Jason Giambi hasn't been very talkative about his condition. Tim Boyles/Getty Images

Jason Giambi is under no obligation to tell us, perfect strangers, about the benign tumor on his pituitary gland, if that is indeed what he has. Giambi isn't an elected official or the guy who drives our kids to school on the bus every morning; he doesn't have an important job like that. He's a ballplayer for the New York Yankees, which means he has a right to privacy, and there's nothing more private than the inner workings of your own body.

But this isn't about rights or fairness or what should be. It's about what is real. Giambi has played three seasons in New York, which is long enough for him to have learned how the real world works, at least as it relates to celebrities such as himself, and one of the rules of the game is this: Stonewalling the media, and by extension the public, is almost never the smart play.

Giambi and the Yankees have attempted to do that with regard to the mysterious ailment that caused him to lose weight and stamina before finally forcing him to the sidelines on July 24, perhaps for the rest of the season. When doctors finally pinpointed the nature of his problem, Giambi kept it to himself. He said it was a personal issue and asked us to respect his privacy.

Which is fine, except that Giambi had to know the media wouldn't do any such thing. The only thing his silence brought him was the intense scrutiny of the baseball writers in the Big Apple, who immediately began talking to baseball people, medical people, anyone who might be willing to divulge the nature of his problem.

Last week the New York Daily News reported, citing anonymous sources, that Giambi had a benign tumor in his pituitary gland. Giambi has declined to comment on the report. But it's not just reporters who were curious.

Yankees fans and baseball fans in general have been wondering for months exactly what the nature of Giambi's problem was and whether it had anything to do with steroids. (Suspicion of performance-enhancing drug use has hounded Giambi since he testified before the BALCO grand jury last fall.) So here is what Giambi's refusal to talk has created -- reporters digging into his personal business and fans speculating on his illness over the sports-talk airwaves, mentioning everything from hemorrhoids to HIV. What a wonderful environment in which to attend to his health.

If he had discussed his illness publicly just once, the press and public would have taken the information, chewed on it for a while and then moved on to the next story. Giambi would have been free to work on his recovery in relative peace. Yes, the steroid questions would have been asked, but not with the same level of suspicion that accompanies him now. Other athletes have talked openly about ongoing battles with cancer, depression and other serious physical issues.

If Giambi's illness has nothing to do with steroids, many of us wonder, then why is he being so secretive about it? Most public figures eventually figure out that secrecy only makes a story sexier. Giambi has every right to try to keep us in the dark, but he would probably find that life is easier out in the light.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Phil Taylor writes about a Hot Button topic every Monday on SI.com.