Giambi admits steroids "history"

NEW YORK — Jason Giambi will meet with George Mitchell, agreeing right before baseball commissioner Bud Selig's deadline Thursday to cooperate with the steroids investigator.

Giambi, who for the first time publicly admitted he had a "personal history regarding steroids," will become the first active player known to speak with the former Senate majority leader. No date was set for their session.

The New York Yankees player announced his decision after he spoke on the phone with Selig. Lawyers for the players' union and Major League Baseball reached a written agreement that set rules for the meeting.

The former American League MVP said he wouldn't implicate other players and appeared to backtrack on earlier remarks that the sport owed fans a collective apology for the steroids era.

"I alone am responsible for my actions and I apologize to the commissioner, the owners and the players for any suggestion that they were responsible for my behavior," Giambi said in a statement.

Selig said the meeting with Mitchell will take place "promptly."

Following remarks by Giambi last month that seemed to be an admission of steroids use, the commissioner had threatened discipline if Giambi didn't talk to Mitchell. Selig again left open the possibility of punishment.

"I will take Mr. Giambi's level of cooperation into account in determining appropriate further action," he said.

Mitchell's investigation, which began in March 2006, has gone more slowly than he expected.

Giambi said there were boundaries on what he would tell Mitchell.

"I will address my own personal history regarding steroids. I will not discuss in any fashion any other individual," he said.

Giambi is in the sixth season of a $120 million, seven-year contract with the Yankees. He hasn't played since May 30 because of a foot injury, and it is not known when he will be ready to play again.

Giambi testified to a federal grand jury in 2003 that he used steroids during the 2001-03 seasons and human growth hormone in 2003, the San Francisco Chronicle reported in 2004. He made a general apology before spring training in 2005 but didn't specify what he was apologizing for.

Court asked to make

player names public

NEW YORK — The Associated Press asked a federal judge to make public the names of players a government agent said were implicated in drug use by former major-league pitcher Jason Grimsley.

In an application filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Phoenix, the AP said a sworn statement signed in May 2006 to obtain a search warrant for Grimsley's home in Arizona should be released in its entirety based on legal precedent and public interest.

When the affidavit, signed by IRS Special Agent Jeff Novitzky, was made public in June 2006, names of players Novitzky said Grimsley accused of using performance-enhancing drugs were blacked out.

Former Mariner David Segui told ESPN in June 2006 that he was one of the blacked-out names, and the Los Angeles Times reported in October that Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte and Miguel Tejada were also named, along with Brian Roberts and Jay Gibbons.

Players in the Times report denied using steroids.