The Art Neuro Weblog

Steroid Decisions
The more one reads the reaction to the Jason Giambi steroid situation, the more I feel dismay that MLB will be able to clean up its act. On the one hand there is a consensus building that the Yankees are somehow wrong to try and terminate Giambi's contract, that they are somehow hypocritical because they must have known and they also have fellow BALCO problem player Gary Sheffield on the roster.

First up, anabolic steroids are illegal substances. Using them is illegal. It's not about whether taking steroids is like cheating with the spit ball or corked bats. There are no laws against emery balls an corked bats. There is not a Corked-Bat-Czar looking to indict Mexican traffickers of corked bats. Folks, anabolic steroids are restricted substances.

In Giambi's case, it's a clear case of substance abuse; and in the case of Giambi's testomony to the Grand Jury, we are clear that not only did he acknowledge he knew the substances provided by BALCO were steroids, he knowingly participated in the use; and that he was a long time user of other illegal substances. He was pretty solidly premeditated in his legal transgressions.
Yes, that's enough to put Daryl Strawberry behind bars for cocaine abuse. If Giambi wasn't covered by the immunity granted to him by the Grand Jury, he would/should/oughta be behind bars.

Yes it would seem hypocritical for the Yankees to have knowingly signed Giambi in spite of the strong suspicions of steroid-use that surrounded him in 2001, the but the point is, the landscape has changed significantly since the 2002 Collective Bargaining Agreement between the Owners and Players Association. If the players and owners are serious about ridding the game of steroid abuse, then this is the chance to make a Shoeless Joe Jackson or a Pete Rose out of Jason Giambi, and they should.
Does the CBA have teeth or not? What is the Commissioner going to do about this?

And Bud Selig should. Why? Because every sport worth its salt is out there trying to weed out performance enhancing substance use from their ranks. For baseball and its fans to claim it's a professional sport that accepts that competitors will got to any lengths to get an edge and that it tacitly approves of this act is plain stupid. Yes, I understand it is professional entertainment however it flies in the face of sportsmanship to be condoning it; and last I checked, it was still a sport. If it isn't a sport there is no value whatsoever in being able to claim a player did well or not because of their statistics. I'm very, very very surprised that the sabermetric community is responding rather laggardly to this point, even if it drew 716 posts for the Giambi news.

The Yankees, for what they represent are right to want to rid this player of their ranks right now. If the Yankees are willing to take a no-tolerance stand to steroid use, even belatedly and in order to get out of an onerous contract, it would still send a strong and correct message to the kids out there; and that itself is very important.

Thirdly, anybody who argues that it is questionable what anabolic steroids do for a baseball player and therefore this is no big deal, has their head in the sand. They should look into what steroid abuse has wrought of East German athletes of the 1970's. It ain't pretty. If you care about your team, your players, then you should care enough to say no to steroid abuse, plain and simple.
Giambi was an idiot to take it and continue to take it for so long. But for the future-idiot-Giambi to come, there should be absolutely clear guidleines to stop him taking that step (over and over as Jason did).

My message is still, "Mr. Steinbrenner and Mr. Cashman, dump Giambi now, whatever it takes. Mr. Selig, kick out Giambi from the sport forever."
It ain't hypocrisy when it's the right thing to do. :)

Some Other Remarks
Somebody asked if we should get upset if we find out a male porn star was on viagra or a porn actress' breasts were 'enhanced'?
My answer is still, "yes, if the stats mean anything and it was meant to be sport."

- Art Neuro