Bud Goes After Giambi
From mlb.com -
After carefully reviewing information from the meeting between Major League Baseball officials and Jason Giambi of the New York Yankees and all other relevant information, Commissioner Allan H. (Bud) Selig announced today that he has asked Giambi to meet with Senator George Mitchell within the next two weeks and to cooperate fully in Senator Mitchell’s investigation into the use of illegal performance-enhancing substances in baseball.
Discipline will be determined after Giambi has completed activities with Senator Mitchell. Commissioner Selig will then take into account Giambi’s level of cooperation with the investigation.
“Any admission regarding the use of illegal performance-enhancing substances, no matter how casual, must be taken seriously,” said Commissioner Selig. “It is in the best interests of baseball for everyone, including players, to cooperate with Senator Mitchell in his investigation so that Senator Mitchell can provide me with a complete, thorough report. Discipline for wrongdoing is important, but it is also important to create an environment so players can feel free to honestly and completely cooperate with this important investigation.”
If I’m Giambi, it’s time to play the deny, deny, deny, card.
I said ‘what’ to the grand jury? I said ‘what’ to USA Today? Do you have proof that it was actually ‘me’ that said that?
Well, if you don’t have a video or audio tape, or the sworn testimony of an informant, then I guess you have no proof. So, what do you expect me to talk about?
See ya. Good luck with that suspension threat.
and people complain about a-rod bringing bad press to the yanks
This is really abuse of power by Selig. Giambi was talking about violations which occurred before the league even had a steroid policy. He’s basically blackmailing Giambi because he’s desperate to get some kind of result from the $30M he’s spent on the Mitchell investigation. Selig needs to step down.
Determining the discipline after seeing how much he cooperates is a great way to ensure that no one who might be thinking about cooperating ever steps forward. A guy who is feeling guilty and wants to come clean is going to be totally discouraged from doing so after this.
It’s as if a federal prosecutor says to a witness, “I’ll give you immunity in exchange for your testimony, but only if your testimony gets us a conviction.”