CDIH

LEAN AND MEAN

February 24, 2004 -- TAMPA - If Derek Jeter is the big loser in the Yankees' acquisition of Alex Rodriguez then Gary Sheffield and, especially, Jason Giambi are the big winners.
A-Rod already is overshadowing Jeter and every other Yankee. That is just fine with Giambi and Sheffield, whose grand jury testimony in the BALCO steroid case was going to pale to the media grand inquisition both were going to face regularly this spring.

But then A-Rod came along and now Giambi and Sheffield are behind him in both the Yankee batting order and pecking order. Since both men were snippy when questioned about illegal performance enhancers in the Legends Field clubhouse yesterday, they should be grateful that all A-Rod, all the time has diminished what would have been persistent queries about the kind of team chemistry neither wants to discuss.

No other club has two players this large ensnared in the BALCO case, though Giambi's size is in question. If you think he came up small by asking out of the World Series Game 5 lineup last year, you should see him now.

Giambi claimed he has lost only four pounds, from 232 to 228, but the clubhouse consensus was at least 15. A four-pound loss on Giambi would be near imperceptible, but he looked as if someone stuck a pin in him and let out the air, so noticeably streamlined was he in all areas, including his face.

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But this is not the kind of cheating that brings suspicion about Giambi. Take a look at the 1992 Team USA picture of Giambi accompanying this column.



He was a little third baseman. It is hard to tell a decade later that it was the same person. He began to grow in bulk when Mark McGwire became his workout partner and McGwire was a user of androstenedione, legal at the time but since banned.



Giambi stresses the need to have his personal trainer with him at nearly all times. The knee injury he incurred (patella tendinitis) is one often related to steroid users and is similar to the one that ended McGwire's career.

Giambi is suddenly lean and less overly muscled as baseball's drug-testing policy grows stiffer and questions about his involvement with BALCO are intense. Giambi also was thinner - but not this thin - to begin last spring, the first with mandatory drug testing. He then bulked up significantly as the season went along.

When asked if he had ever used illegal performance enhancers, Giambi asked, "Do you mean steroids?" and then said, "No."

Sheffield described issues like this as "like a fly on my shoulder," but snapped at the reporter who first asked about steroids and barked "next question" each time he finished a response about illegal drugs.

Giambi also was hardly all smiles in saying he would not discuss his grand jury testimony and explaining he cannot control if people remained suspicious about him.

But as off-put as Giambi and Sheffield were, this could all be far worse for them, particularly Giambi, who also would be hounded more persistently about not getting on the field against Florida in Game 5. Joe Torre surmised that this steroid issue is not "going away" soon and could lurk around his team.

However, the ferocity of the focus is greatly lessened. Today, Rodriguez and Jeter take the field together for the first time as Yankees. And these days A-Rod is the media's drug of choice.

Joel Sherman
NY Post

It's clearly a witchhunt!! First they go after Vince McMahon now the Giambino! This is McCarthism, let them all boost up and spike their veins with whatever they want, then when they keel over "a la Rick Rude style" we just go get a new player. I don't see what the big deal is, government needs to back off.

as Giambi, Bonds, and Sheffield combine for 100 homers this year.

Galt Wrote:as Giambi, Bonds, and Sheffield combine for 100 homers this year.

i agree. i bet this years home run leader gets 37 or 38. bonds home run record should be expunged.

*pre and post steroid use

just like they did Maris' 61*

just look at any pic of bonds from 10 years ago and now and it is amazing. fucking junkies

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Well, I heard Giambi just wants to get lean and mean, so he can become more like his hero, Wade Boggs.
Now he'll be able to get around on that high inside fastball and inside-out it into left for a single.

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Bonds was 180 when he got in the league. His bio SAYS 230 now.

He said he only lost four pounds.

His teammates snickered.

hahahahahaha

Giambi looks like a cancer patient in that olympics photo, I don't blame him for juicing up

when reporters asked his teammates if they thought he lost 4 pounds, they said yeah, in his head.

The tattoo probably looks like a wittle baby skull now.

he had some nice tits

you need a woman & fast

drusilla Wrote: (screen.width/2)){this.width = (this.width/2)}" onclick="javascript:if(this.width > (screen.width/2)){this.width = (this.width/2)} else {this.width = (this.width*2)}" border="0" alt='Posted image: Click to resize'>

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In the picture with the bat it looks like he wants to beat someone with it. ROID RAGE!!!!!

haters!!

He looks fine to me
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Quote:The San Francisco Chronicle reported late Monday that federal investigators have learned that Giants slugger Barry Bonds—as well as Yankees stars Jason Giambi, Gary Sheffield, and several other players—received steroids and human growth hormones from the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative suspected of directing a steroid-distribution ring. In testimony last fall before a grand jury that indicted four men in the alleged steroid distribution (including Bonds' personal trainer Greg Anderson), all three players denied receiving or using any of the steroids alleged to have been distributed. "We continue to adamantly deny that Barry was provided, furnished or supplied any of those substances at any time by Greg Anderson," Bonds' attorney Michael Rains told the Chronicle. The other players implicated in the reports include two former Bonds' teammates—Royals catcher Benito Santiago and White Sox outfielder Marvin Benard—former A's infielder Randy Velarde, and NFL linebacker Bill Romanowski.


Up until this report, Anderson's legal counsel had insisted that Bonds and the others had been offered the steroids, but vehemently denied ever accepting them. The report does not specify where the new information confirming the athletes' reception of the steroids comes from. Nonetheless, Bonds, Giambi, and Sheffield are now in a precarious situation given the fact that they testified to the contrary to a grand jury. Thus, not only do they face a potential league suspension for substance abuse but also for lying to a grand jury. It's too early in the process to speculate on how much time, if any, these sluggers might miss, but the direct implication of the players is a significant development in the investigation. Stay tuned.