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December 02, 2004
Giambi: I Used Steroids
The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that brothers Jason and Jeremy Giambi testified to a federal grand jury last year that they had acquired steroids from Greg Anderson, weight trainer to San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds: In his testimony, Giambi described how he had used syringes to inject human growth hormone into his stomach and testosterone into his buttocks. Giambi also said he had taken "undetectable" steroids known as "the clear" and "the cream" -- one a liquid administered by placing a few drops under the tongue, the other a testosterone-based balm rubbed onto the body. Giambi, as I'm sure many of you recall, missed most of the 2004 season due to a variety of ailments, including an intestinal parasite, and a tumor on his pituitary gland. In the course of his testimony, Giambi also admitted that Anderson had helped him obtain Clomid, a female fertility drug that increases the effectiveness of testosterone. According to the piece, Clomid is normally not given to patients who have these tumors because they can they can "exacerbate them." Click here to read more. The story appears just one day before ABC's 20/20 is scheduled to air an interview with BALCO founder Victor Conte -- and the network promos seem to indicate that he's going to name names. Something tells me the Chronicle has been sitting on this story for a while, and only released it when they suspected Giambi and his brother would be named in the report. The impending interview made for some uncomfortable moments in court yesterday: US District Court Judge Susan Illston said yesterday she was inclined to reject defense motions to dismiss charges against BALCO head Victor Conte and three others, although she would allow some hearings into how the government conducted the case. But the next question has to be this: Will the names stop at those players who have already been exposed -- the Giambis and Gary Sheffield -- or will Conte reveal the secrets of even bigger names in baseball? Hold onto to your hats -- it's going to get real bumpy. UPDATE: Here's Tony Pierce: when i start populating, the first thing i will tell my offspring if they show any interest in our national pasttime is, dont ever sign with the yankees. BTW -- Tony has just published his second book. Be sure to give it a look. Here's what Tom Junto had to say: How can you ban Pete Rose for life and ignore this? As Omar on The Wire might say: "Indeed." Perhaps it's time I linked to this post from 2002 that treads some familiar ground. MIDDAY UPDATE: There's reaction from everywhere. Let's start with David Pinto: Can some good come out of this. I hope players read this testimony and think, "I don't want to be that much of an idiot." My guess is that the lure of big bucks from big muscles will keep athletes shooting up. This is about something more important than any individual player or any record. It's about the integrity of the game. It's about the safety of the players, who apparently can be too easily blinded by competitive instincts and the chase for lucrative long-term contracts to be trusted with their own health. For the wavefront from other bloggers, check Technorati; for the MSM, here's Google News.
Eric
06:50 AM
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» Giambi On Steroids from Baseball Musings Tracked on December 2, 2004 12:31 PM
» Giambi On Steroids from Baseball Musings Tracked on December 2, 2004 12:34 PM CommentsI love the busblog, and I read Tony nearly every day. But Giambi didn't rat out Bonds. That's simply false. Posted by: at December 2, 2004 11:02 AM Bonds has been on the list for a long while though, and it's not like we haven't seen the evidence of it... He's another former stick-figure player that turned into a muscle man. My question is, was McGwire linked to this stuff? I know he is already classified as bieng "on roids" by some becuase of Andro.... but it isn't as bad as the shit that Giambi was taking.... I consider Bonds stats artificial and don't think he's an MVP or the single-season home run king. That's still McGwire.... Unless he was using synthetic steroids as well and passed on the fact to Jason befor ehe left Oakland. Posted by: at December 2, 2004 11:29 AM The problem here is that EVERY time this story comes on the :20 updates on the radio, it is described as "Jason Giambi admitted taking steroids given to him by Barry Bonds' trainer." Sure, the association is there. Sure, we all know better. But it's being made out like he's the straw that broke the camel's back - meanwhile, the camel's been running on no humps for awhile now. This is just the icing on the cake and the proof positive to all the fans that have been talking about this for months. As for MLB, they're not going to hurt anyone's contracts, et al for this, but they'd be stupid not to do something hardcore for the future. And as a Yankee fan, it's almost a strange feeling - Giambi was tagging the ball in 2003, then was a wreck in 2004 because of an injury, which was, as most suspected, probably caused by steroid use - or perhaps the stoppage of steroid use. So what to do with that situation. Here's to hoping this doesn't become a Mo Vaughn situation. Posted by: at December 2, 2004 12:16 PM Post a commentThanks for signing in, . (If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.) |