Giambi Discusses Steroid Comments With MLB Officials

Giambi Meets With MLB Execs Over USA Today Steroid Comments

Yankees DH Jason Giambi attended a meeting with MLB officials yesterday for “less than an hour” to discuss his comments about steroids last week, according to King & Costello of the N.Y. POST. MLB was represented by VP/Labor Relations Rob Manfred, Senior VP & General Counsel Frank Coonelly and outside attorney Howard Ganz. Giambi attended with his agent, Arn Tellem, attorney Brian O’Neill and MLBPA General Counsel Michael Weiner. The Yankees were not represented and “are waiting to see what MLB does before they decide whether to pursue voiding his deal.” The odds that MLB or the Yankees “will take action is slim.” Yankees GM Brian Cashman: “Up to this point there has been no action taken by the Yankees whatsoever. We are ... following the directive of the Commissioner” (N.Y. POST, 5/24).

GUILT OR INNOCENCE? After the N.Y. Daily News reported yesterday that Giambi had failed an MLB-administered amphetamines test in the last year, ESPN’s Peter Gammons said, “I was told by three different sources from three different areas that (Giambi) did not fail this amphetamines test. They’re just sources. I’m not going to say that the (N.Y.) Daily News is completely wrong, but they were insistent in all those cases” (“SportsCenter,” ESPN, 5/23). The Daily News’ T.J. Quinn said, “We don’t go with stories like this because we think they’re true. We know it. It’s solid. He failed the test.” Addressing Gammons’ report, Quinn said, “I don’t know who he is talking to. His sources are wrong” (“Daily News Live,” SNY, 5/23). Newsday “confirmed” the report of the failed test (NEWSDAY, 5/24). Quinn today writes Giambi last night “pleaded ignorance about the Daily News story, saying he had not heard about it until reporters informed him, although he had been asked about it by a reporter for two days before the story was published.” Test results are confidential, so MLB officials cannot address the issue publicly (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 5/24).