PLAYER FROM AREA TESTS FOR STEROIDS.

Byline: Ross Siler and Ramona Shelburne Staff Writers

A former local baseball standout now with the Montreal Expos became the second confirmed manor-league player to test positive for anabolic steroids. Terrmel Sledge was banned from international competition for two years, the United States Anti-Doping Agency announced Tuesday.

Sledge, 26, tested positive for 19-norandrosterone and 19-noretiocholanolone, both prohibited anabolic agents, in a urine sample given at a USA Baseball Olympic training camp Oct. 8 in Tempe, Ariz., the agency said.

Sledge is remembered locally for leading Kennedy High of Granada Hills to the 1995 City Section championship, then playing at Cal State Northridge alongside current Anaheim Angels second baseman Adam Kennedy.

But with his failed test, Sledge joined Anaheim Angels reliever Derrick Turnbow as the only two known current players to have taken steroids. Turnbow's positive test at the same camp was announced last week, adding to the growing furor over steroid use in the sport.

Sledge, a promising outfielder on the Expos' 40-man roster, is rated the No. 9 prospect in Montreal's farm system by Baseball America. He is expected to compete with Ron Calloway and Endy Chavez for the third outfield position behind Carl Everett and Brad Wilkerson. Last season, he hit .324 with 22 home runs, 92 RBI, 26 doubles and 13 steals for the Expos' Triple-A affiliate in Edmonton, Alberta.

Although he is banned from international competition for two years, Sledge will not face any sanctions from Major League Baseball.

A USADA spokesman added that Sledge declined the opportunity to appeal his case and accepted the two-year ban.

Sledge, who lives in Valencia during the offseason, did not return phone messages. His sister said Tuesday afternoon he was arriving home from playing in a winter league in Puerto Rico that night.

With widespread steroid use alleged by several former players, Major League Baseball began anonymously testing players last year. More than 5 percent of those tests came back positive, leading the sport to begin punishing players for use this season.

But Sledge avoided any sanctions because his test took place in 2003.

``It's very uncharacteristic of him. He was such a great kid,'' Kennedy baseball coach Manny Alvarado said. ``It's very sad. He was always a very hard worker and a class act.''

Alvarado said he remembered Sledge as a scrawny, 135-pound 11th-grader who worked hard to become an All-City player as a senior, when he led the team to the City title in 1995.

Sledge played one year at Cal State Northridge but transferred to Long Beach State after the Matadors program was dropped in July 1997. In 1998 he was drafted in the 45th round by the Cincinnati Reds but returned to Long Beach and was the Big West Player of the Year after hitting .392 with 13 home runs.

He was selected in the eighth round and signed with Seattle in 1999 and spent part of the 2000 season with the Lancaster JetHawks, then the Mariners' Single-A affiliate.

Sledge was one of 32 players invited to the U.S. Team Trials that began Oct. 3 in Tempe, Ariz. All players at the camp were tested for banned substances, USADA spokesman Rich Wanninger said. Under USADA protocol, Sledge's sample was tested twice, the second time by an independent agency to audit the results, Wanninger said.

Wanninger added the USADA did not give advance notice to Sledge or his teammates of the impending test. Wanninger could not say if future positive tests from players at the camp were forthcoming.

Sledge played in 12 exhibition games with Team USA during the nearly month-long training camp and hit .345 with one home run and seven RBI. However, he was not selected to the 24-man roster that competed in the Olympic qualifying tournament in Panama City, Panama, Oct. 30-Nov. 10.

According to Wanninger, the first notice of a positive test that Sledge or USA Baseball would have had came approximately two weeks after the initial test.

The 24-man roster for the Olympic qualifying tournament was announced Oct. 28.

After his test, Turnbow reportedly said he was taking a legal dietary supplement. The associate general counsel of the players union, Gene Orza, told the Associated Press that Turnbow was taking over-the-counter androstenedione.

Ross Siler, [phone]

ross.siler(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

photo, box

Photo:

(color) SLEDGE

Box:

(ran in Final edition only) SLEDGE FILE