Home > Jason Giambi

Born in West Covina, California, Giambi made his major league debut in 1995 with the Oakland Athletics. Originally utilized occasionally as an outfielder, third baseman and first baseman, he assumed the full-time first base job upon the trade of Mark McGwire to the St. Louis Cardinals in 1997. Giambi also filled the leadership gap left by McGwire's departure, leading the team in 1998See also 1997 in sports, other events of 1998, 1999 in sports and the list of 'years in sports'. Auto Racing Stock car racing: Dale Earnhardt won the Daytona 500 NASCAR Championship Jeff Gordon Indy Racing League Indianapolis 500 Eddie Cheever CART Racing with 27 home runIn baseball, a home run is a base hit in which the batter is able to circle all the bases, ending at home plate and scoring a run, with no errors on the play that result in the batter achieving extra bases. Home runs are among the most popular aspects ofs, 110 RBI and a .295 batting averageBatting average is a statistic in both baseball and cricket measuring the performance of baseball hitters and cricket batsmen, respectively. Batting average in baseball In baseball, the batting average is defined as the ratio of hits to at bats. The Major.

Giambi's ascendency as one of the top left-handedPeople who are left-handed are more dextrous with their left hand than with their right hand: they will probably also use their left hand for tasks such as personal care, cooking, and so on. Writing is not as good an indicator of handedness as it might se sluggers in the game continued in 1999See also 1998 in sports, other events of 1999, 2000 in sports and the list of 'years in sports'. Auto Racing Stock car racing: Jeff Gordon won the Daytona 500 NASCAR Championship Dale Jarrett Indy Racing League Indianapolis 500 Kenny Brack CART Racing Jua, when he hit .315 with 33 homers and 123 RBI, but was punctuated by a sensational 2000 season in which he hit .333 with 43 homers, 137 RBI, 108 runs, 137 walks and a .476 on base percentage. Giambi narrowly won the American League MVP award over Frank Thomas. His 2001 season was nearly identical, batting .342 with 38 homers, 120 RBI, 109 runs, 129 walks and a .477 on base percentage. He finished a close second in MVP voting to rookie Ichiro Suzuki. Both years, he led the Athletics to the post-season, both times losing in the American League Division Series to the New York Yankees.

In the off-season after the 2001 season, Giambi became a free agent for the first time. Faced with the tough decision of re-signing with the cash-strapped Athletics and testing the market for a better deal, Giambi eventually signed a seven-year $120-million deal with the perennial contending New York Yankees, a deal which angered many baseball purists and Athletics fans who saw the deal as a further example of money dictating the distribution of talent within the league. New York fans, however, having failed to acquire the talents of Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez the previous off-season, were excited to add a top tier free agent to their already loaded offense.

Giambi continued his slugging ways with New York, hitting 41 homers in both 2002 and 2003, and knocking in 122 and 107 runs respectively. Although his average saw a dip from .314 in 2002 to .250 in 2003, he maintained an on base percentage over .400 and remains one of the most patient hitters in the majors. Late in 2003 he was named by FBI officers investigating the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative as being one of the baseball players believed to haved received anabolic steroids from trainer Greg Anderson .

Giambi is the brother of fellow major leaguer Jeremy Giambi .

On July 30th 2004, test results confirmed that Jason Giambi had a benign tumor which placed him on the disabled list. He was treated for the tumor, and returned to the team and played in a game on September 14th, his first since July 23rd.