Tough, tough essay about Giambi

[WilliamPitt]

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=olney_buster&id=1938470

(snip)

You tried to come back in September, and it went badly. You looked brutal at the plate. You couldn't hit. The Yankees are paying you $17 million a year, but you were so bad that they didn't even put you on the postseason roster. You were supposed to be the guy who led the Bombers over the Red Sox and instead you spent all of October quietly clapping in the dugout.

But it'll be worse in spring 2005. You'll be walking to the dugout for your first workout and doubts will be thick in your mind about whether you can hit. And that's when the fans will see you for the first time. And they'll fill your ears with boos.

These are Yankees fans, and they are booing.

Every time you pass by, they yell things at you. Nasty stuff. They are yelling that you are a fraud, a disgrace. Some of them are profane. And then it gets worse. This is what your work environment will be for the rest of your career. You try to concentrate on batting practice, on getting back your swing, and every time you step into the cage or step out, somebody is yelling at you.

You struggle in spring training; Torre picks somebody else to play first base, and somebody else is the DH. You are Jason Giambi, you were the AL MVP in 2000, and you are a bench player.

Your days are filled with lawyers, because your standing is being negotiated, and at night, you go to work and there is no escape. Fans wait outside parks to yell at you, and when you play on the road, they chant "STEEEERRRRRR-OOOOOIIDS" at you, on those rare days when you actually get into the lineup. And at Yankee Stadium, the fans boo you constantly.

You are a sensitive person, anyway, and you are treated like a criminal -- a criminal who gets marched out past the masses every day. You are Jason Giambi, and this could be your life for the next four years. You are making millions of dollars and paying an emotional toll for every nickel.

...more...

[Racenut20]

1. Giambi should be indited for fraud

Which means proving intent, which he did by taking Steriods and lying about it. The team Doctor, Torre, Cashman, Steinbrenner should all be indited for conspiracy to commit fraud because they had to know he was doing it when he had his physical when they signed him.

Selig should be forced to resign for not instituting a drug policy AT LEAST as good as the NBA.

[Princess Turandot]

6. Assuming the Grand Jury leaks are true, at least Giambi admitted..

to using products containing steroids. Barry Bonds on the other hand "had no idea of what was in those same substances"...sure..right..I think he should be indicted for perjury under those circumstances. I'm not sure whom Giambi lied to where the lie would constitute a crime. Contract violation is another matter, but since the NY papers don't seem to think the Yankees can void his contract based upon any admitted use of steroids, then I don't think he can be indicted for fraud.

Sammy Sosa's lost quite a bit of weight this year, coincidentally.
Mark McGwire admitted to using an OTC substance that metabolizes to a steroid-like substance, the year that he broke Maris's record. Giambi has a lot of company, but he won't be a phony in the record books like Bonds is likely to be.

[mr_hat]

2. I wish Giambi were a bad guy. It would

make the future he faces easier to take. I feel sorry for him, his multi-millions notwithstanding.

[FlyByNight]

3. It's going to be really ugly for him...

next season. And that's just from the Yankee fans. I can't imagine what it'll be like in Boston (if he's actually in the lineup).

[northzax]

4. who cares? he's a non-entity any more

I wager he'll never play another game in MLB, look what happened when he came back off the joice, he was a shadow of himself. The Yankees should be on the hook for his contract, in my opinion, unless they were smart enough to write in a clause saying, basically, "admission of the use of any performance enhancing substance without the prior permission of the club shall be cause for immediate termination of the contract, at the club's discretion." Everyone know that Giambi was juiced, just like everyone knows Bonds is juiced. The Yankees certainly knew, or at the very least suspected, if they didn't perform their due diligence, that's their problem.

Remember, it is not at all clear that what Giambi did was, in fact, actually illegal. Under the terms of MLB's player agreement, you need to test positive FIVE TIMES to earn a suspension, and he's never actually tested positive for anything. Guess what, Mr. Steinbrenner, it is not physically possible for a man to put on 25 pounds of muscle in one year when he was built to begin with. your loss.

and finally, who cares? we pay money for tickets to see people hit balls long distances, who cares if they're juiced? don't tell me about the 'honor' of the game, he's not actually hurting anybody except himself.

[THUNDER HANDS]

5. if I was Giambi

I'd come to the games in a fur coat with a $100 bill rolled up in my mouth and smoke it right in front of the fans who are booing me.

But alas, I am not Giambi.

:D

[catzies]

7. Ouch! There's a great line in there.

"Patellar tendinitis, a prime steroid symptom; it's the runny nose of steroids."

This should be required reading for the young people in this country who are tempted down this path, and only sees the MVP aspect and not this.

[Lefty48197]

8. Athletes that use steroids are the scum of the earth

oh sure, they're just products of Ronald Reagan's "win at any cost" mentality, but we still have to hold the individuals responsible for their own actions.

[GainesT1958]

9. To me, the person who SHOULD be booed...

Is Barry Bonds. "Didn't know he was taking steroids at the time"? Is he KIDDING us!?:wtf:

At least Jason Giambi admitted he did it. And, for that matter, my fellow Carolina alumnus Marion Jones isn't looking so hot these days in her denials, either. She even went back--briefly--and associated with a coach who was long known to have his track charges on drugs, especially 'roids. I worry about what it may mean for someone like her, with endorsement contracts to lose, but nowhere near what Giambi or Bonds have stashed in the bank already. Still, did she--or Bonds--really think they would go through their careers--and even afterward--never being found out? That's pretty stupid on their part.

I don't blame Hank Aaron for sounding off on Bonds' situation. After all, he he broke Babe Ruth's record and never once used steroids, human growth hormone, or any other performance-enhancing drugs to do so. Neither did Reggie Jackson, nor Willie Stargell, nor Dave Parker. And Carl Lewis never used those substances to win HIS gold medals--nor did Michael Johnson. Nor Jackie Joyner-Kersee.

It's really sad what these drugs do later in life to those who use them. Two examples come to mind--Lyle Alzado, the late defensive tackle with the Raiders, and former members of the East German womens' Oluympic swim teams, many of whom are now handicapped for life as a result of the drugs fed them by latter-day Dr. Mengeles. It just puzzles me how people like Giambi and Bonds--and Marion Jones--could ignore those examples, and the consequences they all suffered.

B-)