TORONTO, 15 March 2005 — Jeremy Giambi, the younger brother of New York Yankees slugger Jason, has admitted using performance-enhancing drugs as the steroid scandal surrounding Major League Baseball deepened on Sunday.
Giambi’s admission in the Kansas City Star follows another damaging report in the New York Daily News on Saturday that former major league home-run king Mark McGwire had been linked to an FBI steroid investigation in the early 1990s.
As the revelations came to light, the chairman of a congressional committee threatened to push contempt proceedings against some of the biggest names in baseball, including McGwire and Jason Giambi, if they fail to appear for a hearing this week investigating the use of steroids in Major League Baseball.
Jeremy Giambi, the first active player with significant major-league experience to publicly admit that he knowingly used steroids, told the Star he came clean in the hope that it will help keep others from making similar mistakes.
“It’s something I did,” he told the newspaper. “I apologize. I made a mistake. I moved on. I kind of want it in the past.
“They’re not good for you. I think we need to reach out and let teenagers know they’re not good for your body and not good for your health.”
The younger Giambi broke into the majors with the Kansas City Royals in 1998 but has never enjoyed the success or fame of his older brother, who won the AL MVP award before signing one of the richest contracts in Major League history worth $120 million with the Yankees.
The steroid spotlight has been focused on Jason Giambi since his name surfaced during a grand jury investigation into BALCO, the Bay Area laboratory at the heart of a worldwide steroid scandal.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported in December that he told a grand jury investigating the BALCO case that he had used steroids. Last month, Jason Giambi held a news conference at which he apologised to hundreds of media but did not say exactly what it was he was sorry for.
