Giambi back at it: 'I feel really good right now'

Five things to know about the Yankees

TAMPA, Fla. -- The human face of steroids arrived here shortly after 9:30 on Monday morning, bright enough to illuminate even the game's darkest corners. You might have expected him to be wearing a sackcloth and a Scarlet S, or tar and feathers. He wasn't. He was wearing a black sweatshirt, jeans and the weight of the game's silent majority yet to be outed.

Jason Giambi signs autographs for fans as he makes his first appearance of the spring. (AP)

Jason Giambi is on deck to face a season unique in major-league history, and he deserves all of the scrutiny, jeers and questions he's about to get. But he also is unfairly out on a limb by himself when he should have plenty of company right now.

While other users in the game continue to lie and cover up their steroid abuse, Giambi has ascended to Poster Boy for the scandal -- surpassing even the great Barry Bonds. Yes, it took a grand jury to coax Giambi's admission after he, too, spent a year lying and denying, but at least he finally came clean and now is trying to make amends.

So far, nobody else is. Others either continue to deny association with steroids or tell the BALCO grand jury that they thought they were using flaxseed oil. That's real stand-up.

If this bothers Giambi -- and unless a guy is bloodless or Bonds, you know it certainly does -- that's one thing he's not copping to.

"I'm not worried about anybody else or anything else," he said toward the end of Monday's informal press gathering when I asked him about him having to stand alone publicly -- so far -- while others lie and hide. "I'm worried about the things I've done and I've confronted them. I'm not bringing anybody else with me, or even talking about it. It's not about anyone else or anything else."

"It's about the things I needed to do."

He spoke of the process of what he needs to do, taking things one step at a time, and most of what he said made a lot of sense. Nothing he does now will erase the stain on his record or the anger of fans that hold the record book as sacred as the church holds the Bible. And whatever peripheral stuff he does, the bottom line is he ultimately will be judged from here on out by what he does on the field.

If he passes his steroid tests and hits, he will prove that his past success wasn't all chemical-aided, and fans again will accept him.

If he passes his steroid tests and fails to hit, he soon will be tossed out the window and into history's trash bin.

(If he fails his steroid tests, hoo, boy, that's a whole other story, and he would be more desperate and dense than we ever dreamed.)

At this point, even the Yankees not only aren't sure what to expect, it's clear that they're not even sure what timetable they should begin judging him with.