An Honest Man

There is a lot of talk about Jason Giambi these days.

Because Giambi talked too much, Bud Selig is trying to make him talk to George Mitchell.

Don’t expect this to lead anywhere. Selig and Mitchell are just covering their backs. They had this all ironed out before Giambi went and wrecked everything by telling USA Today:

“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.”

You can place Selig at the top of the list of people who didn’t want to talk about it. He has always been more interested in polishing his legacy as the man who “Brought the game back to its proper place,” than doing any meaningful work.

Selig has a high opinion of himself, but history will paint the true picture. The twisted thread will wind through collusion and a team owner acting as Commissioner and the strong-armed tactics that led to a devastating work stoppage and the sorted loans and the ownership transfer and the eventual sale of the Milwaukee Brewers.

Selig would have been out of baseball years ago if there was a true Commissioner protecting the integrity of the game. Instead, he barks orders from behind a false legacy built on the backs of players like Cal Ripken Jr. and Barry Bonds and Tony Gwynn and Derek Jeter and Mark McGwire and Ken Griffey Jr. and Roger Clemens and Sammy Sosa.

Giambi’s quote moved us closer to ridding baseball of dangerous drugs. It also moved us closer to exposing the people responsible. That’s what really worries Selig and Mitchell and that’s why the Commissioner’s Office continues to leak confidential drug tests and threats of suspension to intimidate players and the union.

They decided long before this investigation started where the blame would land and they will stop at nothing to reach their predetermined conclusions.

They just didn’t count on an honest man mucking it up with some straight talk.