Jason Giambi Teaches Bonds a Lesson

David Snyder

America's baseball fans have been begging for an apology.

Begging for professional players, the commissioner, owners- anyone to give them a reason why what they were led to believe was real, was not.

They want to feel better about looking so foolish during baseball's steroid era. They want an apology for believing in the unbelievable. They want to have their ignorance justified through words.

In steps Jason Giambi. Up to a microphone, up to public judgment and persecution.

The Yankee slugger stepped to the plate this week to not only accept his blame for his transgressions, but also to layout what he thinks baseball should do about that marred time in its history:

"I was wrong for doing that stuff," Giambi told USA TODAY. "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."

In his interview with USA today he backed Barry Bonds, the unquestionable poster boy of the steroid era, by saying:

"That stuff didn't help me hit home runs. I don't care what people say, nothing is going to give you that gift of hitting a baseball."

So what did Giambi get for telling fans what they wanted to hear? What did he get for doing something very few have had the courage to do?

A mixture of hate and admiration spread across internet discussion boards.

A Yankee organization that is trying to use this incident to wipe him from their roster.

The team has been looking for a way to void Giambi's 2001 $120 million dollar contract. They may have found it in Giambi's statements. According to the New York Daily News, the team may void the deal if it determined that Giambi used banned substances after the 2001 signing.

The commissioner's office has also started an investigation.

And so Barry Bonds watches all of this unravel and steps further into the shadows of questions and obscurity.

He will never come up to a set of microphones to give the venomous sports world an apology.

And why should he?

Why would he do what the public is pleading for him to do if all we will do in return is further destroy him?

The lessons taught by the Giambi incident will flow past Bonds and onto any other player that had thought about stepping forward. Then there is the youth, who are learning at a young age that courage and honesty have little to no value, and that mistakes can sometimes be unforgivable.

The other backlash that will happen from all of this is that players who have now found the new wonder drug, HGH, will take this all in as a lesson. They will not learn to cheat less, but they will learn to cheat with more secrecy.

Maybe that is what the fan actually wants. For the illusion to stay as realistic as possible.

In the fans' search to remedy the past they have created a repetition in history. They will be duped again, and they will seek out justice for looking so foolish if it ever comes to light that those amazing feats they saw were not natural, and thus not "real."

David Snyder grabs issues floating around the sports world and talks about them at his website bigdaveonsports.com. He also accepts questions and criticisms at dave@bigdaveonsports.com. Big Dave on Sports is your one stop on the web for all news sports related. Constantly streaming news, fantasy info, and forums all free with no registration.

   _   _