SAN FRANCISCO -- Former 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. 
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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.
When Allen Ruby starts his cross-examination with a witness, he always says the same thing: "Good morning, I'm Allen Ruby, one of the defense attornies for Barry Bonds. We have never met before, am I correct?" IRS Special Agent Michael Wilson, Jeff Novitzky's old boss, broke the mold by Wednesday morning, saying, "Actually, we have met." He said he had worked on a case years ago involving an "investment scheme," and that Ruby's client had been trying to recover money. Ruby's response: "Was that another IRS case that fell apart in court?" Even Wilson laghed, but not as hard as the defense.
The defense chips away at two areas every time it has a chance. The first is the chain of custody on the government's best piece of physical evidence -- an MLB drug test of Bonds that turned up positive when it was re-tested for THG ("the clear"). The defense seems to be trying to establish that the urine sample taken from Bonds in 2003 wasn't handled properly, trying to get that evidence tossed.
But that line of questioning also supports a theme Bonds' lawyers have laid out: the government has bent and broken rules in its zeal to nail Bonds. Even if jurors believe Bonds lied to the grand jury, it's possible some or all could vote to acquit because they think the government abused him. Juries can do that, and lawyers know it.
So while the government is trying to convince the jury that there's no way Bonds didn't know what drugs he received from Greg Anderson, the defense paints a picture that the government had Bonds in its sights from the start, that it took less-than-credible witnesses (ignoring their criminal behavior in some cases), and coached them to incriminate Bonds.
It seeps into everything. When defense attorney Cristina Arguedas addresses prosecutors, she's dismissive and contemptuous. Those who know Arguedas say it's no act: she genuinely despises what she sees as government abuse, and in this case she thinks the government went after Bonds for personal reasons
-- T.J. Quinn
Velarde, who played for the Yankees, Angels, Athletics and Rangers, followed former 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 the "cream."
Prosecutors hope to use the players' testimony to undercut Bonds' position that Anderson duped him into unknowingly using designer steroids. None of the players on the prosecution witness list, except for former Giants catcher Bobby Estalella, was expected to directly testify about Bonds.
Prosecutors said in a court filing before the trial started March 21 that Estalella will "testify that the defendant admitted using performance-enhancing drugs, as well as their effects, and that they had several discussions regarding that topic."
Also on the government's witness list: former Bonds teammates Armando Rios and Benito Santiago.
Colorado Rockies first baseman Jason Giambi and his brother, former major leaguer Jeremy Giambi, testified Tuesday about their relationship with Anderson and gave similar accounts of their relationship with him. They said that before the 2003 season Anderson supplied them with steroids designed to evade Major League Baseball's plan to test players for steroids that season.
Bonds, the major league record-holder for home runs in a career (762) and a season (73), has pleaded not guilty to four charges that he lied to a grand jury when he denied knowingly taking performance-enhancing drugs. He also pleaded not guilty to a charge of obstruction.
The parade of players to the witness stand was interrupted after Velarde's testimony.
Prosecutors turned their focus to tedious but legally necessary task of proving that urine samples Bonds supplied to Major League Baseball testers in 2003 were genuine and were properly handled. Prosecutors allege those samples tested positive for the "clear."
Two IRS agents who handled the samples after they were seized from Quest Laboratories and three University of California, Los Angeles, lab workers each took the stand Wednesday morning.
The samples were collected in 2003 as part of an MLB "survey" that season and the program was supposed to keep anonymous any player who tested positive. The 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.
Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press
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