Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
June 14, 2007
Threatening Giambi

The battle between Bud Selig and Jason Giambi heated up with a leak from the commissioner's office:

Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig is heading toward suspending Jason Giambi next week if the New York Yankees slugger does not cooperate with former senator George Mitchell's investigation on steroid use, according to a high-ranking MLB official.

The official, who talked with Selig but has not been granted permission to speak publicly because of ongoing talks, said Selig wants Giambi's decision by Tuesday.

I don't see the point of this. If anything, Selig should have taken Giambi's remarks as a starting point, and encouraged him and others to speak out more. Now it will just be another labor/management fight that might set back all the cooperation the sides achieved over the last few years. If you are a subscriber to Baseball Prospectus, see my latest column for how I would handle this.

Baseball needs to create an environment where the players can talk publicly and honestly about past steroid use so we can all discuss the subject with facts. Selig's leak does just the opposite.


Posted by David Pinto at 08:26 AM | Cheating • | Commissioner | TrackBack (0)
Comments

I agree with your approach, vs Bud's. However, this should provide some drama, maybe high comedy, into the all star break. The Union needs to come up big, or Giambi will crumble. He's a nice, simple, relatively spineless sort. If the suspension threatens his paycheck he will talk. This is his last contract. Without support from the team and union he will cut a deal with MLB. The team, thus far, has thrown him under the bus. Cashman would love to cut him loose. Jeter rarely sticks up for teammates, and Jason stuch a knife in Arod's back last year. Clemens, Posada, and Mussina will likely go to bat for him. And Torre will mumble something or other. Let the beatings begin...

Posted by: abe at June 14, 2007 08:55 AM

This is ridiculous. Why is Giambi being singled out? I hate the Yankees as much if not more than anyone, as my many disparaging remarks on this site can attest. But c'mon.

Posted by: JC at June 14, 2007 09:48 AM

Selig's not about solving problems. This gives him the opportunity to appear tough. When Bonds breaks the record, Bud can say I tried to get tough but the union stooped me. He should have been a politician.

Posted by: Mark at June 14, 2007 11:04 AM

Selig, with this threat, has shut down any chance of shedding any light on the steroids era while at the same time making it look like they are being tough. The Owners and "commissioner for life" don't want information to come out while trying to show that they have cleaned up baseball. By ending the efforts under the problem of a labor disagreement the owners have absolved themselves of responsibilities and can now blame the players for everything.

I look forward to the line "we tried but we don't want a labor shutdown over this issue." I give it 14 months.

Posted by: Rob M at June 14, 2007 11:18 AM

By attacking the only player that's shown any kind of contrition for using performance enhancing drugs, Bud's message is clear. KEEP YOUR TRAP SHUT, AND WE CAN PRETEND THIS STERIOD PROBLEM NEVER HAPPENED.

Bud and the rest of the lords of baseball ignored this problem until the feds started stepped into the picture. If he really cared about PED's warping the game, he would have done something about it a long time ago. He's going through the motions right now, hoping everybody will forget about this problem, and not look into his misconduct in the matter.

Good Luck Bud!

Posted by: geb4000 at June 14, 2007 01:32 PM
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