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News
Giambi facing Thursday deadline
Jun 16, 2007. source : mlb
Major League Baseball and Jason Giambi are still working to resolve whether the Yankees slugger will meet with a committee headed by former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell that is investigating the sport's steroid era.
A deadline set by Commissioner Bud Selig for Giambi to make a decision by Thursday is in the offing, and according to multiple reports, MLB and Player Association officials are still discussing the parameters for the injured first baseman to meet with members of the committee.
Rob Manfred, MLB's vice president of labor relations and human resources, and Gene Orza, chief operating officer of the union, are members of a board that determines policy under the auspices of the current drug program.
Giambi may be nearing a decision to meet with Mitchell or his representatives, Newsday reported in Wednesday's edition.
USA Today reported last week that Selig is leaning toward suspending Giambi if he declines to cooperate with the committee.
On June 6, the Commissioner said that he wanted Giambi to meet with either Mitchell or members of his committee within two weeks before determining whether to discipline him over statements Giambi made about his alleged steroid use that appeared in USA Today last month.
The union has said it would file a grievance if Selig decides to suspend Giambi.
Michael Weiner, general counsel for the association, said there were no grounds for disciplining Giambi "based upon the newspaper article, anything which sprang from it, or his decision whether he will meet with Sen. Mitchell."
Giambi appeared before a grand jury investigating the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO) for money laundering and the illicit sale of performance-enhancing drugs four years ago. In his testimony, illegally leaked to the San Francisco Chronicle, Giambi admitted he had used steroids, although the full text of that testimony has never been released.
He is being pressured by MLB now after speaking about the issue with USA Today. On May 18, Giambi vaguely talked about the matter, saying he shouldn't have used "that stuff." He also chastised MLB by saying: "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."
Giambi was subsequently interviewed by Manfred and is currently on the disabled list with a foot injury. Manfred filed a report with Selig about that session and the Commissioner then determined that Giambi should meet with Mitchell's committee.
During his investigation, Mitchell has received little cooperation from either the union or current players, none of whom have agreed to meet with his group.
Mitchell was charged with investigating and submitting a report to MLB about the steroid issue nearly 16 months ago. This year, he has been negotiating with the union to obtain medical documents and player interviews, but thus far those efforts have been unsuccessful. His committee doesn't have the authority to subpoena documents or compel testimony.
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