Giambi and the Yankees got bad news last week when doctors discovered that his injury woes of late were caused by a case of plantar fasciitis (and really, who among us hasn't suffered from a case of PF?), but it looks like Giambi may have bigger fish to fry than the pain in his plantar region. Apparently, Bud Selig and Senator-turned-antisteroid-activist George Mitchell didn’t find Giambi’s frank chat with USA Today a couple weeks ago as amusing (or, in my opinion, endearing and refreshingly candid) as many of us onlookers did. Selig, who for years has pretended to not know what a steroid was, why one might use them, or where one might obtain them (I’ll give you a hint: it starts with a “B” and ends in an “ALCO”), reacted to the story by uncharacteristically considering/suggesting/threatening the possibility of slapping down some sort of punishment on the Giambino for his admission to using some sort of substance to augment his skull-tattooed arm muscles. Since Giambi never failed a drug test or admitted to using any particular substance and did not specify whether he used the unnamed juicing agent before or after the 2003 survey testing went into affect, there doesn’t seem to be any reasonable proof that Buddy Boy would be able to cite as grounds for suspension or other penalties, but that hasn’t stopped him from trying to extract some juicy gossip out of Giambi: he’s asked him to meet with Mitchell and tell him everything he knows about juicing.

Ex-Sen Mitchell’s ongoing steroids “investigation” – and I use quotes because he has scrounged up about as much information as the US found for WMD’s in Iraq (zero) – hasn’t been very successful, since not a single player wants to chat with him about their alleged steroid use or that of a teammate, but Selig is angling to use Giambi’s candid remarks as an example to other players that Selig has suddenly decided to take a firm stance on any indication of illegal drug use by investigating and possibly reprimanding them. Unfortunately for Buddy Boy and the Mitch, the Players Association does not insist that the players cooperate, and the decision is up to Giambi. Personally, I am all for honesty and would love to hear all the details, especially if other players would do the same, but I can think of absolutely no reason that an active player like Giambi would choose to implicate himself legally in this investigation. On the other hand, he’s a known chatter and doesn’t have anything else to do this summer, so Mitch may find himself on the receiving end of hours upon hours of Giambi confessions.

The last time I took a stance on Giambi and his propensity to answer questions honestly, a quality I appreciate and admire, I was met with a good deal of angry comments and more than a few nasty emails (about which I am not complaining, I welcome all varieties of hate mail). I still maintain my position that I appreciate the risk Giambi took by discussing the matter at all; the fact that he has apologized to his fans and encouraged others to do the same is a step in the right direction. As for meeting with Mitchell and disclosing further, more specific details, I'm torn. While I think it would be great fun to finally get some dirt on other players, I don't see why Giambi should have to sabotage himself in order for the information about other players to come to light. On the other hand, if he were to throw himself into the fire, the MLB might actually get enough information on BALCO or certain big-heads to actually DO something retroactively, though I don't know what could be done. What do YOU think?