TAMPA, Florida, 22 February 2004 — New York Yankees outfielder Gary Sheffield said Friday he’s clean, and he would take a drug test to prove it after he was linked to the suspect BALCO sports nutrition lab. “I’ll be the first guy up there and won’t back down,” Sheffield said of drug testing. “I don’t feel like I have to cheat. I’ve been a talented player for 15 years, and I don’t need anything (extra) to play a baseball game.”

Sheffield’s named was linked to BALCO on Tuesday when the US Attorney’s office released court documents to the press that accidentally showed Sheffield had once sent a package to the lab. Victor Conte, president of the Northern California-based BALCO Labs, BALCO Vice President James Valente, athletics coach Remi Korchemny and Gary Anderson — the personal trainer of baseball star Barry Bonds — were charged last week with conspiring to supply baseball, American football and athletics competitors with performance enhancing drugs. All pleaded innocent to the charges. Several high-profile sports figures testified before the grand jury investigating the case. But none has been charged, and prosecutors apologized for failing to black out Sheffield’s name on the affidavit regarding the investigation. Sheffield’s business manager, Rufus Williams, told the New York Daily News that the damage was done. “It’s like an accidental homicide,” Williams told he newspaper in a telephone interview. “Oops, someone’s dead and I’m sorry it happened.”

Sheffield said he realized that his association with Bonds — he trained with the Giants slugger before the 2002 season but said he found Bonds’ regimen too intense — would attract suspicion. He said his only contact with BALCO was when he gave the lab blood and urine samples and then received vitamins that were specially designed for his body type. He described himself as a “big vitamin guy” but said he no longer works with BALCO.

Fallout from the case was also being felt at the spring training camp of Bonds’ San Francisco Giants in Arizona, where security was tighter than usual. Word was that neither Anderson nor Bonds’ other personal trainer, Harvey Shields, would be allowed in the clubhouse, a move that would be in keeping with Major League Baseball’s preferred policy of limiting the clubhouse access of non-baseball personnel.

Angels Agree to One-Year Deal with Right-Hander Rodriguez

Francisco Rodriguez, one of the top young relievers in baseball, meanwhile, agreed to a one-year contract with the Anaheim Angels. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Part of one baseball’s deepest bullpens, Rodriguez went 8-3 with a 3.03 ERA in 59 games as a rookie last season. The hard-throwing right-hander allowed just 50 hits and struck out 95 in 86 innings.