Jason Giambi

Well, it was probably smart for Joe Torre & his staff to send Jason Giambi out to face Red Sox Nation. In a split squad game in Florida the NY Yankees went up against the Red Sox and beat them. Jason hit a home run, despite some booing, shouts of "Steroids!" and a few signs mentioning the whole thing. Naturally, the New York media is making this out to be the end of the situation, but playing in an exhibition game in front of a mixed crowd of fans is not the same thing as being at Fenway Park. Nor is the situation going to go away at any of the MLB parks around the country, at least not for a few months. Each time Giambi and the Yankees go out on 'enemy' turf they are going to hear it.

I almost feel bad for Giambi, even though he brought this on himself. It will be far more interesting to see how Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa and some other players mentioned in Canseco's book deal with similar situations. I think the first major event will be when one of the players (and it's only a matter of time even with the half-hearted drug policy) gets caught using.