Jason Giambi doesn’t condone cheating, but the former New York Yankees slugger doesn’t seem surprised to see it happening in MLB, whether it’s the steroid era or the Houston Astros’ sign-stealing scandal. The truth is, the league has a long history of cheating.
Giambi, who is up for baseball’s Hall of Fame for the first time this year, went on SNY, a regional sports channel in New York, and shared his thoughts on what the Astros did during the 2017 and 2018 seasons, during which they won the World Series.
“It’s no different than the PEDs,” Giambi said on SNY, via NJ.com. “There’s always going to be things going in this game when you’re talking about people making a lot of money and wanting to win.”
Giambi admitted to steroid use in 2017 after a two-year period of apologizing by not fully owning up to the rule-breaking. He found that, upon opening up about his wrongdoing, the baseball community finally welcomed him after getting shunned during his years of lying about his usage. It gave his career a second life.
“I sleep at night great,” Giambi said. “I don’t have to worry about it. The biggest thing that came out of it is I created a whole new set of fans who first gave me a second chance, but also I don’t know how many parents I run into that say ‘Hey, thank you so much for coming forward where I can tell my children if they make a mistake to tell the truth.’
“I think that’s the biggest thing that came out of that, and I think that’s what helped me be embraced for the second time around. It was because of that situation.”
If he is guilt-free after using steroids, then does he think the Astros — after issuing a pathetic series of apologies — can move on without guilt? Perhaps they, too, have to properly own their actions before the MLB community will embrace their successes. Perhaps Houston will amend their awful apology in quicker fashion than it took Giambi. And perhaps once the Astros show true accountability, baseball can move on.