How will Giambi be treated this year?

wordygurdy · **Posted:** Sat Feb 12, 2005 3:02 pm

It's a given that he will be booed on the road in almost every city (except possibly St. Louis, where fans cheered even the Red Sox last fall), but I wonder what his reception will be in the Bronx? If I had to guess, I would say it will be about fifty-fifty.

If he hits like Steroid Giambi, the boos in the Bronx will grudgingly disappear over the course of the season. I hate to say it, but I think most fans don't really ultimately care that players are on steroids--as long as the balls fly out of the park and pitchers ring up strikeouts, most of the fans are content.

If he hits like Poststeroid Giambi did last year, the boos will become merciless, and he could very well be shattered a la Ed Whitson. With Whitson it got to the point where Billy Martin (whose ass Whitson kicked, literally, at the Cross Keys Inn in Baltimore that year) couldn't even start Whitson at home because he couldn't focus for all the booing he was enduring. The team might then be forced to release Giambi or trade him for lesser players.

Wayne Countryman · **Posted:** Sat Feb 12, 2005 7:21 pm

wordygurdy wrote:

It's a given that he will be booed on the road in almost every city (except possibly St. Louis, where fans cheered even the Red Sox last fall), but I wonder what his reception will be in the Bronx? If I had to guess, I would say it will be about fifty-fifty.

I've never spent much time around St. Louis, but from all reports the fans there are true baseball fans.

Quote:

If he hits like Steroid Giambi, the boos in the Bronx will grudgingly disappear over the course of the season. I hate to say it, but I think most fans don't really ultimately care that players are on steroids--as long as the balls fly out of the park and pitchers ring up strikeouts, most of the fans are content.

Yes, if he plays well, he'll be a hero in NY. On the road, he'll hear a lot of boos and taunts about how he must be using again.

Quote:

If he hits like Poststeroid Giambi did last year, the boos will become merciless, and he could very well be shattered a la Ed Whitson. With Whitson it got to the point where Billy Martin (whose ass Whitson kicked, literally, at the Cross Keys Inn in Baltimore that year) couldn't even start Whitson at home because he couldn't focus for all the booing he was enduring. The team might then be forced to release Giambi or trade him for lesser players.

If he plays poorly, people will say (at least partly unfairly) that he stinks without steroids. And what have you done for us lately?

I live two miles from Cross Keys Inn. Never been inside, but maybe there should be a monument there to Whitson. Not that i advocate violence, let alone pro athletes beating up older and smaller folks, but for Billy Martin ...

wordygurdy · **Posted:** Sat Feb 12, 2005 9:11 pm

Really, Wayne? That's interesting that you live so close. What kind of place is the Cross Keys? Ritzy or more like a midlevel Marriott or Holiday Inn? And it's obviously got a bar!

ndugan1 · **Posted:** Sun Feb 13, 2005 5:58 pm

wordygurdy wrote:

It's a given that he will be booed on the road in almost every city (except possibly St. Louis, where fans cheered even the Red Sox last fall)

Let it be known that the only fans who cheered the Red Sox last year were the ones who were so delusional from dropping four straight in an event their team hadn't been to in more than a decade that they had no other emotions left -- they had to cheer for something, if only for the fact that they got to see a World Series game in Busch Stadium one last time (I, for the record, was not one of these people. I also will never see the Farrelly brothers' new movie "Fever Pitch," since they filmed the ending in Busch Stadium as the Red Sox celebrated.)

Besides, more than 3,000 of the fans in attendance were Red Sox fans or relatives of Red Sox fans.

Wayne Countryman wrote:

I've never spent much time around St. Louis, but from all reports the fans there are true baseball fans.

I'm not one to brag, but you hear it from any opposing team who has played St. Louis -- we're bleeding-heart baseball (and, more importantly, Cardinals) fans. If you're swinging at balls you shouldn't be, listen to the crowd -- we'll let you know it. If you're in a pitch-by-pitch battle and you lose after the 11th one, we'll be as frustrated as you are. If you've put in a valiant effort at the plate but still struck out, we'll clap for ya. If you're in a bad streak and finally get that hit you've been longing for, we're there with a pat on the back. And when you pledge to do better for our team, you better follow up on it -- if you do, you're the hometown hero; if not, you're on the next plane outta here.

As for Giambi, I know he'll be booed on June 10, 11 and 12. We don't appreciate steriod users here (we'll see what Canseco's book says about McGwire; at least he said up front that he was using andro). This is a city whose last World Series team won playing Whitey Ball. The Post-Dispatch actually did a piece on the stark difference in the last two World Series squads. Sure, we like the long ball, but we're OK with a little slap-around ball, too.

And don't get me started on Bonds. I (and many others at the games I've been at) have booed him relentlessly. He broke McGwire's record, and it's been proven he used steriods to do it. To hell with him.

OK, I'll get off my soapbox now.

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