Yesterday the 2011 Barry Bonds perjury and obstruction of justice trial consisted primarily of testimony by former Giants trainer Stan Conte, and players Jason Giambi, Jeremy Giambi, and Marvin Benard. The players discussed their interactions with Greg Anderson, including receiving steroids and PEDs from Anderson, as well as the calendars and some injections. That was interesting and all, but I thought Stan Conte raised an issue that was a bit more pertinent.
Conte discussed his interactions with Barry, including observations of what amounted to physical symptoms of steroid and PED use. What I found interesting was the defense's attempts to show that Bonds had his own program from even before the time he allegedly started using performance-enhancing drugs. At one point Conte discussed how Bonds did not want the trainers observing his weight. Instead he would get on the scale and tell them the weight.
Starting with the grand jury testimony, Bonds had stated that he thought Greg Anderson was injecting him with flaxseed oil and give him an arthritis balm. Throughout this whole ordeal, I've always found it hard to believe that a high performance athlete would make such assumptions about what was going into his body. I suppose it's possible he had a strong trust of Greg Anderson, but when you throw in his own concern about the weight and other issues, I just don't believe he didn't know what was going into his body.
Of course, there's a difference between what I believe and what has been proven by the evidence. There's a decent amount of circumstantial evidence about steroid use and knowledge, but it's been subverted much of the time by less than credible witnesses. It's going to be tough for the prosecution to get convictions on any, let alone all the charges.
For more on the Barry Bonds Perjury and Obstruction of Justice Trial, check out our updated Trial story stream.