Posts Tagged ‘PEDs’

For Jay Gibbons, Forgiveness Is a Minor League Contract Away Posted by Brian Conlin in Baltimore Orioles June 19th, 2008

Jay Gibbons dropped to his knees and asked for a second chance.

After being named in the Mitchell Report and being released from the Baltimore Orioles by Chief Operating Officer Andy MacPhail for reasons disclosed as performance-related, Gibbons did something he termed, “both painful and humiliating.” The designated hitter wrote a letter to all thirty Major League teams hoping that someone, anyone would give him a chance to ride the buses of the Minor Leagues.

It’s a move of passion not economics.

Because the Baltimore Orioles still owe him $11.9 million over the next two years, presumably, Gibbons could easily thrust his head into the sand, like the higher profile PED user Mark McGwire, and be comfortable in his anonymity for the rest of his life.

Gibbons even offered to donate his entire Minor League salary to his parent team’s charity. Should he make it to the Big Leagues, he writes that he would “gladly donate a significant sum to that same charity.” Read more