SF Examiner: Despite scandal, slugger Barry Bonds' legacy remains fully intact

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

The numbers are not going to change, and neither are most opinions. Barry Bonds will keep the home run records he set, even if everyone from Cooperstown to Candlestick knows he used performance-enhancing drugs.

What everyone didn’t know was he could be convicted for previously testifying before a grand jury that, in effect, he was a celebrity child. That was his defense 7½ years ago.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

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.

Newsday (N.Y.): Bonds' ex-mistress testifies against him

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

SAN FRANCISCO -- In testimony both tearful and  confrontational, Barry Bonds' former mistress Monday described the advent of his hair loss, acne and other changes to the  anatomy that a doping expert previously said could be caused by the use of  anabolic steroids.

Kimberly Bell said she was Bonds' girlfriend from 1994 until 2003, when he told her "to disappear.'' She also testified that the former slugger threatened her more than once, insisting, "I thought he would kill me.''

Bell, who said she met Bonds in the parking lot at Candlestick Park after a game during his playing career for the Giants, is a prosecution witness in the case against Bonds. He is accused of four counts of perjury and one of obstructing justice for allegedly lying to a federal grand jury.

In testimony, Bell described Bonds' shrinking body parts and behavior in which he became "aggressive, irritable and impatient'' from 1999 to 2001.

Twice during the long session, Bell began to sob. On other occasions, she was terse with a defense attorney.

Bonds, 46, sat next to his attorneys, occasionally twisting in his chair and taking notes but not showing any emotion.

Bell said that Bonds, after they broke up, refused to pay for a Scottsdale, Ariz., home he had promised her.

When asked by prosecutor Jeff Nedrow if she ever discussed steroids with Bonds, Bell responded that she did around 1999-2000 at her apartment in Mountain View, Calif., about 30 miles south of San  Francisco. Bonds had a serious elbow injury, and Bell had asked why it was so severe, and, she testified, "He said
it was because of steroids.''

She said he told her that Mark McGwire and other ballplayers were using steroids "to get ahead.'' McGwire in 1998 set the single-season home run record of 70, which Bonds broke with 73 in 2001.

Defense attorney Chris Arguedas tried to poke holes in Bell's testimony by insisting Bell was only trying to make money off her relationship with Bonds, by authoring a book with a ghost writer.

Bell was depicted as a bitter former girlfriend who in trying to promote the book, which never was completed, went on various radio and television programs, including Howard Stern's.

Arguedas also made much of the fact that when Bell signed the lease for the Scottsdale house, where she lived from 2002-04, it was as a "secondary home,'' not a primary home, trying to persuade the jury Bell committed fraud on the documents.

Bell said she first thought of Bonds as the actor Richard Gere in the film "An Officer and a Gentleman,'' but was hurt when he told her in 1998 he was marrying someone else.

Longtime Giants equipment manager Mike Murphy, who conceded he was "very nervous,'' said Bonds originally wore a size 7 1/4 baseball cap but that his head size increased to 7 3/8. Murphy also explained, however, that the hat sizes of Giants Hall of Famers Willie Mays and Willie McCovey also increased as they aged, although it occurred after their playing careers ended.

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http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/bonds-ex-mistress-testifies-against-him-1.2786806?p
Copyright © 2011 Newsday. All rights reserved.

RealClearSports: It's Not What Bonds Did, It's What He Said

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

SAN FRANCISCO -- Barry Bonds used steroids. Hardly one of those "This just in'' items. Everyone knows it. His own attorneys concede it.

But that's not the issue in his trial, which, depending on one's viewpoint, is necessary or absurd.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

SF Examiner: As Barry Bonds trial pushes on, mystery of Anderson grows

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

He is back in jail again, for being loyal. Or being a bit crazy. Or because, as some believe, we are a world of skeptics and some day he will be paid for his silence.

Greg Anderson is the man no one can understand.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company