Tough “Love” Bud

MLB Commissioner Bud Selig is contemplating suspending New York Yankees DH Jason Giambi for uncomplimentary comments about his possible use of performance enhancing drugs. Giambi, a former AL MVP has been linked to steroid use since his December 2003 BALCO grand jury testimony, in which he admitted to using steroids. Giambi’s latest trite occurred on May 18th when he was asked about performance enhancing drugs in a post game interview. Giambi subsequently stated in that interview:

“I was wrong for doing that stuff. What we should have done a long time ago was stand up -- players, ownership, everybody -- and said: `We made a mistake.' We should have apologized back then and made sure we had a rule in place and gone forward. ... Steroids and all of that was a part of history. But it was a topic that everybody wanted to avoid. Nobody wanted to talk about it.”

Jason, that was not exactly in your best interest, especially when Bud Selig has “independent investigator,” former Senator George Mitchell probing those who have potentially used performance enhancers in the last few years. In essence, Mitchell’s job is to clean up the game of baseball (good luck). Giambi was asked by the commissioner to comply with the senator’s inquiry, but as you can tell, Giambi hasn’t been too revealing in his conferences with Mitchell thus far.

This leaves Giambi at the mercy of Bud Selig and his “get tough” attitude on steroids. The chances are that Giambi will in fact be suspended by the commissioner for not cooperating with Mitchell’s investigation. If Selig is serious about cleaning up the game, I would like to see Giambi dismissed for at least 30 games; yes, 30 games, the amount of games a player is suspended for under the current rules if he tests positive for performance enhancing drugs.

Selig has been rather lethargic on the issue of steroids. But due to pressure from Congress and the public, he has been forced to step up his perambulation on the game. It isn’t enough that a plague-ridden imbecile is going to break the all-time homerun record under Selig’s watch, so I can understand if Bud comes down hard on Giambi. The trouble is that Gimabi’s suspension will surely be overturned due to the fact that steroid suspensions that do not include a positive test are not covered under the collective bargaining agreement.

There’s always next year, Bud…go get em!'