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Giambi may be on the cover, but he's the only one on the cover who was man enough to admit his mistake and faced the court of public opinion head on.

Mike - Giambi has still never admitted, in public, that he was using anything - nor has he said it was a mistake.

He just said that he "was sorry" without saying for what.

Again, if not for the grand jury testimony that was leaked, no one would have ever heard that Giambi used PEDs - and he probably would be still denying it today (as he still hasn't admitted it in public, even after the leak).

I will give him credit for being the only one to admit the truth to the grand jury. But, some also might say that was stupid too - that he should have played the same card as the rest of them (with "I didn't know what it was" thing).

In any event, haven't they all (Giambi, McGwire, Sosa, Bonds, etc.) faced the public opinion head on? They all have to put up with the chatter, chants, etc., no?

I have to disagree with you, Steve. Giambi might not have said "I did 'roids," but he gave a statement that anyone could understand: he apologized after a firestorm over his leaked grand-jury testimony. As his brother asked: what do you think he was apologizing for? He didn't use the word "steroids" because of contract issues (which was a demand by his agent, apparently).

Giambi wasn't stupid to not lie on the stand. That's called breaking the law -- and Bonds might get in legal trouble for it. (His statements on the stand were absurd, anyway, considering the evidence they had against him: reams of notes and schedules from the BALCO lab.) Bonds has denied knowing what he took. Sheffield the same. McGwire blew off congress and wouldn't answer the question. Sosa acted as though he couldn't speak English and then LIED -- by saying he never took 'roids. Palmeiro also lied, then got busted with a positive test, then STILL denied, and then tried to take down a teammate with him. He is the ultimate coward.

So Giambi's not perfect and, no, if he wasn't involved with BALCO we wouldn't have known any of this, but he's still the only one to implicitly admit to his misdeeds, and at least he was humble enough to apologize; most of the others are too arrogant to think it matters.

I'm with baileywalk here. I'm pretty sure Giambi was under strong legal advice, if not order, to not say anything explicit to the public. He did what he could, given the constraints. As for his actual testimony, I can't fault the guy for taking his oath seriously.

Personally, I never saw Giambi as being "humble" enough to apologize. Let's remember where he was performance-wise at that time.

I think he said he was sorry without saying for what - because if he did say that he was using PEDs, the Yankees would have looked into trying to void his contract - - and there's a ton of money left on that deal. I think that's why Jason did what he did, afterwards - to protect his contract.

Remember, the news on him using broke on 12/2/04. And, he hid, holed up in an exclusive Nevada country club - and did not face the media, personally, until 2/10/05 - over two months later.

Heck, he didn't even contact the Yankees until 1/28/05 - almost 2 months after the news broke.

The only reason that Giambi did what he did was because he was backed into a corner - not because he wanted to come clean or make amends. Anyway, that's my opinion.

Being holed up in hiding is what I would've done too if I had every single Yankee fan in New York (not to mention every baseball writer on earth) out to bite my head off...

But seriously, it's all in the past. Steve's right that Giambi was motivated more by self-interest than genuine contrition but that in no way changes the reality that he told the truth to the grand jury (unlike Bonds or his teammate Sheffield) and apologized in public in a very humbling and humiliating way.

Giambi's A-OK in my book and, as long as he keeps away from the stuff, he should have a clean conscience. He can honestly go out there now knowing that the worst of the sh*t-storm is behind him and that while he may never escape the questions, he still handled it like a man.

Steve, I tried to make a donation to your site a couple of times (I am a daily reader and love what you do!). However, for some reason, PayPal always "times out" by the time I have entered my credit card information. Can you help?

Thanks nemecizer!

I have no idea, maybe try again tomorrow?

PayPal's servers are very flaky. I've been using it for years and have trouble more often than not (though it's a great service when it's working). I had the same problem as you did nem, and it worked fine a day later.