taints Bonds. You think of Pete Rose, you think of a gambler. Now when Giambi and Bonds come up, the first thing people will say is, ‘steroids.’ “

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., said Friday that he will introduce legislation imposing drug-testing standards on professional athletes if baseball players and owners do not adopt a stringent crackdown on steroids by January.

In the wake of the disclosure that San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds used substances provided to him by a trainer who has been indicted in a steroid distribution ring, McCain, in an interview, gave baseball until next month to adopt the more stringent drug testing requirements of minor league baseball or face federal action.

“Major league baseball players and owners should meet immediately to enact the standards that apply to the minor leagues, and if they don’t, I will have to introduce legislation that says professional sports will have minimum standards for testing,” McCain said after returning from a European trip late Friday. “I’ll give them until January and then I’ll introduce legislation.”

Under the threat of federal intervention, Major League Baseball officials promised rapid action to impose stringent drug testing.

The Washington Post contributed to this report.