Bonds’ fellow star Giambi details steroid use

SAN FRANCISCO - Baseball star Jason Giambi, testifying at home-run king Barry Bonds’ perjury trial, said on Tuesday that he used illegal anabolic steroids obtained from Bonds’ personal trainer.

Giambi, a hulking slugger who was the American League Most Valuable Player in 2000, described how he started using the steroids after meeting trainer Greg Anderson at an all-star baseball game in Japan.

“I was picking Greg’s brain as to what kind of training Barry was doing, was he lifting weights, what was he doing in the gym,” Giambi said. “Barry was a great athlete. I just wanted to continue my career so I wanted to get information from him.”

He said that Anderson subsequently sent him packages containing steroids he called “the clear and the cream,” explaining that the cream was testosterone and that the clear was epitestosterone.

The package included a syringe with injectable steroids, which Giambi said he used.

Giambi said Anderson told him Major League Baseball tests were designed to detect the ratio of these two hormones, and by raising the levels of both, he could increase their testosterone level without testing positive for illegal steroids.

Bonds has pleaded not guilty to charges he lied to a grand jury about whether he knowingly used the same substances.

His case is the latest in a years-long U.S. investigation into the use of performance-enhancing drugs in professional sports.

The charges against Bonds stem from his 2003 appearance before a U.S. grand jury investigating the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, or Balco, whose head has pleaded guilty to dispensing steroids to professional athletes.

A report in 2004 that Giambi had admitted steroid use in the Balco investigation helped spark a controversy about performance-enhancing drugs in baseball.

And the ensuing controversy led to a probe into the sport by former U.S. Senator George Mitchell.

The eventual Mitchell Report found that more than 100 players had used such drugs, though their names were not disclosed.

Giambi was the MVP while with the Oakland Athletics and later was a star for the New York Yankees. He was named to the league all-star team five times.

Dressed in a blue suit and striped tie, the bearded Giambi said he used the drugs for a few months before abandoning them.

Earlier on Tuesday, the head trainer of Bonds’ team, the San Francisco Giants, testified that Bonds put on muscle mass, sprouted acne and refused to be weighed by the team.

Trainer Stan Conte estimated that Bonds gained 10 or 15 pounds of lean muscle mass around 1999 or 2000. Prosecutors allege that the weight gain and the acne were caused by Bonds’ steroid use.

Bonds had told the Balco grand jury he did not knowingly use steroids or growth hormones.

Instead, Bonds said that he never questioned the flaxseed oil, vitamins, protein shakes and creams Anderson supplied him.

In 2001, he hit 73 home runs, a single-season record that still stands.

In 2007, his last season in the league, Bonds broke Hank Aaron’s 33-year-old record of 755 career home runs.

Reuters

한글 관련 기사 [연합]
전ㆍ현직 메이저리거, 본즈 약물 재판에 증인 출두

'약물 홈런왕'이라는 비난에 휩싸인 배리 본즈(47)의 위증 재판에 본즈와 한솥밥을 먹었던 전ㆍ현 미국프로야구 메이저리거들이 증언대에 설 전망이다.

AP통신은 22일(한국시간) 약물 복용과 관련, 본즈의 위증 혐의를 재판 중인 연방 법원이 본즈의 과거 동료에게 법정에서 증언할 것을 결정했다고 전했다.

이로써 3월22일 열릴 재판에는 제이슨 지암비와 제러미 지암비 형제, 마빈 버나드, 아르만도 리오스, 베니토 산티아고 등이 캘리포니아주 샌프란시스코 연방지법에 출두할 예정이다.

본즈는 2003년 미국 의회 청문회에서 개인 트레이너인 그렉 앤더슨이 준 물질이 금지약물인지 몰랐고 모두 합법적인 약물로 알았다고 주장했고 연방 검찰은 10가지 위증 혐의를 들어 본즈를 기소했다.

본즈 측 변호인은 증인으로 채택된 이들이 모두 앤더슨과 관련 있는 선수들이라며 증언을 해서는 안 된다고 밝혔으나 수전 일스턴 연방 지방법원 판사는 실체 규명을 위해서는 동료의 증언이 필요하다며 본즈 측 주장을 일축했다.

검찰 측은 앤더슨으로부터 금지 약물을 받았다는 선수들의 증언이 나오면 본즈의 결백을 믿어온 배심원들의 마음을 돌려놓을 수 있을 것으로 기대하고 있다.

맷 퍼렐러 연방 검사는 "앤더슨은 10여년 전 선수들에게 자신이 건넨 물질이 스테로이드라는 사실을 알려주고 상세한 복용 지침까지 설명했었다"며 본즈의 위증혐의가 이번에 밝혀질 것으로 확신했다.

그러나 메이저리그에 약물 광풍을 몰고 온 앤더슨이 본즈 재판과 관련한 모든 증언을 거부하고 선뜻 징역형을 감수한데다 워낙 오래전 일로 선수들이 정확하게 당시 상황을 기억하기 어렵다는 점에서 검찰의 의도대로 일이 풀릴지는 미지수다.

일스턴 판사도 "선수들이 돌아가며 비슷한 증언을 반복한다면 다 듣지 않겠다"고 선을 그어 선수들의 증언만으로 진실을 파헤치기에는 어려운 상황이다.