This appears in the Monday September 24, 2012 edition of the Business Mirror.
Twilight of the Giambino
Twilight of the Giambino
by rick olivares pic by rob carr/getty images
I read with great interest Chris Ballard’s column on the Colorado Rockies’ Jason Giambi who is now in the
twilight of his career and far removed from his fearsome slugger days. I try to
follow when I can the careers of former Yankees. In fact, I think it’s terrible
how Alfonso Soriano faded away. How Melky Cabrera finally found the success he
craved for but never got as a utility player in New York only to see it
massively tainted by performance enhancing drugs.
Living in New York is now a cherished
memory. How I love this time of the year – there’s a chill in the air as the
cold months have set in. If the pace is already quick then it doubles because
of the cold. The Giants and the Jets have entered the picture with the Knicks
also barroom and chat room fodder. And then there’s the playoff chase to play
in October.
When I was a kid, I went to sleep with
my football next to me. That was my teddy bear. As an adult, I went to sleep at
this time of the year (since it’s colder) either in my Islanders jersey or a
Yankees jersey. My flatmates used to call me, “Mr. Yankee.” I was like Reggie
Jackson to them. Larger than life. One who extolled the virtues of Derek Jeter.
While a roomie was overly concerned about the GDP I gobbled up the OBP. I
understood what couch potato meant. With a couple of hundred cable channels to
choose from who the hell wants to get up and go to work?
Back to Giambi.
After Tino (Martinez) Bambino we got
the Giambino. Heir to the Sultan of Swat. Only his Yankee teams made two World
Series but did not win it. By the time he left the team, New York won it again.
During the height of his career in New
York, I was working the tables one afternoon in the Upper East Side restaurant
where I worked (East 86th and Lexington) when Giambi, third baseman
Robin Ventura, and outfielder Karim Garcia entered for some eats. There’s an
unwritten rule in our restaurant where you do not go up to any celebrity to ask
for an autograph. You didn’t have to work there for that to that to take
effect. One kid sought out The Sopranos’ James Gandolfini one time and instead
he got a chiding that was tantamount to a rubout. Scarlett Johansson was there
one time and rules be damned I tried. I had to settle for her table napkin that
had her kiss mark and lipstick on it (I still have it after all these years).
My bud Emon and I are huge Yankees
fans. Funny how a guy from Bangladesh is a huge baseball fan but there we were
breaking rules and asking for autographs and pictures. Emon didn’t have any
paper so he asked Giambi to sign a menu! Hilarious! I used a card that we would
slip to the kitchen for orders (I still have the autograph).
The intercom buzzed and it was the
on-duty manager, Jim Rose, who called my attention. Damn. I’m a goner. Only
when I went down to see Jim he gave me a copy of the New York Post with Giambi
on the back cover and asked me if I could get the Yankees’ slugger to sign it.
Whew.
When Giambi was outted for using PEDs,
Emon wrote me and said that he had stuffed his old pinstripes with “Giambi” on
the back inside one of his drawers. “Maybe one day it will see the light of day
again in the stadium,” he wrote via email several years ago.
I have a couple, Paul O’Neill and
Derek Jeter, that I still wear with pride to this day (my son still has his
Alex Rodriguez). I still have my Giambi medallion, baseball cards, and well
team photo that is also autographed. The steroid scandal/age still makes my
head spin. Do the stats accumulated during those wild days count or not? I have
no idea and will leave that to the proper authorities to determine.
So I watched the Rockies the other day
and Ballard’s column all the more made me think of Giambi and where he was and
where he is now.
This season he’s played in only 60
games! That’s one-third of the season. He’s only gotten 89 ABs with 20 hits and
get this – one home run. He ha struck out 24 times despite an OPB of .372 and a
.303 SLG average. Young studs like Wilin Rosario and Carlos Gonzalez are the
team’s hitting leaders.
As Ballard pointed out, it has been a love
fest send-away for Atlanta’s Chipper Jones this season. Giambi? Who knows if he
will be back after this year?
In his first year with Oakland in
1995, he played behind Mark McGwire and figured in only 54 games. When Big Mac
was traded to St. Louis the following two seasons later, Giambi flourished (to date he has career stats of .281 BA, 429 HRs, 1,405 RBIs, 1,967 hits, and a lifetime .404 OBP).
Now…. well, he’s a part time player.
He did provide Colorado with a fleeting vision of the player he once was when
he hit three home runs in one game in May 19th of last year against
the Philadelphia Phillies.
This year, he hardly gets off the
bench. Only when regular first baseman Jordan Pacheco needs a day off does Giambi
play. As for promise? Well, the promise of a title in Oakland never happened
and he whiffed in his one trip to the World Series with New York.
It’s been a tough at-bat but I still
root for Jason Giambi.
I try to follow former Yankees too. Towards the end of Giambi's stay with the Yankees, he was no longer an intimidating slugger. I would cringe every time he came to bat with RISP and he would pull the ball into a shift. He had a short-lived resurgence in Colorado but his career is ending soon.
ReplyDeleteSoriano's reluctance to shift to OF didn't bode well for his start in Chicago. He's had a good career but never lived up to the high expectations. Perenially placing last must be frustrating.
Melky is disappointing. Geting caught using PEDs might well kill his career. I don't expect him to do well in free agency.
On the bright side, Robin Ventura could well lead the White Sox to a division pennant in his first year as manager. Not bad for someone who had no prior experience.