Major League Baseball is facing a public relations nightmare that gained major momentum this week, and will probably only pick up steam in the coming months. On Thursday, Dec. 2, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that former Oakland A and current New York Yankee Jason Giambi admitted to a federal grand jury that he had used human growth hormone during the 2003 season, as well as steroids at least two years earlier.

Giambi’s testimony came on Dec. 11 of 2003 but was kept off the record as part of an investigation into BALCO, a bay area-based laboratory suspected of distributing steroids to elite professional and amateur athletes.

To most who follow baseball closely, it is not a big surprise that major leaguers have been taking steroids; rumors of their widespread use have been running rampant for the past few years. Giambi had always been a suspected candidate for steroid use.

Between 1998 and 2000, he transformed himself from a 20 home run a year player with an average in the high .200s to a 40 home run a year player who hit in the mid .300 range. He was a behemoth, yet he showed up noticeably thinner at Yankee Spring Training this year, after Major League Baseball had implemented testing for steroids.

That is why the biggest part of this story is not that Giambi actually took steroids, but what will follow. Like nearly all other suspected major league players, he had publicly denied any use of steroids. Therefore the repercussions of the most high profile player to actually publicly admit to using steroids will be the most interesting aspect of this.

Ideally more individuals will come forward and admit to using performance-enhancing drugs so that everything can be out in the open and, for the players safety, the game can be cleaned up. Unfortunately this is unlikely to happen because of the ongoing witch hunt for steroid users and the immediate backlash against Giambi by fans and media alike.

It took the threat of perjury for Giambi to come clean and it would probably take the same for any other player. Yet Giambi does not need to be the poster boy for juiced-up baseball players, because he is obviously not the only one juicing.

While not nearly as important as the long-term health ramifications he and others may suffer, Giambi’s mind-blowing statistics and reputation as a great hitter are now tainted in the vast majority of baseball fans’ eyes.

And more signs are pointing at baseball’s highest-profile player, Barry Bonds. Part of Giambi’s testimony is that he received performance enhancing drugs from Greg Anderson, Bonds’ personal trainer and a BALCO employee. What will Bud Selig and the rest of the MLB officials do to make amends to the fans? Will they void all Giambi’s statistics from when he was using steroids? Will Barry Bonds’ 70 home runs be wiped from the record books? If so, what about past games won by players using steroids?

The Yankees will no doubt try to void Giambi’s contract, more because he is unproductive than any other reason, just as they turned a blind eye to his drug use while he was producing.