Giambi offers details on steroid use

Baseball star Jason Giambi, while testifying at the perjury trial of home run king Barry Bonds said he made use of illegal anabolic steroids that were obtained from the personal trainer of Bonds.

The American League Most Valuable Player in 2000, Giambi explained how he initiated the use of steroids after meeting trainer Greg Anderson at an all-star baseball game in Japan.

From Reuters.com:

"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 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.

Giambi said he made use of drugs for a few months before abandoning them.