Busted

Greensboro, NC -- In the early part of summer 2005, I attended an Orioles' game versus the Tigers at Camden Yards. The highlight of the game wasn't any one play on the field. Following the game, a bunch of us went to grab a burger at Johnny Rocket's at the Inner Harbor place. Brendan, wearing his Dylan Hall dorm house intramural shirt, was called out by a restaurant patron for be a Tigers' fan. The "D" (for Dylan) on Brendan's shirt mirrored the Detroit Tiger's "D" found on their caps and home jerseys.

Anyways, during the game, I was chatting with a casual fan sitting next to me on various baseball topics. With Jay Gibbons up to bat, my new friend uttered, "Lay off the juice, Gibbons!" I asked him if he really thought that Gibbons was using steroids, to which he replied, "yes!" Looking at the sculpting of his arms that day flicking the bat, I quickly realized what he was talking about. No matter how many weights he lifts, protein or creatine consumed, his body sculpture was completely unnatural.

I'm as sick as anyone about the linkage between steroids and baseball. The story got old about two years ago. But what is so damning about the Gibbons bust is his path of lying.

Aug. 2005 (after Palmeiro was caught): "Not one person has come out and said, 'Yeah, I took steroids.' I don't know, is everybody telling the truth? Something's got to give here eventually."

Nov. 2005: "We want to end the problem now and get back to playing ball and not worrying about steroids every day."

Nov. 2006: " have passed every test administered by Major League Baseball over all the years. I have never taken anabolic steroids. And I am not going to dignify these claims and accusations with any further response."

And now yesterday: "I am deeply sorry for the mistakes that I have made. I have no excuses and bear sole responsibility for my decisions. Years ago, I relied on the advice of a doctor, filled a prescription, charged the hGH, which is a medication, to my credit card and had only intended to help speed my recovery from my injuries and surgeries."

If Gibbons was a baseball "good guy," who can we believe going forward? Gibbons gave back to the community, signed autographs while on a rehab assignment in Class-A Frederick (I was the official statistician of that game), and until now, he was a great story being a Rule V pick out of nowhere. He parlayed several productive seasons as the cleanup hitter of awful early-2000 teams into a 4 year, $21M contract before the start of the 2006 season. Just another example of another athlete that we cannot believe -- and another fatal management error of the Orioles' front office.