Selig's tough stance raises questions about Giambi

	The fervor with which Bud Selig is pressing Jason Giambi to speak about steroid use in baseball has many wondering how much the commissioner knows about the Yankee. Chris McGrath/Getty Images

Bud Selig, in a Humphrey Bogart kind of way, is putting the screws to Jason Giambi. That might sound like some 1940s private eye flick, complete with the good guys in fedoras and Giambi under the hot glare of an interrogation lamp. But truth be told, it's probably not that far off.

Simply, baseball's commish wants the Yankees slugger to come clean about his steroids past. And if he doesn't ... well, if he doesn't, this time Selig just might turn those screws until it actually hurts.

This is a strange new scene in the bleak drama that baseball's Steroids Era has become. On one hand, you have the commissioner, the man who some say is as much to blame as anyone for this mess, trying to convince everyone that he's doing all that he can to clean it up. On the other, you have one of the main offenders of the era, a man who reportedly told a grand jury he used performance-enhancing drugs, managing to look at various times contrite and softly defiant, somehow simultaneously honest and disconcertingly slippery.

Selig is giving Giambi two weeks to tell George Mitchell, baseball's self-appointed house-cleaner, all that he knows or, at the very least, something of use. The commissioner hasn't tried to force anyone else to do that, though he's strongly encouraged everyone to cooperate. And no active player in baseball, by all accounts, has been willing to talk to Mitchell's investigators about steroids in the game.

But Selig is telling Giambi to sing. He's demanding it. Or else. And that's what makes this twist so intriguing.

At first glance, it seems an empty threat on the commissioner's part. Selig's "or else" can be nothing but a fine or suspension, and either one (or both) of those would be overturned in a second by an arbitrator.

Why? Well, it's simple; for all his self-flagellation and head-bowing, Giambi apparently has admitted to nothing.

What has been made public of his grand jury statements is probably unusable to baseball, considering the transcript of the testimony was illegally released and any use of performance-enhancers by Giambi may well have pre-dated the game's rules against them.

His more public so-called "apologies" -- first in a soul-baring, of sorts, series of statements at spring training a couple of years ago and, more recently, in remarks to USA Today's Bob Nightengale -- are so nebulous as to give "slippery" a bad name. Giambi admitted to Nightengale that he used "that stuff."

It's hard to disagree with Players Association council Michael Weiner, who said earlier this week that "we do not believe that grounds exist for disciplining Jason Giambi based upon the newspaper article, anything which sprang from it, or his decision whether he will meet with Senator Mitchell."

So why is Selig turning the screws? What grounds does he have?

Selig might be doing this simply because he's fed up and he wants to force the issue even if it means a defeat in front of an arbitrator. At least then he'll look like he tried. His hands will be clean. Or at least cleaner.