SAN FRANCISCO — Former New York Yankee Randy Velarde testified Wednesday that he purchased human growth hormone from Barry Bonds’ personal trainer throughout the 2002 season, making him the fourth major leaguer to admit drug use during Bonds’ perjury trial.
Velarde said the HGH gave him more “endurance and strength” and that personal trainer Greg Anderson would help him inject the performance-enhancing drug.
The 48-year-old Velarde was the latest athlete to testify about his desire to work with Anderson because of his connection to Bonds, the home-run king who experienced a surge in hitting power after he teamed up with the trainer.
Several more former baseball players are expected to talk about their link to Anderson at the trial, now in its second week. Anderson himself is in jail on contempt of court charges for refusing to testify.
Velarde, who hit 100 home runs and batted .276 over a 16-year career, spent less than 15 minutes on the witness stand and testified that he never took two designer steroids that prosecutors allege Bonds knowingly used after getting them from Anderson.
Velarde, who played for the Yankees, Angels, Athletics and Rangers, followed former San Francisco Giant Marvin Benard to the witness stand Wednesday morning.
Benard, a former Bonds teammate, testified that Anderson supplied him with the designer steroids dubbed the “clear” and “cream.”
Prosecutors hope to use the players’ testimony to undercut Bonds’ position that Anderson duped him into unknowingly ue samples were also to be destroyed.
But federal agents seized the samples in 2004 and connected them to Bonds, who tested negative during the initial review of the samples. A new test for the “clear” in 2006 allegedly showed Bonds testing positive.
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