Ken Rosenthal says the deal is done, pending a physical. Buster Olney says it’s for $4 million in 2009, with an option for $6.5M in 2010, or a $1.25M buyout.
It sounds like a bargain for a free agent who hit over 30 home runs last year. Keith Law agrees. It gives the A’s positional flexibility: if Daric Barton struggles as he did last year, Giambi could play first base, with Jack Cust DHing. If Barton hits, but Cust or Travis Buck struggles, Giambi could DH while Barton covers 1B, and either Cust or Buck roams the outfield.
It’s almost a perfect fit…except…it’s kinda like taking back the old girlfriend who dumped you for the richer, handsomer guy so many years ago. You loved her so much while you had her, then you hated hated hated her after she betrayed you. And now, taking her back? There may be some benefits, but I can’t imagine that it wouldn’t be healthier for the soul if everybody had just moved on, for good.
That is, if baseball teams have souls. Maybe they don’t. In which case the analogy is flawed. And so is our fandom.
1. I absolutely hated Giambi after he signed with the Yankees. I remember when I saw the press conference and I saw him there with a shaved face it; it angered me so much. But the Yankees make so many crazy moves that it just gets easier to hate the Yankees in general.
I am happy to see Giambi return. He is still productive and I think he can go back to his outward personality on this team. I think he will be a valuable addition. Play that Wolfpack song.
2. I like your analogy, Ken. I still hate Giambi for the way he bailed to the Yanks (if he'd stayed, you'll never convince me the A's wouldn't have won the World Series in '02 and '03), but I'm gradually coming to terms with this. Regardless of my moral/emotional objections, the team is better today than it was yesterday.
3. But really, the A's are just fooling around with the ex-girlfriend for awhile, waiting for their fiance (Barton) to finish get her boobs done.
4. I have always liked the A's ever since Campy played all nine, and even when they beat my Bums in the WS. I don't know the particulars when Jason left, but isn't this just moneyball. I had thought that A's fans were also fans of moneyball, but I guess not. Its something that you suffer through?
5. How can you hate a guy who tried to open an In-N-Out Burger in NYC?
6. sounds like a good fit for both.
7. Not that has personally occurred to me, but there are times in life when guys take back their old girlfriends, particularly when they had broken up when they were young and became re-acquainted when considerably older.
So she was sweet and cute when she was 22, and it hurt a lot when she left, but she didn't know any better and things weren't that great anyway. Now that she's 38 and things haven't worked out for either of you, you both have lines on your faces that show how much you've both absorbed in life, you find there's still some spark left.
It isn't an admission on either of your parts that it was wrong to have broken up 16 years ago, but it is an acknowledgment that the spark that meant something then can be combined with what's good for right now and be a decent mid-life romance.
[See the article in the Chron this week that shows how season ticket sales went up perceptibly this past week and perhaps there are enough A's fans out there who still hold a candle...]