It's been about a year and a half since the strange tale of a gymgoer who allegedly beat a fellow exercise enthusiast to death in front of a crowd at a Bally Total Fitness in South San Francisco. This week, the accused man finally made his plea in the case — and blamed steroids for the rage that overcame him as he killed a popualr area butcher.

It was September 17, 2014, when then-46-year-old Kenneth Osako walked up behind 44-year-old Diego Galindo and struck him on the head several times with "a solid steel bar, normally used to lift weights," South SF police said at the time.

Galindo was rushed to San Francisco General Hospital, but died of his injuries the next day. According to Bay City News, Galindo was "a popular butcher at Carniceria Tepa on Linden Avenue," and his "death drew numerous messages of mourning and anger from the South San Francisco community."

Following the attack, "Osako dropped the steel bar and left the scene," police say, and was arrested the following morning. He pled "not guilty" at that time, and was ordered to stand trial.

This Tuesday, however, Osako agreed to plead no contest to second-degree murder, Bay City News reports.

According to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office, that charge carries a minimum sentence of 15 years to life, and Osako will receive "no more than 17 years to life" at his sentencing hearing on April 25.

Osako's attorney Steven Chase says that the issue between the two men began after a brief encounter in the locker room, when he says Galindo spoke to Osako in Spanish.

Osako, who is not fluent in Spanish, believed that he heard the word "fight," which sent him into a "'roid rage," Chase says.

“He feels horrible, he killed basically an innocent man because he was so wired up from using steroids and a little bit of methamphetamine that he wasn’t thinking clearly,” Chase says.

Osako, who Chase told BCN "was once a munitions expert in the U.S. Army and recently had been working as a plumber...has four daughters and a son ranging from their teens to their early 20s who he doted on, and now he feels awful that he took Galindo from his family."

“It’s just a tragedy what steroids can do to somebody, and a life has been taken because of it,” Chase says.

“That’s something he’s going to have to live with for the rest of his life.”

Previously: South San Francisco Man Beats Fellow Gymgoer To Death With Exercise Equipment

Greg Anderson, the man busted for dealing steroids to former Giants great Barry Bonds, is now being shunned by little league baseball. "A Northern California youth baseball league has barred Barry Bonds' former personal trainer from coaching his son's team," reports BCN (via KTVU). "The president of the Burlingame Youth Baseball Association says Greg Anderson is not a registered coach and is prohibited from being on the field during games."

Anderson was yanked from his gig after a parent complained that having a BALCO player coaching his son's team might not be the best idea.

League president Mike Brunicardi notes that "Anderson is free to register as a coach next season, but will have to undergo a background check like other volunteers."

According to Wikipedia, "Anderson and Barry Bonds began a lifelong friendship when the two played middle school baseball together in California."

[KTVU]

As we mentioned this morning, Barry Bonds is in court today to face accusations that he lied under oath way back in December of 2003 when he denied that he knowingly took steroids and performance enhancers. If courtroom drama is what gets you through your day, we might recommend you keep an eye on Joe Vasquez's twitter feed where the CBS5 reporter takes us inside the courtroom with haiku-like dispatches covering everything from the jury selection process to the cut of the former Giants outfielder's suit. For the full background on the trial, check the Bay City News report on the Appeal.

[@JoeCBS5]
[BCN/SFAppeal]

Much to the surprise of the visually-impaired, Mark McGwire, former A's' star/Helen Hunt's wet dream, admitted to using steroids when he broke baseball's home run record back in 1998. McGwire, it seems "did everything he was accused of doing, chemically speaking, more or less, and he acknowledged regret," Ray Ratto gloats.

In part of a written statement, McGwire said:

I'm sure people will wonder if I could have hit all those home runs had I never taken steroids. I had good years when I didn't take any and I had bad years when I didn't take any. I had good years when I took steroids and I had bad years when I took steroids. But no matter what, I shouldn't have done it and for that I'm truly sorry.

Baseball is really different now -- it's been cleaned up. The commissioner and the players' association implemented testing and they cracked down, and I'm glad they did.

Also:

After all this time, I want to come clean. I was not in a position to do that five years ago in my congressional testimony, but now I feel an obligation to discuss this and to answer questions about it. I'll do that, and then I just want to help my team.

This, of course, raises an interesting question: why not allow steroids in baseball? or football? or curling? or, for that matter, any other sport? Unless you, like many, fetishize baseball as a sepia-toned box of Cracker Jacks, why not relent to modern (albeit at times deadly) enhancers in the game of sport?

How do you feel about 'roid raging in baseball? Is it time to let the future of pharmaceuticals stage a coup on MLB's RBIs? Let us know after the jump.

Well, it's about time. The Castro district -- notorious for being "too body conscious," or whatever the technical term for it is that the spherical gays always toss about, angrily -- played host to a DEA raid on Thursday. According to Lance Williams, who snatches away the "Best Scribe Name" trophy from Jaxon Van Derbeken, the "U.S. Food and Drug Administration agents served search warrants at the Max Muscle store on 16th Street and at the Pacifica home of Maurice Sandoval, who was identified as the owner of a laboratory that markets two heavily advertised supplements called Tren Extreme and Mass Extreme." While the two products are technically legal, two beauty-hating FDA scientists claim that said products "contain two undetectable designer steroids," which prompted yesterday's raid. (Max Muscle, by the way, used to be the nicest little wine and smoke shop before the meatheads took it over, so please excuse our glee.) So sorry, boys. (Read more about it here.)

Great news, Giants fans. The LA Times reports that, as of this morning, Dodgers left fielder Manny Ramirez has been put on temporary suspension for 50 games after testing positive for an illegal substance. And, in classic prescription drug abuse excuses, Ramirez blames the doctor.

Recently I saw a physician for a personal health issue. He gave me a medication, not a steroid, which he thought was OK to give me. Unfortunately, the medication was banned under our drug policy. Under the policy that mistake is now my responsibility. I have been advised not to say anything more for now. I do want to say one other thing; I've taken and passed about 15 drug tests over the past five seasons. I want to apologize to [Dodgers owner Frank] McCourt, Mrs. McCourt, [manager Joe] Torre, my teammates, the Dodger organization, and to the Dodger fans. LA is a special place to me and I know everybody is disappointed. So am I. I'm sorry about this whole situation.

We year you, Manny. We can't tell you how many times we too have gone to the doctor, only to be prescribed some sort of distant anabolic steroid derivative, which, for some reason, we keep taking again and again until we can punch a hole in the ceiling.

Anyway, Ramirez 's suspension comes on the heels of the LA Dodgers coming in at no. 1 in NL West, with the Giants trailing close behind at no. 2. With Manny out for the next couple of months, according to NBC Bay Area, "no one will be able to come close to replacing Ramirez's production ... which will likely make the team's 13-0 home start a distant memory by the time Ramirez returns to the lineup." Which? Is fantastic news.

MurrayChass.com broke the story:

"I am convinced that Major League Baseball will never let him put on a uniform ever again," said Bonds' agent, Jeff Borris.

Bonds did not play this year. The last time he played was on Sept. 26, 2007, when he failed to get a hit in three times at bat against the San Diego Padres. Try as he did, Borris was unable to find Bonds a job for 2008. Did he think his client was a victim of collusion, Borris was asked on the telephone Tuesday.

"There's not a doubt in my mind," he replied emphatically.

Baseball officials deny Borris' allegation.

And your evidence iiiiiis... what, then?

More likely than Borris' paranoid postulation, the scenario processed out like this: each MLB team's front office considered what sort of production Bonds could lend to their team versus the public relations apocalypse that Bonds would bring their franchise.

Then we'd imagine that they moved on to their next order of business.

Former baseball great and Giants slugger Barry Bonds appeared on court today, pleading not guilty to 15 federal charges of fibbing to a grand jury. If you recall, Bonds just did the exact same thing in December, but after a "judge ordered prosecutors to rewrite the slugger's indictment to fix legal infirmities in the document," the brand spanking new indictment "legal infirmities in the document." Whatever that means.

As we all know by now:

Prosecutors say he lied when he told a grand jury investigating the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative in 2003 that he never knowingly took steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs. Bonds also is scheduled to appear later Friday at a status conference where a trial date might be set.

We're starting to feel for the guy. Sort of.