Jason Giambi Used Steroids?!? WHAAAAAAAA?!?!
Anybody who is shocked about this (a) isn't much of a baseball fan or (b) fell out of the naive tree and hit every branch on the way down. Come on. Did you see Giambi come into spring training 2004 looking like he had taken Anti-Mark McGwire pills? He was obviously juicing, and he had obviously lost a lot of bulk from ceasing to do so.
The question is, now what? Loud, ignorant fans from all over the place are calling for Giambi's (and, because he got the roids from Barry Bonds' trainer) and Bond's records to be given asterisks, and to not allow them into the hall of fame. This is the stupidest thing I have ever heard.
First of all, Giambi admitted to using steroids during the 2003 season. During the 2003 season, and every season before that, Major League Baseball had no steroid testing policy. That means that Giambi could have walked out of the Yankees dugout, shot some testosterone into his buttocks in the on-deck circle, and the only thing MLB could have done about it was suspend him for mooning the crowd. Nobody who admits to using steroids during or prior to the 2003 season - be it Giambi, Ken Caminiti, Jose Canseco or anybody else - should be penalized for having done it. The fact of the matter is, there were no rules against it, so there is nothing to prosecute anybody on.
Now, I'm not condoning any MLB players abuse of steroids. I am condemning MLB's lack of ability to get a drug testing policy in place before the steroid problem blew up in their face. The game should be clean, there's no doubt about it. I think so, an incredible majority of fans think so, and I'd be willing to bet that a great majority of players think so. MLB needs a much stricter steroid testing policy than the joke of the one they have in place currently (but that's a subject for another blog altogether). But when you are in an industry where a few extra home runs each year can earn you several million dollars more, people are going to do whatever they can to get an edge over the competition - especially if it's allowed. I will not go so far as to say that the players should not be blamed for this; obviously, people make choices and should be held accountable for their own actions. However, you cannot punish these players for doing something that, when they did it, was 100% legal under the auspices of Major League Baseball. Baseball should have taken a cue from the NFL when they started testing for steroids... in 1987. Instead, MLB pretended there was no problem. Meanwhile, the parks shrank, the sluggers got huger, and baseball continued to deny there was a problem. Jose Canseco writes a tell-all book and admits to using steroids during the 80's and 90's; Ken Caminiti admits that he used steroids in his MVP season - 1996 - and MLB says "we're looking at it. It might be a problem." Clearly, this has been a problem for a long time. MLB was way behind the curve on this one. Worse, I believe that MLB knew that this was a problem long before they let on, and that they simply ignored it. The attendance numbers don't lie - what brought baseball fans back from the strike? Cal Ripken? Well, sort of... but what was it really? It was Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa (steroid users both of them, I'd be willing to bet) assaulting Roger Maris' home run record in 1998. That's what brought the fans back. MLB said, "hey, apparently the fans like big hulking sluggers who hit big majestic home runs. Let's capitalize on that by ignoring the fledgling steroid problem."
There is a separate issue here, which is that the steroids Giambi used were illegal and against the law... not the baseball law, but you know, the law law. If Giambi gets punished for admitting he used illegal steroids, so be it. If you commit a crime, you run the risk of getting caught, and certainly Giambi understood that when he took the steroids. But to punish his baseball accomplishments, or the accomplishments of anybody else implicated this scandal, by putting an asterisk by his records, by barring him from the hall of fame, or whatever, would be massively hypocritical on the part of MLB.
The question is, now what? Loud, ignorant fans from all over the place are calling for Giambi's (and, because he got the roids from Barry Bonds' trainer) and Bond's records to be given asterisks, and to not allow them into the hall of fame. This is the stupidest thing I have ever heard.
First of all, Giambi admitted to using steroids during the 2003 season. During the 2003 season, and every season before that, Major League Baseball had no steroid testing policy. That means that Giambi could have walked out of the Yankees dugout, shot some testosterone into his buttocks in the on-deck circle, and the only thing MLB could have done about it was suspend him for mooning the crowd. Nobody who admits to using steroids during or prior to the 2003 season - be it Giambi, Ken Caminiti, Jose Canseco or anybody else - should be penalized for having done it. The fact of the matter is, there were no rules against it, so there is nothing to prosecute anybody on.
Now, I'm not condoning any MLB players abuse of steroids. I am condemning MLB's lack of ability to get a drug testing policy in place before the steroid problem blew up in their face. The game should be clean, there's no doubt about it. I think so, an incredible majority of fans think so, and I'd be willing to bet that a great majority of players think so. MLB needs a much stricter steroid testing policy than the joke of the one they have in place currently (but that's a subject for another blog altogether). But when you are in an industry where a few extra home runs each year can earn you several million dollars more, people are going to do whatever they can to get an edge over the competition - especially if it's allowed. I will not go so far as to say that the players should not be blamed for this; obviously, people make choices and should be held accountable for their own actions. However, you cannot punish these players for doing something that, when they did it, was 100% legal under the auspices of Major League Baseball. Baseball should have taken a cue from the NFL when they started testing for steroids... in 1987. Instead, MLB pretended there was no problem. Meanwhile, the parks shrank, the sluggers got huger, and baseball continued to deny there was a problem. Jose Canseco writes a tell-all book and admits to using steroids during the 80's and 90's; Ken Caminiti admits that he used steroids in his MVP season - 1996 - and MLB says "we're looking at it. It might be a problem." Clearly, this has been a problem for a long time. MLB was way behind the curve on this one. Worse, I believe that MLB knew that this was a problem long before they let on, and that they simply ignored it. The attendance numbers don't lie - what brought baseball fans back from the strike? Cal Ripken? Well, sort of... but what was it really? It was Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa (steroid users both of them, I'd be willing to bet) assaulting Roger Maris' home run record in 1998. That's what brought the fans back. MLB said, "hey, apparently the fans like big hulking sluggers who hit big majestic home runs. Let's capitalize on that by ignoring the fledgling steroid problem."
There is a separate issue here, which is that the steroids Giambi used were illegal and against the law... not the baseball law, but you know, the law law. If Giambi gets punished for admitting he used illegal steroids, so be it. If you commit a crime, you run the risk of getting caught, and certainly Giambi understood that when he took the steroids. But to punish his baseball accomplishments, or the accomplishments of anybody else implicated this scandal, by putting an asterisk by his records, by barring him from the hall of fame, or whatever, would be massively hypocritical on the part of MLB.
posted by Alex @ 5:36 PM
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