Apple of His Eye

He grew up wearing No. 7 because his father idolized Mickey Mantle, and he has been called a modern-day Babe Ruth because of his slugging prowess on the field and his freewheeling lifestyle off it.

It seemed Jason Giambi was destined for pinstripes and the bright lights of New York City, so it felt natural for the first baseman to pull on a New York Yankee jersey during Thursday’s news conference to announce his signing of a seven-year, $120-million contract.

“This is my best fit; this is the team I hoped would come after me when I became a free agent,” Giambi said in Yankee Stadium. “I got an opportunity to play with them and jumped at it. The things they do here mean a ton to me--their attitude, the way they go about their business, their love of winning, a front office and owner that get things done. You can’t get any better than this.”

In Giambi, the Yankees have added a prolific run producer, a powerful yet selective left-handed hitter who, over the last four seasons, has averaged .321, 35 home runs, 122 runs batted in, 106 runs, 113 walks and a .440 on-base percentage for the Oakland Athletics.

An aging Yankee team that lacked muscle and discipline at the plate looks a lot more potent and patient with Giambi, a 30-year-old pull hitter whose game seems tailored for a Yankee Stadium right-field fence only 314 feet from home plate.

Giambi hit .333 with 43 homers and 137 RBIs while winning American League most-valuable-player honors in 2000 and hit .342 with 38 homers and 120 RBIs in 2001, finishing second to Seattle’s Ichiro Suzuki in MVP balloting.

But the Yankees have secured more than a perennial All-Star for the next seven or eight years (there’s an option for the eighth year). In Giambi, they have added a presence, a personality that should spice up a clubhouse that has seemed as corporate as an IBM boardroom in recent years.

New York has plenty of marquee players--Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams, Roger Clemens and Mike Mussina among them--but they are bland compared to Giambi, the ringleader of a raucous Oakland clubhouse that was often compared to “Animal House.”

Giambi is the master of the sound bite, a veteran who can fill reporters’ notebooks as well as stadium seats. He is not a magnet for controversy, as was former Yankee slugger Reggie Jackson, but he does not shy away from it. Whether he hits a game-winning home run or commits a game-losing error, he is almost always at his locker and available after games.

Many Yankee veterans have grown weary of the media mobs covering playoff and World Series games, but Giambi thrived on the attention in his last two division series, five-game losses to the Yankees in 2000 and 2001. He loves the spotlight, and there will be no shortage of electricity in New York.

Giambi has made no secret of his appetite for big-city nightlife and his preference for Jack Daniels, and he has been quoted more than once as saying, “I want to play like an all-star and party like a rock star.”

But he might tone things down in New York. Giambi is engaged to be married to Kristian Rice early next year, and says he wants to have children. He showed up for Thursday’s news conference without his trademark goatee and long hair, already adhering to the Yankees’ dress code with a shave and a haircut.

“My lifestyle in Oakland was to have fun; we were kind of loose, and we played an underdog role,” Giambi said. “I was more of a father figure in Oakland because that team was so young and had to be taught how to win.

“This is a little different. These guys are more mature--most are married with kids--and they know how to win. You get to a time in your life when you focus on different things, when you realize what’s important. The most important thing for me is winning championships.”

Giambi’s Oakland teams seemed on the verge of a championship, extending the Yankees to the brink of elimination the last two seasons.

“Jason is the best teammate you could ask for,” free-agent outfielder Johnny Damon, who played in Oakland last season, told the New York Post. “When he walks into a room, he exudes confidence. You know you are in the presence of a great player. He was able to take the A’s from a disappointing team to a playoff team.”

Oakland’s six-year, $91-million offer to Giambi last spring was turned down. Giambi said the A’s never increased that offer after the season, “and that really kind of made the decision easy to go this route.”The A’s absorbed the loss of slugger Mark McGwire in 1997. Replacing Giambi could be more difficult.

“When you lose a player of his magnitude, it’s disappointing,” Oakland General Manager Billy Beane said as he left baseball’s winter meetings in Boston on Thursday. “Jason was a great leader as well as a great player. He’ll be recognized as one of the all-time Oakland Athletics, but it was pretty evident in the free-agent process that it would be difficult to retain him.... Thirty million is a pretty significant gap. The difference is almost our entire payroll.”

To many, the Yankees’ signing of Giambi is further evidence of the inequities in baseball. Commissioner Bud Selig went before leaders of the House Judiciary Committee on Dec. 6 and claimed teams lost $519 million in 2001, but the Yankees barely flinched in adding a $17-million-a-year player and pushing their 2002 payroll into the $130-million range.

“The Yankees are playing in a different league,” new Texas General Manager John Hart said at the winter meetings. “I’m not trying to be critical of the decisions they make, but the fact is they have larger revenues than every other team, and that will continue to be the case.”

This, of course, if of no concern to Giambi. That the Yankees have the resources to sign almost any free agent they desire, that they have one of sport’s most aggressive owners, were part of the lure of New York.

“To have that kind of passion from a GM and owner, to know that every time you go on the field you have a chance to win, those are incredible surroundings,” Giambi said. “I wanted to be part of that kind of organization. It’s kind of humbling when you have a guy who broke the home run record [Barry Bonds], and they said they wanted me, not him.”

Giambi will have some decent-sized shoes to fill in New York. Departing free-agent first baseman Tino Martinez averaged 26 home runs and 108 RBIs for the last four seasons and had a number of dramatic World Series home runs to help the Yankees win four of the last six championships. He was also a Gold Glove-caliber first baseman, something Giambi probably will never be.

“I know I’m replacing a great Yankee in Tino Martinez,” Giambi said. “I love the guy, the Yankees respect him, and [Manager] Joe Torre respects him. I’m just going to try to be Jason Giambi, and hopefully that will be good enough to keep the winning going.”

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Staff writer Ross Newhan contributed to this report.