Former San Francisco Giants outfielder Marvin Benard has admitted he used steroids during the team's 2002 World Series season.
The 40-year-old Benard acknowledged his steroid use to The Associated Press on Sunday, when he was in the Bay Area for a reunion of the Giants' 2000 NL West champion team.
Benard first told the San Francisco Chronicle earlier Sunday he had taken steroids to deal with a left knee injury. He spent all nine of his major league seasons with the Giants, retiring after the 2003 campaign.
Benard was mentioned in the Mitchell Report released in December 2007 and soon after told his now 14-year-old son, Isaac, he had taken performance-enhancing drugs. He called that the toughest part of this process.
He was in the AT&T "house" with the steroid scandal's poster child Barry Bonds.
More than a dozen former players were on hand Sunday to mark a decade at AT&T Park.
Bonds held a short media availability Sunday saying he is "proud" of slugger Mark McGwire for returning to baseball as the St. Louis Cardinals' hitting coach and for admitting his use of performance-enhancing drugs.
While Bonds didn't rule out also going into coaching one day, his six-minute session was ended after he was asked about McGwire.
The 45-year-old Bonds, says he doesn't believe now is the right time to retire -- though he also insists he's not in shape to play right now if an interested club came calling.
The seven-time NL MVP broke Hank Aaron's home run record on Aug. 7, 2007, and has 762 career clouts.
