This article goes on about how Jason Giambi’s myriad of charity work has somehow made his steroid use okay in the eyes of baseball commissioner Bud Selig. I see this as being an absolutely HUGE decision in baseball; it sets the precedent that steroid use during the “steroid era” is perfectly fine if you make up for it in other ways. This is primarily due to the fact that the baseball players’ union forbid baseball from doing any performance-enhancing drug testing, so they weren’t even tesing for steroid use at the time. All they have is Giambi’s confession.
I put this in the pit because Bud Selig is a royal class ass. This motherfucker not only watched average hitting statistics skyrocket, he KNEW (come on, he had to know) that players were taking a little something extra. THEN, through the media, he expresses shock and sorrow that players would do such things to his beloved league. So what the fuck does he do about it? Gives a player a free pass, because you know, he’s a nice guy and he admits it he took the drugs. What about the fucking fact that he just admitted he cheated and possibly altered the history of baseball (Giambi won the MVP)? At least strip the goon of his MVP award.
Oh, and for all you Bonds haters, pucker up, my scrotum’s waiting. This decision removes any thought of asterisks. Selig has said that steroid use during this era is okay, so Bonds did NOT “cheat.”
Bonds and Giambi are still cheats. Their records will be forever tarnished for millions of baseball fans. Bud has just supplied one more reason to dislike him.
Add Big Mac, Sosa, Palmiero, Sheffield and several others to the mix of players whose accomplishments will always be tarnished.
Then there is the large list of suspicious players. That is the saddest legacy, that so many players will be suspected of using performance-enhancing drugs, the Union and the Owners have let down every clean player and every passionate fan to have allowed this to happen.
Additionally as the Unions and MLB have allowed it and so many have prospered from it for so long, many young players and wanna-be player will endanger their lives by taking steroids and HGH to improve their chances to make the majors.
It is sad that Bud has absolved Giambi. This might be the single worst thing Bud has done. That much I fully agree with you on. He cannot blame the Union for this one.
Well, I agree that Selig is an ass, but any way you look at it, Bonds did cheat. But so did Giambi and many others. Performance enhancing drugs are the modern-day version of spitballs and corked bats. Baseball has always given a slap on the wrist to cheaters. I maintain that the outrage over Bonds is due more to his personality than anything else. As for pitting Selig, please carry on.
I know this is going to sound irrational, but the Spit Ball and stealing signs took skill and are age old methods of “bending” the rules. Even Bennies were only an upgrade on the coffee and nicotine that players use to use to stay sharp. Steroids took us to a whole new level. Somehow this seems like a much larger offense against the game to me, but YMMV.
Jim {corked bats were just silly and probably never even helped much.}
This whole kerfluffle came about, I think, because Giambi said something that was both correct and embarrassing: ‘we ALL made a mistake, and we should have admitted it.’ Selig and others have - dishonestly, as Dudley says - played innocent on the steroid issue, making it sound like it was something the players did without anyone knowing it. Because, of course, the owners and leaders of the MLB would have done something about it if only there was some way they could have known.
Everybody already knew Giambi did steroids. I don’t know why he should have been suspended for admitting something that was common knowledge. As it turns out, even Bud Selig has enough sense to know that punishing a guy for coming clean about something is a bad idea. It’s too bad Selig won’t take Giambi’s suggestion, in my opinion.
Doesn’t sound like one to me, when you put it that way, and I’ve always said steroids are beyond the pale. The fact is that baseball players have such a long history of cheating and bending the rules that after a while, it’s hard to even be that upset about it.
It’s not irrational, but I debate the skill required to throw a doctored ball. A knuckleball takes skill, but a spitball was mainly used by pitchers who had lost some of their “stuff” and were trying to get by.
Steroids don’t make you a better ball player, they help you heal from injuries faster, and help your muscles heal quicker so you can work out harder and more frequently. A corked bat lessens the weight of the bat, thus providing more bat speed, a similar effect of bigger muscles.
Actually, Jim, the worst thing Selig did was bring the threat of suspension down on the one guy in the league who even got close to making any sort of admission of past steroid use. Selig didn’t have any proof that Giambi did anything, other than Giambi’s entirely non-specific admission, he didn’t have grounds to suspend him.
Giambi is the only guy playing today who seems to even approach having a smidgen of integrity regarding his past steroid use, and the league’s response is to threaten him. People laughed at his apology that never mentioned what he was apologizing about, but now we all know why he couldn’t actually say what he did wrong.
Is it any surprise that nobody wants to cooperate with Selig’s “investigation”? If you actually want to find out who did what, and when, hanging the threat of suspension over everyone’s heads isn’t the way to do it.
Bonds hater checking in. Exactly why should I be puckering anything?
Both men cheated. Giambi holds no record that I can think of. If he did, it would be a false record. As far as I’m concerned McGwire never broke the single season record either.
Because baseball has officially determined that steroid use, before steroid testing began, is perfectly fine. Selig giving Giambi a free pass, again, sets the precedent. So by this logic, Bonds has broken no official rules. Hence, he did not cheat.
It’s not always about records. Giambi won the very prestigious (in baseball circles anyway) AL MVP in 2000, narrowly beating out Frank Thomas. Thomas did not use steroids, in fact, he’s not even suspected (perhaps because he’s injured a lot). Why not strip Giambi of his aware and give it to Thomas?
Frankly, I don’t give two shits who’s a nice guy and who’s an asshole.
Since there were arguably no rules against steroids prior to testing - or if there were rules, they were totally ignored - there’s no “determination” here. On what grounds was Selig supposed to punish Giambi without proof or a clear rule he could say Giambi broke?
Quite a stretch. Forgiving someone does not mean that they did nothing wrong. If Bonds apologized as contritely as Giambi has (he never will), I would be forgiving, but that wouldn’t erase the cheating and the fact that he does not actually hold any home run records as far as I’m concerned.
Fine, not as far as I’m concerned he didn’t. Thomas won in 2000 because Giambi cheated.
I couldn’t care less about the official records. For me, Aaron holds the total home run record and Maris holds the single season. I’m sure I’m not alone.
He didn’t punish Giambi because Giambi gave in and talked to Mitchell. Guaranteed, if someone else says they did steroids pre-testing, he’ll get threatened too.
Selig SHOULD offer amnesty to current players publicly stating that there will be no MLB suspensions for pre-testing steroid use. Not condoning it, but recognizing that what’s past is past, and getting cooperation is better than having everyone who actually knows what happened be silent.
FTR, you don’t know whether or not Thomas used steroids, would you have guessed that Jason Grimsley used them?
I might be wrong, but wasn’t Giambi threatened with punishment by Selig if he didn’t talk to Mitchell?
If so, how could it possibly be fair to then punish the man for doing what you told him to do?
Also… if St. Ripken had ever taken pain killers or cortisone shots in order to play… would that mean his record is tainted by the use of drugs in order to achieve it?
On what basis would Selig punish him? Steroids weren’t against the rules of baseball. Surely he won’t be prosecuted for steroid use, any more than someone who admitted to DUI would be prosecuted, absent any other evidence. Where’s the proof that what he injected was actually an illegal steroid? Isn’t a lab analysis required for that?
Actually, there seems to have been a 1991 memo making steroids against the rules. Obviously, there wasn’t anything put in place to test or really enforce the rule, but it was there.
You may be right. I would submit, however, that a memo from the commissioner that provides for no testing procedures, and is never enforced; indeed, that is ignored for 11 years by the very agency that provided it, is de facto not a rule at all. Think of it more as guidelines.
I honestly don’t know how “the rules of baseball” work. Can The commissioner create them by simple decree, or does there have to be some kind of consensus? Can the commissioner decide that a home run is worth 2 runs, for example? Can he declare that artificial turf is forbidden? That no synthetic fibers be used in uniforms? I really don’t know.
He can makes some decisions, but without consensus he cannot make a major change stick. Further, if the decision affects players, it need to be negotiated with the Union. The Player’s Union is one of the strongest in the nation.
A record’s a record. You can’t ignore truth. You can debate the merit of Bonds’s accomplishments versus Aaron’s, but he hit more home runs and that is an absolute fact.