We've finally got an admission from Jason Giambi that he was on steroids. Well, that does it. Guilty as charged. I wonder what will happen to his contract with the New York Yankees now, because if anything, this could void that dirty big contract handed out before the new Collective Bargain Agreement which enforced a temporary statsis in player salaries. Giambi is a great hitter, but he's not a great fielder, and most certinaly he is a player whose skills are in decline, going forwards.
Apart from that sort of angle, there's the issue of "You lied to me!" (Hit the guy's head with frying pan) . Not many of the fans who argued for the benefit of the doubt are going to feel too great about being made to look like chumps. Then there's the Nw York press gang who took a dislike to Jason Giambi after he begged out and sat in Game 5 of the World Series in 2003. The guys who have been sharpening their posionous pens are going to have a filed day. Heck, it's going to be such a field day, they'll name the field the Jason Giambi Steroidal Memorial Frield and erect a statue of a syringe.
Just for posterity, here's the AP report in full:
*Ugh*.December 2, 2004
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- New York Yankees slugger Jason Giambi injected himself with human growth hormone in 2003 and also used steroids for at least three seasons, according to his grand jury testimony reviewed by the San Francisco Chronicle. The testimony given in December 2003 to the federal grand jury investigating BALCO contradicts Giambi's public proclamations that he never used performance-enhancing drugs.Giambi described how he injected human growth hormone in his stomach, testosterone into his buttocks, rubbed an undetectable steroid knows as ``the ream'' on his body and placed drops of another, called ``the clear,'' under his tongue, the Chronicle reported on its Web site Wednesday night.
Giambi testified that he obtained several different steroids from Barry Bonds' personal trainer, Greg Anderson, who is one of four men indicted by the grand jury investigating the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative. He said he got the human growth hormone from a gym in Las Vegas. Anderson's attorney, Tony Serra, declined comment to the Chronicle, citing a court order. Anderson, BALCO founder Victor Conte, vice president James Valente and track coach Remi Korchemny all have pleaded not guilty to the charges, which include steroid distribution.
On Wednesday, a federal judge said she would not immediately dismiss the charges in response to accusations that prosecutors illegally searched BALCO headquarters and Anderson's house and car. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston said she may conduct hearings into the matter in January. Giambi was among dozens of elite athletes -- including Bonds, Gary Sheffield and track stars Tim Montgomery and Marion Jones - who answered the grand jury's questions last year. Bonds, Jones and Montgomery deny using illegal drugs, but Sheffield told Sports Illustrated and ESPN earlier this year that he used ``the cream'' and ``the clear'' from BALCO, which he said unknowingly to him contained illegal steroids.
The Chronicle reported in October that on a 9-minute recording it had obtained, a speaker the paper identified as Anderson is heard saying Bonds used an ''undetectable'' performance-enhancing drug during the 2003 season.
Giambi met Anderson when the trainer joined Bonds on an All-Star tour in Japan in November 2002. Giambi said he wanted to know what Bonds' secret for success was. ``So I started to ask him: 'Hey, what are the things you're doing with Barry? He's an incredible player. I want to still be able to work out at that age and keep playing,''' Giambi testified, according to the Chronicle. ``And that's how the conversation first started.''
After returning to the United States, Anderson told Giambi he could provide him with performance-enhancing drugs and suggested he stop taking the steroid Deca Durabolin that he obtained from the Las Vegas gym because it stays in the system too long, the paper reported. Giambi said he started using Deca Durabolin in 2001.
Giambi said Anderson never told him that Bonds used performance-enhancing drugs. ``You know, I assumed because he's Barry's trainer -- you know, Barry -- but he never said one time, 'This is what Barry's taking, this is what Barry's doing,''' Giambi testified. ``He never gave up another name that he was dealing with or doing anything with.'' Prosecutors confronted Giambi with a calendar seized from Anderson's home that detailed Giambi's schedule of drug use. Giambi said he didn't notice a ``huge difference'' in his performance after starting to use illegal drugs.
Giambi came to spring training this year looking noticeably trimmer as baseball began a steroid-testing program that included punishments for the first time. Asked in February whether he had ever taken performance-enhancing drugs, Giambi said:
``Are you talking about steroids? No.'' Giambi won the AL MVP in 2000 for Oakland and signed a $120 million, seven-year free-agent contract with the Yankees after the 2001 season. He hit 155 homers from 1999-2002 and batted over .300 each season, but injuries slowed him down the last two years.Bothered by a balky knee, Giambi hit just .250 in 2003. Giambi batted .208 and played in only 80 games last season, missing time because of a tumor, which the New York Daily News reported was in his pituitary gland. Medical experts told the Chronicle that Clomid, a drug Giambi said he thought Anderson had given him, can exacerbate a tumor of the pituitary gland.
Giambi's younger brother, Jeremy, who last played in the majors with Boston in 2003, also testified that he used performance-enhancing drugs given to him by Anderson, according to the Chronicle.
Makes me sort of sick. You suspected it, but you didn't *know* it in any legally or scientifically adequate way. So you keep dismissing it and play the devil's advocate, but all along, the dope was doping.
I tried to get to the Baseball Think Factory to have a look at the tidal wave of posts but I couldn't get on. I thin there'll be like 500 posts on this topic. I've now tried for 15minutes and I can't even luck onto their server. Wow.
Jason Giambi's argument paraphrased is essentially, "I didn't know what it was specificlly, therefore I thought I had plausible deniability. And it didn't help my performance on the field."
That sucks too. In fact, it's all part of the problem that MLB has long ignored and only recently decided to tackle. If they had been vigilant about steroids years ago, in line with other sports, they wouldn't be in this funk right new where 3 of the top 10 hitters of the last 5 years are identified with a company that supplied illegal setroids.
Clearly, the lack of testing was seen as a tacit approval by some.
Now it's time to ask the question 'What-will-Jesus-do?' except, we're talking about George Steinbrenner instead of Jesus Christ.
- Art Neuro
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