Former Oakland A’s first baseman Jason Giambi testified in Barry Bonds’ federal perjury trial in San Francisco today that he took steroids he received from Bonds’ trainer, Greg Anderson, in 2002 and 2003.
Giambi said Anderson mailed him injectable testosterone and syringes, as well as two designer steroids known as “the clear” and “the cream” and calendars saying how often to take the drugs, beginning in November 2002.
He said he never talked to Anderson about whether the drugs were legal, but said, “I took it that it was very secretive to get your hands on it and to be quiet about it.”
He said Anderson said “the cream” and “the clear” had “steroid-like” qualities but were undetectable on tests.
At the time, Giambi was playing for the New York Yankees. He played for the A’s from 1995 to 2001 and is now with the Colorado Rockies.
He told the jury in the court of U.S. District Judge Susan Illston that he paid about $10,000 for the drugs and stopped taking them after injuring his knee in August 2003.
Giambi said Anderson also told him, “If I needed growth hormone he could send it to me.
“But I told him I had it already,” Giambi said.
Giambi, 40, is the first of several present and former professional baseball players the prosecution plans to call to the stand to testify that Anderson gave them performance-enhancing drugs and instructions about how to take them.
Prosecutors are seeking to prove that Bonds, 46, lied when he told a grand jury in December 2003 that he never knowingly received steroids or human growth hormone from Anderson and never was injected by Anderson.
Illston instructed jurors that the athletes’ testimony is being offered by prosecutors to show the manner in which Anderson allegedly distributed performance-enhancing drugs.
But she said the jurors may not conclude that Bonds took drugs just because other athletes did.
Prosecutors’ next witness was Giambi’s brother, former Major League Baseball player Jeremy Giambi.
Bonds has admitted taking “the clear” and “the cream,” but has said he did not know at the time they were steroids.
Bonds, who set home-run records while playing for the Giants, faces a total of four counts of false statements and one count of obstructing justice in his December 2003 grand jury testimony.
Giambi previously publicly admitted in 2007 that he had taken steroids and apologized for having done so.
Julia Cheever, Bay City News
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