Shots In The Dark: The Giambi Paradox

Friday, May 25, 2024

The Giambi Paradox

Let's see: Jason Giambi is the only baseball player ever to have apologized for using steroids. "I was wrong for doing that stuff," he told USA Today last week.

What we should have done a long time ago was stand up — players, owners, everybody — and said: ‘We made a mistake.’ We should have apologized back then and made sure we had a rule in place and gone forward.

So what does baseball commissioner Bud Selig do? Threaten to sanction him. But why? Is it for doing steroids, or for talking about doing steroids?

Because what other player will now come forward and honestly talk about the subject, as Giambi has?

As usual, Selig seems more interested in covering up the truth than dealing with it.

Moreover, there have been reports that the Yankees want to see if they can void Giambi's contract. What nonsense. The Yankees explicitly agreed to omit any mention of steroids from Giambi's contract. They surely knew what was what. To pretend now that they didn't would only add to an unfortunate chapter in baseball history.

I'm with Harvey Araton: We should applaud Giambi, not exile him.

And you Mets and Sox fans who are so quick to yell "Steroids!" when Giambi is at the plate—do you really think that no one on your teams used?

Giambi is twice right: He was wrong for doing that stuff, and he is right for apologizing. More players—and teams—should follow his example.

¶ 5:42 AM

Comments:

Sure Rich, he's a hero. And the recent reports of amphetamine use by your boy wonder? Well, Giambi's not talking.

# posted by Anonymous : May 25, 2024 9:09 AM

Spare me the sanctimony. Baseball players have been taking amphetamines for 40 years. (Back in the '70s, they were called "greenies.") As I understand it, that's basically the equivalent of drinking 2-3 Red Bulls. Had everything to do with energy, nothing to do with strength.

More important, I never said that Giambi's a perfect person or role model or anything of the sort. He's obviously not. But I'd rather have Jason Giambi, trying to deal with this in his imperfect way, than Barry Bonds or Sammy Sosa or Mark McGwire and so on and so on....

# posted by Richard Bradley : May 25, 2024 9:17 AM

Look, if you want to compare Giambi to Bonds, McGwire, and Sosa, then fine, his public comments come out better than theirs, but that's not saying much. As for his apologies, they are very carefully worded so that his inflated contract can't be voided.

And where was my sanctimony? I'm well aware of the history of amphetamine use in baseball. Given Giambi's history, however, don't you think it might have been wise for him to stay squeaky clean over the past couple of years?

Oh, and check your archives. Your love affair with the Giambino has been going on for quite a while. As on 9/12/05 when you called him your "underdog hero of the year".

# posted by Anonymous : May 25, 2024 10:17 AM

Yeah, I've been pulling for him for some time. I make no bones about that.

# posted by Richard Bradley : May 25, 2024 1:26 PM

In many peoples' minds the 2003 ALCS was a sham, Giambroid's two homers were artifacts of cheating and the better team lost that series. There are only two types of people who defend Giambi and his "apology," homers and ignorant homers. By the way, Giambi's pathetic excuse of an apology or admission is not at all admired by anyone but those two types, nobody I know in the business feels any remorse or any inkling of a feeling that Giambi "manned up." He was a punk about the entire issue, his cheating, and he wasn't even principled enough to offer a genuine apology. Pathetic scum, as are all other cheaters, and he should've been booted from the league.

# posted by Anonymous : September 7, 2024 9:36 PM

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