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Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative

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57-666: The Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative ( BALCO ) was an American company that operated from 1983 to 2003 led by founder and owner Victor Conte . In 2003, journalists Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada investigated the company's role in a drug sports scandal later referred to as the BALCO scandal . BALCO marketed tetrahydrogestrinone ("the Clear"), a then-undetected, performance-enhancing steroid developed by chemist Patrick Arnold . Conte, BALCO vice president James Valente, weight trainer Greg Anderson and coach Remi Korchemny had supplied

114-572: A black base: the primary "A" cap, the teal-trimmed "snake" cap (paired exclusively on the teal alternates), and the sand-trimmed "snake" cap with red brim (paired exclusively on the Sedona Red alternates). The Nike swoosh logo is also placed on the right chest near the shoulder. In 2022, the Diamondbacks introduced a red "A" cap with black brim. In 2021, the Diamondbacks were one of seven teams to wear Nike "City Connect" uniforms. The design

171-684: A coach working in a nearby fitness studio. Bonds then delivered contacts to other baseball professionals. In 2003, the United States Attorney for the Northern District of California began investigating BALCO. U.S. sprint coach Trevor Graham had given an anonymous phone call to the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) in June 2003 accusing a number of athletes being involved in doping with

228-794: A grand jury). However, in February 2007, federal prosecutors dropped charges against the reporters after a Colorado attorney, Troy Ellerman, who once represented Conte and another executive of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative, admitted to leaking the testimony and pleaded guilty to federal charges of unauthorized disclosure of grand jury testimony. In an interview with Editor & Publisher , Lance Williams revealed that he would never testify in court, even if it did not involve confidential sources. "I have no interest in becoming anybody's witness." On November 15, 2007, former San Francisco Giants outfielder Barry Bonds

285-455: A motion to decline its contract with the Diamondbacks as part of its chapter 11 bankruptcy . As a result, Major League Baseball assumed production of the Diamondbacks' regional telecasts (maintaining staff such as commentators), and distributed them via local television providers and MLB.tv . As of 2024, these games are branded as DBacks.TV . Games air on the following cable providers and networks: The primary television play-by-play voice for

342-605: A number of high-profile sports stars from the United States and Europe with "the Clear" and human growth hormone for several years. Headquartered in Burlingame, California , BALCO was founded in 1984. Officially, BALCO was a service business for blood and urine analysis and food supplements . In 1988, Victor Conte offered free blood and urine tests to a group of athletes known as the BALCO Olympians . He then

399-559: A second count of laundering a portion of a check. He was sentenced in October of the same year to four months in the federal Taft Correctional Institution in Taft, California , with four months on house arrest. In a December 2004 interview with Martin Bashir on ABC 's 20/20 program, he admitted to running doping programs which have broken Olympic records. He said, "The whole history of

456-525: A snake's head. The team also kept the "D" logo, which was slightly altered and put on an all-red cap to be used as their game cap. They kept the "A" logo with the new colors applied to it, with a solid black cap used as the alternate cap. Arizona's updated color scheme bore a striking resemblance to the Houston Astros ' color scheme (brick red, sand and black) that the Astros used until 2012, as well as

513-490: A sports nutrition center in California. In the late seventies Conte played bass with funk  /  R&B group Tower of Power , appearing on the band's 1978 release We Came to Play! . Conte served time in prison in 2005 after pleading guilty to conspiracy to distribute steroids and to money laundering. He currently operates Scientific Nutrition for Advanced Conditioning (SNAC Nutrition). Victor Conte Jr.

570-612: A steroid that was not detectable at the time. He also named Victor Conte as the source of the steroid. As evidence, Graham delivered a syringe containing traces of tetrahydrogestrinone (THG), nicknamed "the Clear." Shortly after, Don Catlin , MD, the founder of the UCLA Olympic Analytical Laboratory, developed a testing process for tetrahydrogestrinone. Now able to detect the new substance, he tested 550 existing samples from athletes, of which 20 proved to be positive for THG. On September 3, 2003 agents of

627-406: Is all-purple, while the road cap is black with a teal brim. They also wore a cream cap with purple brim, and a teal cap with purple brim. All designs featured the primary "A" logo. In 1999, the road cap became all-black and contained the alternate "D-snake" logo rendered in copper. Also, the teal and cream alternate caps were dropped. The left sleeve of all four uniforms contained the snake logo with

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684-521: Is also the play-by-play radio voice for ASU women's basketball. Mike Ferrin served in the same role for six years before parting ways with the team, and he was replaced by Chris Garagiola in December 2021. The flagship Spanish language radio station is KHOV-FM 105.1 with Oscar Soria, Rodrigo López , and Richard Saenz. Games were televised in Spanish on KPHE-LP —with Oscar Soria and Jerry Romo as

741-708: Is boxer Zab Judah ; Conte has previously worked with Andre Berto , Nonito Donaire , and Andre Ward . Arizona Diamondbacks The Arizona Diamondbacks are an American professional baseball team based in Phoenix, Arizona . The Diamondbacks compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West Division . The franchise was established on March 9, 1995, and began play in 1998 as an expansion team . The team plays its home games at Chase Field . Along with

798-400: Is primarily sand and has "Serpientes" in black script lettering emblazoned in front. The first "S" in "Serpientes" was shaped to resemble a rattlesnake . The right sleeve has the flag of Arizona patch recolored to the Diamondbacks' red, sand and black scheme, and the left sleeve has the "A" logo recolored to black and sand. Numerals are in red. The cap is primarily sand with black brim and has

855-755: The FBI as a possible source of leaks to the media during the Barry Bonds probe. On February 14, 2007, Ellerman pleaded guilty to leaking grand jury testimony. It was also reported that FBI agents were an additional source of leaks. In May 2007, Conte claimed to be again providing supplements for Dwain Chambers, who left track and field to play in the NFL Europa league for the Hamburg Sea Devils before returning to athletics in 2008. According to Conte,

912-568: The Internal Revenue Service , Food and Drug Administration , San Mateo Narcotics Task Force, and United States Anti-Doping Agency conducted a search of the BALCO facilities. Alongside lists of BALCO customers in a BALCO field warehouse they found containers whose labels indicated steroids and growth hormones. In a search at Anderson's home two days later, steroids, $ 60,000 in cash, names lists and dosage plans were found. Among

969-568: The NHL 's Phoenix Coyotes , whose adoption of those colors predated the Diamondbacks by four years. The white home uniform featured "D-Backs" in red with sand and black trim. The road gray uniform featured "Arizona" in red with sand and black trim. Player names were red with black trim while numbers were black with red trim. The alternate red uniform contained "D-Backs" in sand with red and black trim, with player names in sand with black trim and numbers in black with sand trim. There were two versions of

1026-584: The Tampa Bay Rays , the Diamondbacks are one of the newest teams in the MLB and are the youngest team to win a World Series . After a fifth-place finish in their inaugural season, the Diamondbacks made several off-season acquisitions, including future Hall of Fame pitcher Randy Johnson , who won four consecutive Cy Young Awards in his first four seasons with the team. In 1999 , Arizona won 100 games and their first division championship. In 2001 , they won

1083-711: The World Series over the three-time defending champion New York Yankees, becoming the fastest expansion team in major league history to win the World Series and the first and only men's major professional sports team in the State of Arizona to win a championship. 22 years later , they would return to the World Series , only to lose to the Texas Rangers in five games, thus earning the Diamondbacks their first World Series loss in team history. From 1998 to 2024,

1140-443: The "A" logo in black and sand; the regular batting helmet is used with the uniform. Initially, the Diamondbacks wore white pants with this uniform, but has since switched to sand pants. Before the 2023 season, the Diamondbacks promoted the alternate white uniform with teal accents to its primary home uniform and retired the previous Sedona Red white uniform. This is due to a new Nike rule that limits teams to four regular uniforms plus

1197-575: The "A" logo on the right chest, and was paired with purple undershirts. Before the 2001 season, the sleeved uniform was changed to feature the "A" logo. In all three uniforms, player names were teal with purple trim, and numbers were purple with white with teal trim. The Diamondbacks' primary road gray uniform also had purple pinstripes. The first version featured "Arizona" in purple with white and teal trim along with black drop shadows, with chest numbers added. Player names were in purple with white trim, and numbers were teal with white and purple trim. In 2001,

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1254-399: The "A" logo on the right chest, while letters were purple with white trim and numbers were teal with white and purple trim. A zigzag pattern of teal, copper and purple was featured on the sleeves. In 2001, the uniform was changed to feature "Arizona" in front. The letters became purple with white and copper trim. The Diamondbacks initially wore four different cap versions. The primary home cap

1311-529: The "A" logo, and its all-black counterpart is worn with both the home and black alternate uniform. The road cap is black with Sedona red trim and featured the return of the "D-snake" logo and is worn with both the road and alternate Sedona red uniform. The all-Sedona red alternate cap shared the same features as the road cap and is worn with the Sedona red uniform. On July 18, 2023, a federal bankruptcy court granted Bally Sports' parent company Diamond Sports Group

1368-568: The "City Connect" uniform. Coming off their second World Series appearance in 2023 , the Diamondbacks unveiled refreshed uniform designs starting in 2024. Turquoise returned full-time as an accent color on all uniforms along with Sedona red and black, but sand was removed except on the "City Connect" uniform. The home uniform is now a cream base with black piping, featuring the "A" logo on the left chest. The road grey uniform with black piping featured "Arizona" in Sedona red with teal and black outlines. The alternate black uniform with teal piping shared

1425-735: The 2001 postseason. After beating the Philadelphia Phillies 4–2 in Game 7 of the 2023 NLCS at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, the Arizona Diamondbacks returned to the World Series for the first time since 2001 – against the Texas Rangers on October 27, 2023. They lost the series 4–1 at home in Arizona on November 1, 2023. The Diamondbacks' original colors were purple, black, teal and copper. Their logo

1482-555: The 2013 season. On October 18, 2012, the team announced that Bob Brenly would return as a broadcaster to replace Grace and that he would be joined by then- ESPN personality Steve Berthiaume . The English language flagship radio station is KTAR . Greg Schulte was the regular radio play-by-play voice, a 25-year veteran of sports radio in the Phoenix market, also well known for his previous work on Phoenix Suns , Arizona Cardinals and Arizona State University (ASU) broadcasts. It

1539-605: The Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO), a sports nutrition center first located in Millbrae, California and later relocated to Burlingame , California. The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) says he developed the banned steroid tetrahydrogestrinone (THG has the nickname The Clear) with the help of bodybuilding chemist Patrick Arnold . Pursuant to a plea bargain struck with prosecutors, he entered guilty pleas in July 2005 to one count of conspiracy to distribute steroids and

1596-488: The D-backs trail in late innings. Former Diamondbacks and Chicago Cubs first baseman Mark Grace and knuckleballer Tom Candiotti were the Diamondbacks primary color analysts for the 2006 and 2007 seasons. Former Diamondbacks third baseman Matt Williams also did color commentary on occasion, as did Cardinals and NBC broadcast legend Joe Garagiola , a longtime Phoenix-area resident and father of Joe Garagiola Jr. ,

1653-581: The Diamondbacks had an overall record of 2,087–2,185 (.489). On March 9, 1995, Phoenix was awarded an expansion franchise to begin play for the 1998 season. A $ 130 million franchise fee was paid to Major League Baseball and on January 16, 1997, the Diamondbacks were voted into the National League. The Diamondbacks' first major league game was played against the Colorado Rockies on March 31, 1998 , at Bank One Ballpark. The ballpark

1710-596: The Diamondbacks to call games with his father for the Reds beginning in 2007, signing a four-year deal. On November 1, 2006, the team announced that the TV voice of the Milwaukee Brewers since 2002, Daron Sutton , would be hired as the Diamondbacks primary TV play-by-play voice. Sutton was signed to a five-year contract with a team option for three more years. Sutton's signature chants included "let's get some runs" when

1767-684: The alternate black uniform. One design has the alternate "A" logo on the right chest, while the other has "Arizona" written in red with black and sand trim. The latter was introduced in 2013 as a tribute to the victims of the Yarnell Hill Fire . On both uniforms, player names were sand with red trim, and numbers in red with sand trim. Before the 2016 season, the Diamondbacks reincorporated teal into its color scheme while keeping Sedona Red, Sonoran Sand and black. They also unveiled eight different uniform combinations, including two separate home white and away grey uniforms. One major difference between

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1824-493: The athletes listed in the record of BALCO customers were: Patrick Arnold, BALCO's chemist, alleges that Bonds and Gary Sheffield were given "the Clear," though the athletes deny knowing about it and Arnold does not claim to have witnessed it. In April 2005, Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada were honored with the journalist prize of the White House Correspondents' Association . In 2006, they published

1881-428: The band Pure Food and Drug Act . At the time Conte's nickname was " Walking Fish ", due to his unusual way of moving across the stage when he was performing. He left Pure Food and Drug Act some time prior to 1977. He was a member of Tower of Power from 1977 until 1979 playing bass guitar. He also collaborated during that period with pianist Herbie Hancock and violinist Sugarcane Harris . In 1984, Conte founded

1938-414: The book Game of Shadows , which consists of a summary of about 200 interviews and 1,000 documents they collected for their research. On July 15, 2005, Conte and Anderson cut plea bargains, pleaded guilty to illegal steroid distribution and money laundering and avoided an embarrassing trial. Conte spent four months in prison. Anderson was incarcerated for 13½ months. He was released on November 15, 2007,

1995-438: The case. There have been controversies about the informant and/or source of the information about the books and related court cases. In 2008, in the aftermath of the investigation, Conte wrote a book BALCO: The Straight Dope on Barry Bonds, Marion and What We Can Do to Save Sports which was co-written with author Nathan Jendrick. There was defamation litigation about the book's publication by boxer Shane Mosley which delayed

2052-426: The first GM of the Diamondbacks. The Diamondbacks announced in July 2007 that for the 2008 season, all regionally broadcast Diamondbacks TV games would be shown exclusively on Fox Sports Arizona (now Bally Sports Arizona ) and a few could possibly be shown on the national MLB on Fox telecasts. Bally Sports Arizona is seen in 2.8 million households in Arizona and New Mexico. The previous flagship station since

2109-509: The full team name until the 2004 season, when it became exclusive to the road black uniform. The franchise unveiled new uniforms and colors of Sedona red, Sonoran sand and black on November 8, 2006. The red shade is named for the sandstone canyon at Red Rock State Park near Sedona , while the beige (sand) shade is named for the Sonoran Desert . A sleeve patch was added featuring a lowercase "d" and "b" configured to look like

2166-467: The games is just full of corruption, cover-up, performance-enhancing drug use." In the interview he implicated five-time Olympic gold medalist Marion Jones and her partner Tim Montgomery , Kelli White (who later admitted using performance-enhancing drugs), sprinter Dwain Chambers , NFL linebacker Bill Romanowski , and others. On December 21, 2006, Yahoo Sports reported that one of Conte's initial defense lawyers, Troy Ellerman, had been targeted by

2223-426: The inaugural 1998 season was KTVK (Channel 3), a popular over-the-air independent station (and former longtime ABC affiliate) in Phoenix. From 2009 to 2012, Grace and Sutton were tagged as the main broadcasters of the Diamondbacks with pre-game and postgame shows on Fox Sports Arizona, being hosted by Joe Borowski . On June 21, 2012, Sutton was suspended indefinitely amid rumors of insubordination. On August 24,

2280-488: The nutritional supplements provided via his company Scientific Nutrition for Advanced Conditioning, are perfectly legal. On December 13, 2007, Conte appeared on CNN before The Mitchell Report was officially released. Game of Shadows: Barry Bonds, BALCO, and the Steroids Scandal that Rocked Professional Sports was published by two San Francisco Chronicle investigative reporters in 2006, relating to

2337-538: The publication date. Mosley dropped the lawsuit, but not before Skyhorse Publishing had been scared away from publishing it. The book is officially unpublished as of 2017, but the unpublished manuscript has been made available. In 2011, Conte started a new company, Scientific Nutrition for Advanced Conditioning (SNAC) which is based in San Carlos, California , which in addition to nutritional supplements also offers boxing and sports training. One of SNAC's clients

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2394-454: The same day Bonds was indicted by a federal grand jury on four counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice. On June 6, 2006 the house of Arizona Diamondbacks player Jason Grimsley was searched as part of the ongoing BALCO probe. Grimsley later said that federal investigators wanted him to wear a wire in order to obtain information against Barry Bonds. He told people which players used performance-enhancing drugs. The final result

2451-411: The same features as the home uniform. The alternate Sedona red uniform incorporated the full "Diamondbacks" wordmark in black with teal and Sedona red outlines, along with teal numbers trimmed in black on the left chest. All uniforms featured the snake head alternate logo on either sleeve, with the sponsor logo ( Avnet since 2023) on the other sleeve. The home cap is Sedona red with black brim and featured

2508-416: The teal-trimmed grey uniforms were retired. The team also reverted to a standard grey uniform after wearing a darker shade on the previous set. Two home white uniforms remain in use: the primary Sedona Red and the alternate teal. They would also wear two black uniforms: one with the primary "A" logo on the left chest and the other with "Los D-Backs" trimmed in teal. Three cap designs were also unveiled, all with

2565-450: The team announced that Grace had requested an indefinite leave of absence after being arrested for his second DUI in less than two years. Grace was later indicted on four DUI counts. ) For the remainder of the 2012 season, Sutton was replaced by Greg Schulte (Jeff Munn replaced Schulte on the radio broadcast) and Grace was replaced by Luis Gonzalez. At the end of the 2012 season, the team announced that neither Sutton nor Grace would return for

2622-473: The team's first nine seasons of play was Thom Brennaman , who also broadcast baseball and college football games nationally for Fox Television . Brennaman was the TV announcer for the Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds (along with his father Marty Brennaman ) before being hired by Diamondbacks founder Jerry Colangelo in 1996, two years before the team would begin play. In October 2006, Brennaman left

2679-446: The two sets is that the non-teal uniforms feature a snakeskin pattern on the shoulders, while the teal-trimmed uniforms include a charcoal/grey snakeskin pattern on the back. Arizona also kept the throwback pinstriped sleeveless uniforms from their 2001 championship season for use during Thursday home games. Starting with the 2020 season, the Diamondbacks made slight redesigns to their uniforms. The snakeskin patterns were removed while

2736-463: The uniform became sleeveless with black undershirts, and the lettering scheme was changed to purple with white, copper and black accents. The alternate home purple uniform featured "Arizona" in teal with white and copper trim and black drop shadows. The letters were rendered in teal with copper and white trim, but were changed to copper with teal and white trim after only one season. This set was worn until 2002. The alternate road black uniform featured

2793-430: Was acquitted of two perjury charges. Sentencing was set for July 18, 2008. She was sentenced to six months' house arrest and five years' probation on October 10, 2008. On May 29, 2008, Trevor Graham was convicted by a federal jury on one count of lying to federal investigators about his relationship to an admitted steroids dealer, and the jury deadlocked on two other charges. Sentencing was set for September 5, 2008. He

2850-689: Was allowed to attend the Summer Olympics in Seoul , South Korea. From 1996, Conte worked with well-known American football star Bill Romanowski , who proved to be useful to establish new connections to athletes and coaches such as Korchemny. Conte and Korchemny shortly thereafter founded the ZMA Track Club for marketing purposes, well-known members of it being sprinters Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery . In 2000, Conte managed to contact American baseball star Barry Bonds via Greg Anderson ,

2907-442: Was an italicized block letter "A" with a diamond pattern, with the crossbar represented by a snake's tongue. This period saw the Diamondbacks wear several uniform combinations. At home, the Diamondbacks wore cream uniforms with purple pinstripes. The primary sleeved uniform, worn from 1998 to 2000, featured the full team name ("Diamond" and "Backs" stacked together) in front and chest numbers. The alternate sleeveless version contained

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2964-478: Was announced in February 2023 that he would be retiring after the 2023 MLB season. He would call games with analyst Tom Candiotti. Jeff Munn served as a backup radio play-by-play announcer until 2016; he served as the regular public address announcer at Chase Field in the early days of the franchise. He previously served as the public address announcer for the Suns in the 1990s at what became Footprint Center . He

3021-526: Was born in 1950 in Fresno to Shirley and Victor Conte Sr. He is the oldest of three children in a working-class Italian family. After graduating from McLane High School he attended Fresno City College but dropped out of college in 1969 after being convinced by his cousin, musician Bruce Conte , to join the band Common Ground as its bass player. In 1970 he quit playing in Common Ground and joined

3078-579: Was indicted for perjury and obstruction of justice based on his grand jury testimony in this investigation. The trial began March 21, 2011, and he was convicted on April 13, 2011 on the obstruction of justice charge. The conviction was overturned upon appeal in April 2015. On April 4, 2008, Tammy Thomas was convicted by a federal jury on three counts of making false statements to a federal grand jury in November 2003, and on one count of obstructing justice. She

3135-463: Was renamed Chase Field in 2005, as a result of Bank One Corporation 's merger with JPMorgan Chase & Co. Since their debut, the Diamondbacks have won two Wild Card Series , five NL West division titles, two NL pennants, and the 2001 World Series . They later became the fastest expansion franchise in baseball history to win a World Series. The Diamondbacks defeated the Yankees in Game 7 during

3192-402: Was sentenced to one year of house arrest on October 21, 2008. 37°35′45″N 122°22′08″W  /  37.595833°N 122.368889°W  / 37.595833; -122.368889 Victor Conte Victor Conte Jr. (born July 10, 1950) is an American musician and businessman who was the founder and president of Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO), which is now defunct. BALCO was

3249-435: Was that the Diamondbacks released Grimsley, and he was given a 50-game suspension by Major League Baseball . In October 2006, investigations against Fainaru-Wada and Williams were started. The reporters were served with subpoenas to appear before a grand jury to identify the individual who leaked Bonds' name to them. They refused to do so and federal prosecutors asked that they be jailed for up to 18 months (the typical term of

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