The Hit Doctor

Their routine is simple. The results are staggering.

Don Mattingly places a baseball on a batting tee, then Jason Giambi takes a swing.

In an age of sophisticated statistical analysis and high-speed video studies, Mattingly has helped revive the slugger’s career using one of baseball’s most basic instructional aids.

“Kids, they go from tee-ball and they go, ‘I don’t want to play tee-ball,’ but the tee’s a great tool,” said Mattingly, the New York Yankees’ hitting coach. “I got kids and they think it’s a waste of time, but we’ve got guys in the big leagues that do it a lot and work on their swings with it.”

Nearly every day, whether in a windowless, concrete room below the right-field stands in Yankee Stadium or in a similar batting cage on the road, Giambi hits off a tee while Mattingly watches for the most subtle variation in his swing. They work on squaring his stance, setting his hands and perfecting his contact point, the little things that can mean the difference between being a .250 hitter and one of the most feared offensive players in the game.

“The ball doesn’t lie to you,” Mattingly said. “When you’re hitting a ball off the tee and you’re set up the same way every time, the ball should be basically going to the same spot. You want to get that consistent ... then you know the mechanics are falling into place.”

Along with spending long hours in the weight room and facing a minor league coach who throws sinkers, Giambi’s work with Mattingly has produced the most prodigious month of power by a Yankees’ hitter in 44 years.

Giambi hit 14 homers in July, the biggest barrage in the Bronx since Mickey Mantle also hit 14 in July 1961.

When Giambi scraped bottom in early May, hitting just .195, and was offered the chance to go to the minors to work on his swing, he told Manager Joe Torre and General Manager Brian Cashman, “I think I’m going to get my best work up here with Donnie.”

Giambi’s average reached a season-high .288 on July 21.

Coming off a wasted season in which Giambi played just 80 games because of injuries and a benign tumor -- and then going through a messy off-season as the centerpiece of the steroids scandal -- student and teacher sat down in spring training and developed a plan.

The duo first focused on hitting the ball to the opposite field, but once Giambi regained his strength and bat speed, they switched to his forte: pulling the ball to right.

The payoff has been a resurgence that has evoked comparisons to Giambi’s MVP year in 2000 for Oakland.

At first glance, the pairing doesn’t seem to fit. Mattingly’s swing when he was a player resembled an uncoiling corkscrew, all torque and soft hands. The bulky Giambi looks like he’s waving a magic wand through the strike zone -- he rarely swings at balls; he has 59 walks -- with a power hitter’s uppercut.

But Torre credits the success to Giambi’s drive and Mattingly’s ability to set aside his preferences -- the ones that made him the AL MVP in 1985 -- and be responsive to the player he’s working with.

“Just because he was a great hitter, he’s not going to teach you to hit his way. He looks at individual needs,” Torre said. “He’s very sensitive. He’s very aware of what’s going on.”

Mattingly says he doesn’t like to dictate hitting styles to players who have had success.

“You’re working within what they like to do, what they feel, and then being able -- you’ve got to be strong enough about yourself -- to suggest what you see and things that you think would help them. It’s always give and take.”

Giambi found it easy to relate to Mattingly for a simple reason: Mattingly fought through a serious back injury, one that curbed a career perhaps headed to the Hall of Fame.

“Donnie is great. He understands a lot,” Giambi said in an interview with Associated Press this spring. “He played the game, he’s been hurt. Even though my injury was different than his injury -- his back -- he understands what it’s like to come back from square one and start over.”

Even though he hit .310 in June and .355 in July and leads the majors with a .443 on-base average, Giambi continues to work diligently with Mattingly, forgoing most of the Yankees’ on-the-field batting practice sessions.

“When I hit outdoors, I try to put too many balls into the seats and I don’t really work on anything,” Giambi said. “Keeping me in the cage with Donnie is a program that is really working well.”

Giambi and Mattingly can often be seen sitting together in the dugout after an at-bat, and they watch video of Giambi’s game performance. Then they go back to the tee to further refine the swing.

“We can see it here in the cage and BP, but you’ve got to be able to do it at game speed,” Mattingly said. “That’s where that feedback you get from what you see in the game -- what he’s saying in the game, what you see on tape, then you keep working that until you start to get it ironed out. But once the success comes on the field, that’s where it’s got to be.”