Giambi steroid testimony leaks
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Jason Giambi testified before a grand jury that he used steroids in 2003 and for two years before that. The 2003 steroids were obtained from Gary Anderson, who is Barry Bonds’ trainer. Jeremy Giambi, who you may remember from his brief prospect-dom, also testified that he used steroids. You can construct a whole timeline here of what he took and when if you want.
Or, if you want it second-hand:MSNBC link
MLB.com link
I don’t care what your stance on this is, if this is true than you have to admit that the continuing leaks out of this investigation are ridiculous. Beyond being illegal, why would anyone cooperate with a grand jury investigation any more than they absolutely had to if they knew thier testimony would become public? Especially in a case like this?
On a larger note… every time I think it would be hard for this mess to get uglier, I’m shocked at how easily it overcomes my doubts.
To me, the tough part is (as the Chronicle notes) that Clomid’s side effects include
Headaches, hot flashes. Can exacerbate pituitary gland tumors.
Which is what the New York Daily News reported Giambi suffered from this year — in a story that, oddly, mentions that Giambi was taking corticosteroids (which are not performance enhancers) as part of his treatment for the tumor, steroids which caused him to test positive for steroids but not the ones he’d actually been taking since 2001.
To Jeremy Giambi’s admissions — knowing this, it might offer some insight into why the A’s purged him abruptly in mid-2002, getting almost nothing (well, John Mabry, who performed well for them) in exchange for Jeremy, who was hitting .274/.390/.471 at the time (and was cheap to play). Even if the A’s didn’t know, which seems unlikely, they must have suspected, and I see how something like his reputed partying could easily suddenly tip the team against him.
Really, if you’re a GM and you knew or suspected with a good degree of confidence that a player on your team was using illegal steroids, and that player was showing troubling signs of getting into other behaviors that potentially could affect their play, like staying out all night on road trips, isn’t there a good chance you’d try to make him someone else’s problem as fast as you could? Even knowing that because baseball’s a small game, you’re going to have to be up-front about the why, and hope someone’s willing to take the gamble and give you a token back to show the fans?
Anyway. This whole thing stinks.
Comments
54 Responses to “Giambi steroid testimony leaks”
looking at the other players brought before the grand jury who are supposed to have rec’d help from Anderson & BALCO… it would seem to back the claims of those who say steroids have a limited effect on a baseball player’s abilities (vs the effects for track or football)
That you admit you are lazy does not create a burden on others to prove your points for you. You’ve made an assertion. Either back it up or don’t.
You’re making broad assertions about my feelings and motivations, as well as those about others, with no proof, admitting that you have no evidence, and offering that things you think people have said were done because I (and BP and others) are bad people.
That’s not a civil discussion.
Reading the above comments in my Paris time-warp, I am pleased to see how many readers have absorbed what facts there are in this case (damn few) and rejected speculation. Still, before this Blog hade comments, I wrote a few – one long one – to D+D+J concerning my impressions on Bonds and I have not changed my mind since. In short:
1. too consistent a performer both offensively and defensively for far too many years to fit the steroid/HGH user profile
2. he simply just looks more and more like his dad, rest his soul, did at the same age
3. there is absolutely no evidence pointing to Barry Bonds except for the above two observations.
The jury isn’t out. There’s no jury.
Comments are now closed on this post — I’m tired of deleting posts speculating on who is and isn’t on steroids after I asked people to please not do so, and said those posts would be deleted (see comment #20).