With an end, comes a new beginning....

As was the case last year, the extended Sabres playoff run severely cut into my time generally reserved for baseball in the summer months. Now that the Sabres season is over, I am proud to say that baseball season has finally started. Well..... for me, at least.

That's not to say that I won't watch the remainder of the NHL playoffs. There is no hockey like playoff hockey. There are some intriguing storylines that could play out. Many people forget that Dominik Hasek played his hockey up in Canada's capitol last season, before injuring that tissue paper groin of his at the Olympics. That thrust Ray Emery into the spotlight, and well...... that didn't work out so well (last year, at least).

The entire country of Canada seems to be behind the Sens at this point (if you believe Hockey Night in Canada coverage), and I seem to remember Chris Pronger betraying a Canadian team this past off-season after the city of Edmonton found themselves in a love affair with him. Granted, this story is a bit of a stretch, but you can be sure that all of Edmonton and the Canadian bandwagon fans will be pulling for an Anaheim exit.

On to baseball......

This story puzzles me: Report: Yankees might try to void Giambi’s deal (ESPN.com)

Major League Baseball as a whole has dug themselves a hole. They knew something was going on during the great home run chase of 1998, but there was no steroid policy in place, so Bud Selig essentially batted a blind eye. Here we are, some nine years later, and the only current player who is acknowledging the problem and admitted he made a mistake might be ostracized from his team? What's even more mind boggling is that a struggling team like the Yanks would even consider getting rid of one of their best and most productive players. A team that is struggling to score runs ousting one of their best RBI men? Granted, he's not having an outstanding year, but still.... this makes very little sense.

I'm also aware that this is all based on a "report" from "unnamed sources." So this rumor could very well have been started by the hot dog vendor behind the right field bleachers in the Bronx.

Also, the Giambi USA Today interview is one of the most blown out of proportion stories I have ever heard. Jason Giambi took steroids. This isn't new. He apologized for it in 2003, though he never said what he was apologizing for. Anyone who thinks he was saying sorry for anything else needs to have their head checked. So here we are, four years later, and now he's getting heat for shooting 'roids (or taking the clear, or rubbing the cream, or whatever)? How does this make sense?

One thing I do know, I support Jason Giambi. He sounds genuinely remorseful, and he is the only current player to be somewhat upfront about 'roids. He went through the motions in 2003, he got clean, he doesn't deserve to go through it again. The worst part about this whole thing is that the general baseball public agrees with him. MLB does owe it's fans an apology, especially older fans who lived through the dead-ball era and remembered a time where drugs didn't rule the sport.