1. Jason Giambi has returned to New York and I will say that it is hard to sum up his time as a Yankee better than my pal, Ken Davidoff of Newsday, did in this blog piece. Kenny hit all the highs and lows, and offered a tremendous analysis to Giambi’s time in pinstripes.
I agree with Kenny that it was hard to do anything but like Giambi. There was just something about the guy. He represented so much of what I dislike in athletes, and yet I always found myself chatting with him and happy to be doing it. He just had a friendly gene that made time around him enjoyable.
That being said I think that Giambi – even more than Alex Rodriguez – represents this championship-less period in Yankee history. His arrival in 2002 was supposed to be an integral baton pass away from old champions, namely Tino Martinez, whom he was replacing, However, it also was a sea change on how the Yankees had formulated their lineups. It is easy to forget, but in the four championship years under Joe Torre the Yankees never had a hitter produce more than 30 homers.
That always made George Steinbrenner uncomfortable. He believed in the big bopper as both a source of on-field might and box-office appeal. And when the Yankee offense proved untrustworthy during the 2001 postseason, especially in getting shut down by Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling of Arizona in the World Series, it was obvious that the Boss would lavish the money necessary to import Giambi from Oakland. That offensive philosophy continued over the next few years as the Yanks brought over the great home run hitter from Japan in Hideki Matsui, and then A-Rod and Gary Sheffield.
All thoughts of defense, economic restraint, chemistry and having roster flexibility were sacrificed as the Yanks chased another championship and – to me – it felt like Giambi was the first domino in that process, even if Mike Mussina had come the year before.
The Giambi Yankees would play in one World Series and Giambi would most famously beg out of starting a game because his knees hurt too much and damage his reputation further by having the ability to pinch-hit a homer against the Marlins. The Yanks lost that series, and never won with Giambi on the roster.
In the current GQ, Giambi is quoted as saying his most memorable moment as a Yankee occurred when he hit a walk-off grand slam against the Twins in his 2002 debut season. That occurred on May 17 against Mike Trombley, who would pitch in just two more games the rest of his career. And, you know, when the Yanks invested $120 million in Giambi, they were thinking his biggest moment wouldn’t come in mid-May of his first year against a reliever on his way out the exit door.
Instead, Giambi will best be remembered for steroids and the underwear he wore to try to break slumps. He was fun loving, but ultimately a blight on Yankee history. He did not deliver what was expected of him.
2. Mark Teixeira, Giambi’s replacement, is hitting just .211. But he continues to play the kind of stellar defense that was foreign to Giambi. Andy Pettitte did not pitch particularly well on Tuesday. But he held the A’s to two runs in seven innings and a key was how terrific Teixeira was in the field. If Pettitte throws the exact same game with Giambi at first base, no way he lasts seven innings and it is highly unlikely that he wins.
Not too long ago there was a storyline that Teixeira was under great pressure to perform well offensively early in the season to compensate for the absence of Alex Rodriguez. But Teixeira, a notoriously slow starter, has started slowly again. Yet, that has not undermined the Yankees nor has it led to Teixeira feeling the wrath of Yankee fans. Perhaps that is because Teixeira has delivered a few big RBIs and also because of that defense. But my hunch is that a combination of the team’s 8-6 record and the obvious problems of Chien-Ming Wang have kept fans/media from dissecting Teixeira’s offense too much.
3. Here’s another storyline that should have been ignored: The Mets’ concentration on fundamentals in spring training. Remember Jerry Manuel’s drills in which the Mets speed hit curveball after curveball to the opposite field, for example. Well, the season actually began and it turns out that the Mets are a bad fundamental team again. And this is not just about Daniel Murphy’s inability to properly judge a flyball or throw to the right base or look anything like a competent left fielder.
You watch the Mets and you keep feeling they don’t have their heads (and maybe their hearts) completely in the game. It was this way for Willie Randolph and now Manuel. Maybe they need a different kind of manager, perhaps a screamer such as Lou Piniella or an obsessive detail guy such as Buck Showalter. But at some point we really have to ask what is wrong with this group of players? Seven of the eight players in the regular lineup are hitting better than .300 and yet the Mets have no killer instinct as an offensive unit. Wasn’t Dan Warthen the pitching coach who could reach Oliver Perez? Wasn’t the counsel of Johan Santana supposed to help Perez? Why wouldn’t Carlos Beltran slide?
The Mets are 6-7 and their seven losses are by a total of 10 runs. They have not lost a game by more than two runs all season. That is seven losses by either one run or two runs. What would it mean in those games to be strong fundamentally? Will we be saying that all season again?