Giambi meets with MLB

Please MLB, leave the Yankees' slugger alone. He needs to be rewarded for having the courage to come out publicly and admit to what he did. Maybe if the rest of the players did, the sport of baseball would have credibility and former fans would once again follow the games.

By RONALD BLUM, AP Baseball Writer
May 23, 2007

NEW YORK (AP) -- Jason Giambi met with lawyers from the baseball commissioner's office Wednesday to discuss recent comments that some interpreted as an admission of steroids use.
Allegations that he flunked an amphetamines test, however, were not discussed.

"The commissioner requested that Jason come in in response to the USA Today piece. Jason was interviewed this morning," union general counsel Michael Weiner said.

The Daily News on Wednesday reported Giambi failed an amphetamines test within the last year.

However, a person familiar with what went on at the meeting, said it only dealt with the remarks quoted in USA Today. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because those attending agreed not to make details public.

The meeting, at baseball's main office, lasted less than an hour.

The New York Yankees' designated hitter was quoted last Friday as saying:

"I was wrong for doing that stuff. 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."

The meeting included Rob Manfred, baseball's executive vice president for labor relations, senior vice president Frank Coonelly and Howard Ganz, an outside lawyer.
Giambi brought along agent Arn Tellem, lawyer Brian O'Neill and Weiner, who represented the players' association.

Management and players did not agree to ban steroids until late 2002. Testing with penalties did not begin until 2004.

An agreement was reached before the 2006 season to also ban amphetamines. An initial positive test subjects a player to counseling and six additional tests for one year.

Names of players who test positive for amphetamines for the first time are not made public.

Updated on Wednesday, May 23, 2007 3:19 pm EDT