Report says Jason Giambi Flunked Amphetamine Test
NY Daily News account comes in wake of sluggers comments about steroid use.
May, 23, 2007— -- Jason Giambi failed an amphetamines test within the past year, the Daily News reported Wednesday.Giambi The newspaper says that with the failed amphetamines test, Giambi has been subjected to six additional tests for one year. The newspaper did not cite any sources in its report.
Giambi declined comment to the newspaper before the New York Yankees' 7-3 loss to the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday night. "I can't really talk about anything," Giambi told The Daily News before last night's game. Giambi's agent, Arn Tellem, also declined comment to the Daily News.
The Yankees slugger, in an interview with USA Today last Friday, said he was "probably tested more than anybody else."
Officials for Major League Baseball would like to talk to Giambi about his comments. On Tuesday, lawyers for the commissioner's office and the players' association held more conversations about a possible meeting with Giambi but it remained uncertain when such a gathering would take place. "I was wrong for doing that stuff," the New York Yankees designated hitter was quoted as saying, remarks some have interpreted as an admission of steroids use.
Management lawyers would like to hold the meeting as soon as is practical. The failed amphetamines test most likely wouldn't be discussed at a meeting since MLB policy is to keep a first positive test secret. "What we should have done a long time ago was stand up -- players, ownership, everybody -- and said: 'We made a mistake,"' Giambi told USA Today. "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."
Hall of Famer Frank Robinson took issue with one of Giambi's comments, saying the Yankees first baseman should speak for himself.
"If Jason wants to confess, then he should come out and say: 'I'm guilty. I apologize. I apologize to baseball. I apologize to all the fans that have supported me and supported baseball over the years. And I will clean up my act and promise you I will not do anything like this again,"' Robinson said during an interview on ESPN. "He should not drag others into [it], because when he says baseball, that includes everybody in baseball." Giambi told a grand jury during the BALCO investigation in December 2003 that he used steroids and human growth hormone, the San Francisco Chronicle reported in December 2004. Before the start of spring training in 2005, Giambi made repeated general apologies at a news conference but wouldn't discuss whether he used steroids or admitted to the grand jury in 2003 that he did.
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