Selig grows a pair, asks Giambi to cooperate in roid probe

[Abe Frohman]

I disagree. While I DO think that clubhouse people, managers, and especially GMs are very much to blame also - Selig has authority over them. The players are to blame, of course - but in reality, were they really breaking the rules of MLB? No, they weren't.

 

Wrong. Steroids were against the rules, they just didn't have testing. There was no teeth. But the union wouldn't allow any teeth.

 

Selig doesn't have much authority over those people. The owners do. But having authority isn't the same as knowing what was going on and doing something about it. If you work for a large company with offices in several states, and you do drugs, who is most likely to know? The secretary who holds your calls when you are "unavailable", the manager of your location who sees you on a daily basis, or the CEO 1000 miles away?

 

And Bud isn't even a CEO. He's got very limited authority because he's an employee of the owners. People just like ripping on Bud because it's the fashionable thing to rip on leaders. The fact of the matter is Bud couldn't do a damn thing about the steroids problem, and no matter what he does to fix things people are going to criticize him.

 

Well, if that is the case than perhaps I'm being a little too hard on him. I guess my "facts" are a little skewed, because if that is how the situation is - he is getting unfair scrutiny. Including from me.

 

Learn something new every day.

[jmajew]

 

After all, the players never did anything that was against the rules of MLB - did they?

Yes, they used steroids and other drugs between 1991 and 2004

 

That was tongue in cheek. Of course using the drugs between 1991-2004 was "wrong," my point is that MLB never outlawed the drugs until recently. Why is that?

your point was wrong. steroids were specifically made against the rules in 91

there were just never any penalties or testing until recently

 

That is just absurd. How can you make a rule like that and not check for it. That has to be the dumbest thing i have ever heard in my life. Are people really that naive to believe just because it is illegal people won't do it if there is no ramifications if they break the rule?

[jersey cubs fan]

 

That is just absurd. How can you make a rule like that and not check for it. That has to be the dumbest thing i have ever heard in my life. Are people really that naive to believe just because it is illegal people won't do it if there is no ramifications if they break the rule?

 

Every union in the country is anti-testing. The MLBPA is about the strongest union there is. They were not going to allow testing until the public demanded it and congress got involved.

[jmajew]

 

That is just absurd. How can you make a rule like that and not check for it. That has to be the dumbest thing i have ever heard in my life. Are people really that naive to believe just because it is illegal people won't do it if there is no ramifications if they break the rule?

 

Every union in the country is anti-testing. The MLBPA is about the strongest union there is. They were not going to allow testing until the public demanded it and congress got involved.

 

I personally don't agree with unions helping their members to break Federal Laws but I can understand why they would do it. You would think the Union would want to help protect the law abiding players who would have been the stars of the league had it not been for the few players that decided it was neccessary to take steroids to become the best.

 

I just thought the point of a union was to protect the majority not the minority.

[bc2k]

Selig's probably just hoping for the Mitchell "investigation" to get any kind of credibility. Giambi's got a lot to lose by cooperating. I'd think he'd stay mum about anything substantive - other than talking about himself - until it's post-career book time.

 

At this point in his career, maybe he sees his skills deteriorating to the point where he won't be around in 2-3 years. He could see dollar signs and then charge mucho bucks for interviews and book deals and whatnot.

 

Because if he'd be the one to bust the steriod thing wide open, he'd be on just about every news show there is. He'd be everywhere for about a month as the man who "helped clean up baseball," then he'd probably sign an 8-figure book deal.

 

8-figure book deal?

[badnews]

Oh my heart bleeds for poor Bud Selig. He knew what was going on. Did he ever call for change, and put the union on the spot for defending steroids? No he didn't. Automatic failure. He kept his yap shut about it and reveled in the attention and money it drew. The bottom line is, he said nothing about it. He has a public soapbox, and he didn't use it.

 

People say steroids were banned in 1991, but I can only find reference to a memo from Fay Vincent, not any actual rule being passed, not to mention all the stuff like andro which wasn't banned until far later. There is a lot of confusion on the issue.

 

In this article:

 

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=AheHTF7GVpkgGXcBjNkdtAQRvLYF?slug=ap-giambi-steroids&prov=ap&type=lgns

 

it says steroids weren't banned until Sept 2002. But is that the date for testing? Where is the actual rule in the rule book that the memo was about in 1991, and when was that rule enacted?

 

What seems to be clear is that not all performance enhancing drugs were banned all at the same time, like andro, thus you can't retroactively punish people like this when there were no penalties at the time.

[soccer10k]

There is no way Selig gets away with suspending Giambi. The players union will fight it and Giambi won't have to miss a game. This is just a stupid ploy by Selig to try and save face. The sooner he retires, the better.