Rose admitted to betting but still isn't in the Hall of Fame. SI covers

Jason Giambi met the media Thursday for the first time since it was revealed he told a grand jury he took steroids. Of course, that wouldn't make Giambi the first cheater in baseball history. Here are some of the more notorious tricksters from a game in which grizzled old-timers like to say, "It ain't cheating if you don't get caught."

1. 1919 White Sox
Before BALCO, the most famous grand jury testimony in baseball history involved the Black Sox. Seven players, including Shoeless Joe Jackson and star pitcher Eddie Cicotte, were indicted for conspiring with gamblers to throw the 1919 World Series against the underdog Reds. Those seven -- along with infielder Fred McMullin, whose sole transgression was that he overheard talk of the plot but had not come forward -- were banned for life by tough-guy commissioner Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis. The criminal case never went to court, though, because the grand jury testimony mysteriously disappeared. Maybe the San Francisco Chronicle can find it.

2. Pete Rose
Charlie Hustle infamously disregarded the prominent NO GAMBLING signs that have been posted in every major league clubhouse since the Black Sox scandal. Rose bet repeatedly on baseball games as manager of the Reds, including games involving his team. Then he denied it for 13 years until his supposed tell-all book was issued last January as part of an effort to help end his lifetime ban. Rose is still waiting. His case wasn't helped much by the sight of Tom Sizemore wearing a hideous hairpiece while playing Rose in a recent ESPN biopic.

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3. 1951 Giants
A 2001 story in The Wall Street Journal alleged that the Giants had help in overcoming a 13½-game August deficit to the Dodgers, capped by Bobby Thomson's Shot Heard 'Round the World. Coach Herman Franks or infielder Henry Schenz would use a high-powered telescope to see the opposing catcher's signs from New York's clubhouse, which was located in center field. They would then ring a buzzer -- once for a fastball, twice for a curve -- that registered in the Giants bullpen, which relayed the signal to the home batter. Thomson, though, insists that he did not receive the sign for his famous homer.

4. Gaylord Perry and other "slippery" pitchers
Vaseline, KY jelly, baby oil and plain old spit are just a few of the lubricants that pitchers have applied to baseballs to reduce spin and make the ball dive. The spitball was actually legal until 1920, and even then 17 established spitballers were grandfathered in. The last legal practitioner was Burleigh Grimes, who won 270 games through 1934 in part by chewing slippery elm bark to get the saliva flowing. Still, Perry might be the game's most open cheater, even publishing Me and the Spitter midway through his career. Though he was never caught until 1982, his 21st season, Perry regularly loaded up the ball -- and succeeded in making opponents think he was even when he wasn't. Like Grimes, Perry (314 wins) is a Hall of Famer.