Bonds friend: Slugger asked about steroids

SAN FRANCISCO, March 23 (UPI) -- A boyhood friend of former San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds testified Wednesday that he researched the effects of steroids for the home run king.

Steve Hoskins also told a federal court jury Bonds admitted using steroids to him on several occasions, including in 1999 while the two were still business partners, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Bonds is on trial for allegedly perjuring himself four years later before a grand jury investigating a northern California lab that supplied steroids to area athletes.

Prosecutors accused baseball's all-time home run leader of lying when he denied using performance-enhancing substances produced by the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative.

Bonds denies ever knowingly taking steroids. Hoskins, however, testified Tuesday that his friend told him, "Find out what (Winstrol) does and what are the side effects of it and is it good or bad."

Winstrol, which helps the body to shed fat and build muscle mass, is legal when prescribed by a doctor but banned by many sports authorities. It is the same substance that cost sprinter Ben Johnson his gold medal in the 1988 Olympics Games, the Chronicle reported.