"Jason Giambi, the former New York Yankees and Oakland Athletics slugger, testified Tuesday that he got undetectable steroids and other banned drugs from Barry Bonds' weight trainer.

Giambi, now a first baseman for the Colorado Rockies, was the first of three baseball players who testified at Bonds' perjury trial. Each of them said that for a time trainer Greg Anderson was their connection for performance-enhancing substances.

Giambi told the federal court jury in San Francisco that after his 2002 season with the Yankees, he and Bonds joined an American all-star team for a baseball tour of Japan. Bonds brought Anderson.

"I was picking Greg's brain about what kind of training Barry was doing," Giambi said. "I mean, he was an incredible baseball player, and I just wanted to continue my career."

Upon their return to the United States, Giambi said he gave Anderson blood and urine samples for testing at the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative in Burlingame. After that, the trainer began selling him banned drugs.

Anderson packages

Anderson first sent a package of "testosterone, syringes (and) vitamins" to Giambi's home near Las Vegas. Later, in 2002 or 2003, the trainer sent "some white pills and some yellow pills" as well as the BALCO undetectable steroids, "the cream" and "the clear." A third package had only the BALCO drugs, he said.

In all, Giambi said, he paid Anderson about $10,000 for the items.

"If I needed (human) growth hormone, (Anderson) could send it to me, but I told him I had it already," said Giambi, who wore a jacket and tie and spoke to the jury in a conversational tone.

He said that the BALCO tests showed he had been using the injectable steroid Deca-Durabolin at the time he met Anderson. After suffering an injury during the 2003 season, he said, he stopped using the BALCO drugs.

After Giambi's half hour on the witness stand, two former big-leaguers - Giambi's brother Jeremy, who played for four clubs, and longtime Giants outfielder Marvin Benard - gave similar testimony, saying they got BALCO steroids and other banned drugs from Anderson."