The truth shall set you free

New York Yankees first baseman Jason Giambi has done something so awful, so heinous, so detrimental to the game of baseball, that his team may try to terminate his contract.

What's Giambi's alleged crime? He told the truth about steroid use.

In an interview last week with USA Today, Giambi said, "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.' "

What do you mean, "we," kemosabe?

Baseball officials, doing their best Sgt. Schultz impressions, certainly don't want any reminders they knew about the steroids issue.

New York Yankees' officials certainly don't appreciate this inconvenient fact. Back in 2001, when Giambia was ready to sign with the Yankees, the team voluntarily removed the word "steroids" from his contract, according to Newsday's Wallace Matthews.

Two years later, Giambi admitted before the BALCO grand jury that he used steroids and human growth hormone.

When that testimony was later leaked to the San Francisco Chronicle, Giambi made repeated general apologies at a 2005 spring training news conference. But what he didn't do then was talk specifically about steroids. That all changed last week in his interview with USA Today.

Bringing up the dreaded "S" word could make him a permanent outcast.

The church of baseball forgives many sinners. I'll bet there's at least a few pill poppers and alcoholics in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Maybe even a gambler or two. On the toll road back to baseball, drug addicts Steve Howe and Daryl Strawberry were given Eazy Passes for the multiple transgressions.

Earlier this month, Seattle Mariners reliever Julio Mateo was arraigned on third-degree assault charges for allegedly beating his wife in a New York hotel room.

He joins a not-so-distinguished club. Others in the game brought up on domestic abuse charges include Diamondbacks infielder Alberto Callespo, Philadelphia pitcher Brett Myers, Boston shortstop Julio Lugo and Atlanta manager Bobby Cox.

The charges against Myers, Lugo and Cox were all dropped at a later date. Mateo has been suspended. Callespo has been placed on the restricted list. But all of them are still employed by MLB.

That may not be the case with Giambi much longer if the Yankees and MLB get their wish. Commissioner Bud Selig's Squad (the S.S.) of investigators wants to question the Yankees slugger.

Presumably, they want to know why someone would have the unmitigated gall to actually give an honest answer about the steroid issue.

The truth shall set you free.

Update: Joe Sheehan weighs in at Baseball Prospectus.($)

The Mitchell Commission should be disbanded. It should be disbanded because all it's doing is extending the shelf life of a story that does the game no good. MLB isn't going to get anywhere by trying to figure out who was doing what five to 10 years ago; there's nothing that can be done, and no credible way or sorting out the impact of PEDs on gameplay, wins and losses, or statistics. If the evidence in Game of Shadows isn't enough for the Commissioner to come down on Barry Bonds--and no, it's not--then no amount of paper-shuffling and stern questioning is going to produce actionable information.