The New York Daily News has reported that Barry Bonds failed an amphetamine test in 2006. Under the terms of Major League Baseball’s Joint Drug Prevention Program, a first positive test for amphetamines does not require a suspension or the naming of the player to the public.
It does however trigger a provision that calls for Bonds (or any player testing positive for amphetamines) to be tested six times in the following six months. Bonds did not appeal the decision.
According to the Daily News, several sources indicated that when Bonds was informed of his positive test, he attributed it to a substance he had gotten from teammate Mark Sweeney’s locker.
While Bonds and his agent and lawyer denied comment, Sweeney’s agent, Barry Axelrod, had this to say to to the Daily News:
“Mark (Sweeney) was made aware of the fact that his name had been brought up, but he did not give Barry Bonds anything and there was nothing he could have given Barry Bonds.”
Sources said that Sweeney was informed that he was implicated when Gene Orza, the chief operating officer of the players association, called and told him (Sweeney) that he had been named, and that he should remove any questionable substances from his locker, and that he should not share any substances with other players. Sweeney reportedly told Orza that there was nothing in his locker that was illegal or banned.
Sweeney apparently confronted Bonds, and Bonds told him that Orza had misunderstood, that he had not intended to implicate his teammate. Axelrod declined comment regarding any conversations between Sweeney and Orza or Sweeney and Bonds, but did say:
“I can say unequivocally in my 22 years I’ve known Barry Bonds he has never blamed anyone for anything.”
