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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - New York Yankees slugger Jason Giambi injected himself with human growth hormone in 2003 and also used steroids for at least three seasons, according to his grand jury testimony reviewed by the San Francisco Chronicle.
The testimony given in December 2003 to the federal grand jury investigating BALCO contradicts Giambi's public proclamations that he never used performance-enhancing drugs.

Giambi described how he injected human growth hormone in his stomach, testosterone into his buttocks, rubbed an undetectable steroid knows as "the cream" on his body and placed drops of another, called "the clear," under his tongue, the Chronicle reported on its Web site Wednesday night

Giambi testified that he obtained several different steroids from Barry Bonds' personal trainer, Greg Anderson, who is one of four men indicted by the grand jury investigating the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative. He said he got the human growth hormone from a gym in Las Vegas.

Anderson's attorney, Tony Serra, declined comment to the Chronicle, citing a court order.


Anderson, BALCO founder Victor Conte, vice president James Valente and track coach Remi Korchemny all have pleaded not guilty to the charges, which include steroid distribution.

On Wednesday, a federal judge said she would not immediately dismiss the charges in response to accusations that prosecutors illegally searched BALCO headquarters and Anderson's house and car. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston said she may conduct hearings into the matter in January.

Giambi was among dozens of elite athletes - including Bonds, Gary Sheffield and track stars Tim Montgomery and Marion Jones - who answered the grand jury's questions last year. Bonds, Jones and Montgomery deny using illegal drugs, but Sheffield told Sports Illustrated and ESPN earlier this year that he used "the cream" and "the clear" from BALCO, which he said unknowingly to him contained illegal steroids.

The Chronicle reported in October that on a 9-minute recording it had obtained, a speaker the paper identified as Anderson is heard saying Bonds used an "undetectable" performance-enhancing drug during the 2003 season.

Giambi met Anderson when the trainer joined Bonds on an All-Star tour in Japan in November 2002. Giambi said he wanted to know what Bonds' secret for success was.

"So I started to ask him: 'Hey, what are the things you're doing with Barry? He's an incredible player. I want to still be able to work out at that age and keep playing,"' Giambi testified, according to the Chronicle. "And that's how the conversation first started."

After returning to the United States, Anderson told Giambi he could provide him with performance-enhancing drugs and suggested he stop taking the steroid Deca Durabolin that he obtained from the Las Vegas gym because it stays in the system too long, the paper reported. Giambi said he started using Deca Durabolin in 2001.

Giambi said Anderson never told him that Bonds used performance-enhancing drugs.

"You know, I assumed because he's Barry's trainer - you know, Barry - but he never said one time, 'This is what Barry's taking, this is what Barry's doing,"' Giambi testified. "He never gave up another name that he was dealing with or doing anything with."

Prosecutors confronted Giambi with a calendar seized from Anderson's home that detailed Giambi's schedule of drug use.

Giambi said he didn't notice a "huge difference" in his performance after starting to use illegal drugs.

Giambi came to spring training this year looking noticeably trimmer as baseball began a steroid-testing program that included punishments for the first time. Asked in February whether he had ever taken performance-enhancing drugs, Giambi said: "Are you talking about steroids? No."

Giambi won the AL MVP in 2000 for Oakland and signed a $120 million, seven-year free-agent contract with the Yankees after the 2001 season. He hit 155 homers from 1999-2002 and batted over .300 each season, but injuries slowed him down the last two years.

Bothered by a balky knee, Giambi hit just .250 in 2003. Giambi batted .208 and played in only 80 games last season, missing time because of a tumor, which the New York Daily News reported was in his pituitary gland. Medical experts told the Chronicle that Clomid, a drug Giambi said he thought Anderson had given him, can exacerbate a tumor of the pituitary gland.

Giambi's younger brother, Jeremy, who last played in the majors with Boston in 2003, also testified that he used performance-enhancing drugs given to him by Anderson, according to the Chronicle.

Voronwë wrote:Bonds is a terrific player, but what he has done is more of a threat to the integrity of baseball than what Pete Rose did. They deserve the same punishment in my opinion.

Homercles wrote:they should be banned but they wont. Baseball doesnt have a drug policy which would enalbe them to ban these players. Hell, Strawberry was a recurring coke head and he continued to play baseball. Same goes for Howe. As long as the Players Union is in charge nothing substantial will ever been done concerning a drug policy.

The Players Union will eventually be the demise of Major League Baseball

XunilTlatoani wrote:
It's not entirely the players union's fault. Nothing is done because the union is holding the drug policy (which > 80% of the union members want stricter) as a bargaining chip and ownership has been unwilling to give up anything to get a strict drug policy in place. I know it's in the best interest of baseball, but if I were in the union (or any union for that matter), I wouldn't want to give up the privacy rights of my rank-and-file without getting something in return. Union leadership is just doing what it is paid to do...

Winnow wrote:I wish I could go to my employer and ask for more money because they want to drug test me.

Darryl Strawberry is a different case. Steroids are cheating, I don't think coke helps your performance all that much. Personally, I don't think that athletes should even be tested for drugs that aren't performance-enhancing.

Kilmoll the Sexy wrote:They suspend pitchers for using performance enhancing items such as nail files, vaseline, etc.....why not the hitters for using illegal substances?

Pherr the Dorf wrote:Correct me if I am wrong, Bonds has never been proven juiced, Bonds has never tested positive, and this past year, when he was being watched like at HAWK, at the age of 40 for gods sake, he had a broke more records, won the batting title, won the MVP and actually had a better Hr/AB ratio then anyone, besides one other season he had in history. now we live in america where you are what till proven what? Am I stupid enough to think he wasn't offered these steroids by his best friend from childhood and former trainer... no... but if he was taking him, why didn't he slim down at all (he came in 2, count them 2 pounds under his weight from a year before), why didn't his skills drop off like everyone else?

According to a report on the San Francisco Chronicle's Web site late Thursday night, Barry Bonds told a federal grand jury that he used a clear substance and a cream supplied by Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO), but he said he never thought they were steroids.
Bonds testified that he received and used clear and cream substances from his personal strength trainer, Greg Anderson, during the 2003 baseball season, but that he was told they were the nutritional supplement flaxseed oil and a rubbing balm for arthritis, according to a transcript of his testimony reviewed by the Chronicle.

Federal prosecutors confronted Bonds during his testimony on Dec. 4, 2003, with documents indicating he had used steroids and human growth hormone during a three-year assault on baseball's home run record, but the Giants star denied the allegations.

Bonds' attorney, Michael Rains, told the Chronicle he was upset, though not entirely surprised, that his client's secret testimony had been revealed.

During the three-hour proceeding, two prosecutors presented Bonds with documents that allegedly detailed his use of a long list of drugs: human growth hormone, Depo-Testosterone, undetectable steroids known as "the cream" and "the clear," insulin and Clomid, a drug for female infertility sometimes used to enhance the effect of testosterone.

But Bonds said he had never paid Anderson for steroids and had never knowingly used them.

Bonds said that as far as he knew, Anderson gave him only legal products to treat the arthritis and fatigue that afflicted him, especially when playing a day game after a night game. The trainer brought the products into the Giants' clubhouse at Pac Bell Park "once a homestand," Bonds said, and that's where he used them.

"It was in the ballpark ... in front of everybody," Bonds said. "I mean, all the reporters, my teammates. I mean, they all saw it. I didn't hide it."

Late Wednesday night, the Chronicle reported that, according to transcripts, Giambi told the federal grand jury that he used steroids, some of which were provided to him by Anderson.

Other players who admitted their use of performance-enhancing drugs were former Giants Armando Rios, Benito Santiago and Bobby Estalella.

A sixth witness, Yankees outfielder Gary Sheffield, testified that while he trained with Bonds in the Bay Area before the 2002 baseball season, Bonds arranged for him to receive "the cream," "the clear" and "red beans," which the prosecutors identified as steroid pills manufactured in Mexico.

Sheffield said he was never told that the substances were steroids. Bonds also was using "the cream" and "the clear," Sheffield said.

Since the BALCO scandal erupted, Bonds has insisted he never used banned drugs. But in statements they later denied making, both Conte and BALCO Vice President James Valente, also indicted, told investigators that Anderson was supplying steroids to Bonds, court records show.

In addition, the Chronicle reported that in a secretly recorded conversation, Anderson said Bonds had used an "undetectable" performance-enhancing drug during the 2003 season.

But Bonds said he ... had never knowingly used them.

He said he had no proof but suspected the government was the source of the leak, insisting it had been out to get Bonds from the beginning.

Sylvus wrote:I guess we can put the "we will never know" statements to rest. Barry was using steroids, at least to some degree, and the only question now is whether he was actually duped or if he is just trying to cover his ass. My money is on the latter.

Kluden wrote:Good god! Owner's care if their player's are drug tested? I truly doubt that 100% of them feel that way.

Kilmoll the Sexy wrote:You can't judge all the owners by the attempt to void Giambi's contract. Giambi turned into such a turd of a player that they would do ANYTHING to get that albatross off their neck. They were doing cartwheels in the Yankee's offices precisely 8.3 seconds after that story hit the wire.

Sueven wrote: 3. My personal theory is that Barry was given steroids, figured they were probably shady, and decided to take them anyway without asking. He may not have known specifically what was in them, but he probably knew that they were illegal.

Sueven wrote:1. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that Gary Sheffield denied knowing that those substances were steroids.

2. I could be wrong, but I think the Yankees have explored terminating Giambi's contract and have not actually attempted to do so. If this is so, then the answer to your question is "more than 5 minutes." Additionally, Giambi's healthy .208 batting average might have something to do with it.

3. My personal theory is that Barry was given steroids, figured they were probably shady, and decided to take them anyway without asking. He may not have known specifically what was in them, but he probably knew that they were illegal.

But he said when he found out, he stopped. He found out from someone, who was it?

Giambi was quoted in his grand jury testimony as having said, "I want what Barry is using."

Even when you disagree with me, I've always liked and respected your posts, but your point 3, is horseshit. Even if he didn't ask, which is for me a huge stretch of the imagination, if he had any inkling that they were steroids, or shady, etc. He was knowingly cheating. Knowingly defrauding baseball fans of the product they paid to see.

How could he not know? Did he not notice the weight gain? Did he not notice the improved power? The fact is that Barry Bonds would have probably been a first ballot hall of famer without steroids, but now that it's out that he did in fact use them... and this is whether he knew it or not... every single one of his 'records' will have to have an asterisk next to it.

Sueven wrote:

Giambi was quoted in his grand jury testimony as having said, "I want what Barry is using."

How does this apply to the fact that the Yankees have taken more than five minutes to move to terminate Giambi's contract?

Sylvus wrote:Darryl Strawberry is a different case. Steroids are cheating, I don't think coke helps your performance all that much. Personally, I don't think that athletes should even be tested for drugs that aren't performance-enhancing.

Taking that even further, I'd like to encourage all athletes to take steroids, cork their bats, etc, as it makes the game more exciting. Who wants to watch boring-ass 1995 MLB baseball? It's more fun when McGwire and Sosa are both cheaters and hitting 70 home runs in a season.

noel wrote:I loved Barry's take that he was taking it for arthritis. Did he notice that his 'arthritis' wasn't going away, but that his dome was getting ginormous?

First, since I played the game myself I know that you can't put something in your body to make you hit a fast ball, a change-up, or a curve ball. The only person who can do that is the Good Lord. But at that age, at age 40, you have to ask, did Barry Bonds accomplish all of this by rejuvenating his strength from day to day with those substances? I know that when you reach a certain age, you just don't bounce back as quickly as you think you can when you're playing all those games," sort of like recovery from a workout. That's why they tell you to do it every other day or different muscle groups so you can recover from it. But these things may enhance your recovery time and you get less fatigued and you have less muscle breakdown because this stuff builds it back up. "Drugs won't help you hit the ball," Hank Aaron says, "but can they make you recuperate consistently enough to hit the kind of home runs these guys are hitting