Jason Giambi: Bonds’ trainer supplied steroids

Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO

Colorado Rockies first baseman Jason Giambi and his brother testified Tuesday that Barry Bonds’ personal trainer supplied them with performance-enhancing drugs.

The two were the first athletes called to testify at the Bonds perjury trial, which is in its second week.

Appearing calm, Jason Giambi testified that he met trainer Greg Anderson after the 2002 season while both were traveling through Japan with a U.S. all-star team.

When they returned to the states, Anderson had Giambi’s blood tested and it turned up positive for a steroid that Major League Baseball was planning to test for during the 2003 season.

“Anderson told me that would trip a Major League Baseball test and that I should take something else,” Giambi said.

Giambi said he paid Anderson a total of about $10,000 for several shipments of steroids known as “the clear” and “the cream” designed to evade detection starting in late 2002 and through the beginning of the 2003 baseball season. Syringes and a calendar detailing when he should take the substances were included in the first shipment, Giambi testified.

During cross examination, Bonds attorney Cris Arguedas read Giambi’s 2003 grand jury testimony when he testified that Anderson had told him “the clear and the cream had steroid-like effects without being a steroid.”

Giambi agreed with that testimony.

Bonds lawyer Allen Ruby said that Bonds used the designer steroids, but believed Anderson when he told the slugger they were legal supplements.

Giambi’s brother, Jeremy Giambi, testified similarly. Jeremy Giambi played for four major league teams during a five-year career that ended in 2003.

Neither Giambi provided direct testimony about Bonds. Instead, prosecutors hope to use their testimony — and that of other players — to show that Anderson was a well-known steroids dealer. Anderson is in jail for refusing to testify at the trial.

Several other athletes are expected to testify about their relationship with Anderson this week.