Selig Threatens Yankees' Giambi
Baseball Commissioner Wants Giambi to Help Steroids Probe
MLB Commissioner Bud Selig's threat to suspend Yankee first baseman Jason Giambi is not only hollow -- it's hypocritical, downright stupid and no doubt unconstitutional.
Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig's supposed threat to suspend embattled Yankee first baseman Jason Giambi is not only the height of hypocrisy it’s probably downright unconstitutional.
According to USA Today, Selig is leaning toward suspending Giambi if he refuses to talk with former US Sen. George Mitchell, who allegedly is “investigating” steroid use by MLB players. Allegedly because the so-called investigation is a complete farce.
Mitchell has been on the job for well over a year and has yet to interview a single, active ballplayer. He can’t, thanks to the Major League Baseball Players Association. And, as ridiculous as that stance appears on the part of the MLBPA, the fact remains that there is such a thing in America as freedom of speech.
Selig, embarrassed by Giambi’s intemperate comments of last month, has gone after the Bronx Bomber with a fervor he should have reserved for the effort to clean up baseball several years ago.
First, Selig summoned Giambi to the MLB offices to meet with attorneys and explain why Giambi had the absolute temerity – gall, if you will – to urge MLB to come clean about its past problems with performance-enhancing drugs. Now, his holiness – formerly the long-time owner of the Milwaukee Brewers (his daughter still “owns” the team) – has decreed that Giambi should be forced to talk to Mitchell.
Talk about Hypocirsy
Aside from the problem that’ll pose with the MLBPA however, Giambi, who at least had the guts to admit to using performance-enhancing drugs and human growth hormone (take heed Barry Bonds, you larcenous, bloated, grotesque creature!), used those substances BEFORE Major League Baseball outlawed them.
Uh, Mr. Bud? Are you on drugs yourself?
This while Selig dithers about Bonds’ chase of Hank Aaron’s career homerun record. ‘Ol Bud still won’t say whether he’ll attend the contests Bonds plays in after the black Michelin Man is within a homerun or two of Hammerin’ Hank’s record.
Ironically, Giambi’s very offensive comments (that’s sarcasm, folks!) were likewise made to…USA Today. Touché, Budster! The newspaper reported on its Website Wednesday that “a high-ranking Major League Baseball official” said Selig has given Giambi until Tuesday to make a decision whether or not to speak with Mitchell.
"I was wrong for doing that stuff," Giambi said in May. "What we should have done a long time ago was stand up — players, ownership, everybody — and said: 'We made a mistake.' Steroids and all of that was a part of history."
Selig’s “damn the torpedoes” attitude has offended many MLB players, and has probably made Mitchell’s job even more impossible. Who’s going to want to confide in Mitchell in the wake of Selig’s personification of Adolf Hitler?
So much for Honesty
In the words of Giambi teammate Mike Myers, "If this is the precedent that's going to be set — that if you do an interview and talk out against Major League Baseball and we don't like your answers, we're going to punish you even worse — I think it's a joke." In the wake of Giambi’s May 23 meeting with MLB lawyers, Selig made this high-handed pronouncement:
"Any admission regarding the use of illegal performance-enhancing substances, no matter how casual, must be taken seriously," he said. "It is in the best interests of baseball for everyone, including players, to cooperate with Senator Mitchell in his investigation. Discipline for wrongdoing is important, but it is also important to create an environment so players can feel free to honestly and completely cooperate with this important investigation."
In December 2004 the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Giambi had admitted his use of the drugs in Grand Jury testimony. That involved the same case that Bonds is suspected of perjuring himself while testifying.
But perhaps Yankee outfielder Johnny Damon put it best. "I'm still trying to figure out what he's in trouble for — freedom of speech?" he declared. "You can always go back and get someone in trouble for what they did in the past, whether it's stealing a pack of gum or whatever."
Considering the fact that the game’s most hallowed and respected lifetime mark – the most homeruns in a career – will fall this season to a man who obviously used more than flaxseed oil and arthritic balm to blow up like a helium balloon, Selig’s stance is ill-advised at best. And downright stupid at worst.
