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Entries from March 1, 2011 - March 31, 2011

9:47PM

SF Examiner: Bolstered lineup, pitching depth make A's contenders

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner


So the Giants finally have their World Series win. As A’s loyalists like to point out, that leaves San Francisco three behind the team from Oakland — a team suddenly more relevant than Lew Wolff’s desperate attempts to move to San Jose or the whispered hints of Major League Baseball to contract the franchise into oblivion.

Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company
9:16AM

SF Examiner: Giants enter season with great expectations

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner


Another season, but for the Giants, not another season. A season in which they are no longer misfits but winners. A season in which they are no longer unappreciated, but admired. A season to follow the season of them all.

Opening Day has arrived, a first game on the last day of March against the Dodgers in Los Angeles, the Dodgers, who for decades drew envy and enmity from fans of the Giants. Until 2010.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company
9:32AM

SF Examiner: Giants catcher Buster Posey is determined to succeed

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner


Perhaps it is best left to Brian Wilson — who himself falls into the category of “is he fact or fiction?” — to summarize the life and career of the kid who catches his pitches.

“It’s like a movie,” said Wilson, the Giants’ closer, “‘The Buster Posey Story,’ or something. But it’s real.”

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company
9:27AM

Newsday (N.Y.): Jason Giambi: Bonds' trainer sent me steroids

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday


SAN FRANCISCO -- Former Yankee Jason Giambi testified Tuesday that Greg Anderson, the jailed former trainer of Barry Bonds, provided him with performance-enhancing drugs and instructions in their use.


Giambi, the 2000 American League MVP when he was with the Athletics; his younger brother Jeremy; and Marvin Benard, onetime Giants teammate of Bonds, appeared on the witness stand in Bonds' perjury trial.


The prosecution seemed to have an advantage on a day lacking the drama of Monday, when Kimberly Bell, Bonds' former mistress, testified against the home run king.


First, former Giants trainer Stan Conte said he tried to have Anderson and another Bonds trainer, Harvey Shields, banned from the clubhouse. Conte testified he noted Bonds had gained weight and developed acne, which prosecutors contend was the result of steroid use.


Then Jason Giambi told the jury in U.S. District Court that Anderson mailed him injectable testosterone and the infamous cream and clear, undetectable steroids produced by Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO).


Jeremy Giambi's testimony virtually duplicated Jason's, confirming Anderson told them what the substances were. "I understood it was a steroid,'' Jeremy said.


Anderson is a key figure in the case, which resulted from Bonds' telling a grand jury in December 2003 that he never knowingly took steroids. Anderson last week was put behind bars a third time for refusing to testify against Bonds.


Bonds, 46, who left baseball after 2007, set the single-season home run record with 73 in 2001, and the career mark, 762. He is charged with four counts of lying and one of obstruction of justice. To convict on perjury, the prosecution must prove the defendant was "knowingly lying.''


Conte, now a trainer with the Dodgers, said Bonds in 2003 acknowledged Anderson was dealing steroids. "Greg was only selling steroids to help his kid,'' is what he said Bonds told him.


Jason Giambi said he used a steroid, Deca Durabolin, before traveling with Bonds and other major-leaguers to Japan in the late fall of 2002. But after Bonds had him contact Anderson, he changed his routine.


Said Jason Giambi: "[Anderson] referred to it as an alternative to steroids that would be undetectable on a test.''

One of Bonds' defense attorneys, Cristina Arguedas, in cross-examination tried to show that Jason Giambi did not know for sure what he received from Anderson.


Giambi did acknowledge he told a grand jury he was never expressly told what the "cream'' and "the clear'' were, other than being alternative forms of steroids.


But prosecutor Jeff Nedrow then asked Giambi about several items he received from Anderson, and Giambi replied, "I understood what it was. A steroid.''


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http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/yankees/jason-giambi-bonds-trainer-sent-me-steroids-1.2788807
Copyright © 2011 Newsday. All rights reserved.
7:02AM

SF Examiner: Giants' Barry Zito dodges curveballs amid constant scrutiny

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner


You realize all you can be is yourself. Barry Zito said that. The world swirls about him, the debate goes on, the arguments continue. But all Barry Zito can do is be himself.

“I definitely have something to prove,” Zito conceded.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company