Afternoon Baseball

ESPN.com - GEN - Testimony: Giambi admits using steroids

Can't say I'm surprised. The circumstantial evidence was very incriminiating this past season, ironically not because of his strength but because of his weakness. The noticable weight and muscle mass loss in spring training, the tendinitis in his knee, the pituitary gland tumor; all signs of a person who has extensively used steriods, even if they've stopped. But speculation has its limits, and it's good to confirm one of these players either way.
It's a huge blow to the perception of the true talent level in baseball, even more so than if certain other players admitted usage.

This isn't McGwire, an already great home run hitter, using andro. He hit 65 home runs the year after he completely stopped andro useage. He had hit over 300 HR before he started, including the highest total for any single season in the 1980s (49 as a rookie, and the first player to start his career with 4 30+ HR seasons) and his body broke down in 2001 simply because the andro (and creatine, and extensive training) had been holding his shattered body together. Steriods' original use, after all, was to help people heal after injuries or surgeries.
This isn't a pitcher using steriods to throw 94 mph instead of 91 mph. The world is littered with pitchers who threw hard and failed.
This isn't even Bonds, who was already a Hall of Famer before his head tripled in size (literally and figuratively).


This, without any real evidence, might be the precursor to a revelation on the level of a Sammy Sosa: a nice everyday player who made himself into a HOF-level monster seemingly overnight, subsequently with a questionable physique.

Here's hoping the Yanks can void his contract, not because they deserve to get out of a huge mistake of a contract--whether he was using or not--but because Giambi gambled and lost, and should lose it where it counts.
The biggest irony might be that Tino Martinez might be the new Yankees first baseman--a guy who let age catch up to him naturally, but might be a better all-around player now at 37 than the four-years-younger Giambi will ever be again.