YANKEE NOTES
One item followed another into a box that was headed for California. Dressed in jeans and T-shirt and sporting several days of stubble on his rugged face, Jason Giambi yesterday prepared for his first winter in between Yankee seasons.
After being eliminated from the ALDS in four games by the Angels Saturday, Giambi was down. Two straight years he played on Oakland teams that were knocked out of the first round. And now the familiar hurt was back.
Yesterday, the pain remained although Giambi figures there is enough time for him to cop a World Series ring while wearing pinstripes.
“I didn’t expect to go home this soon,” Giambi said. “I came here not only to play in New York but to go further. I still have a long time here and that’s the way I have to look at it.
“I am excited about it,” he said, “there are still a lot of years to go.”
Like most of his teammates Giambi still has a hard time believing the Yankees lost because they didn’t pitch well.
“At the beginning of the series if you said we were going to score, eight, six, six and five [runs] and be out, I think everybody would have been shocked,” Giambi said. “Especially after the years and what they have done in the postseason, it’s been unbelievable. But that’s where you have to tip your cap and say, ‘They beat us.’ There are no excuses. We had our best guys going and they ended up beating us.”
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In addition to Milwaukee asking for and receiving permission from the Yankees to interview Willie Randolph for their managerial opening, the Devil Rays did the same for Lee Mazzilli and Randolph.
“I am excited,” said Mazzilli, who will interview with Devil Rays GM Chuck LaMar Friday in St. Petersburg. LaMar will interview Tom Foley today and Billy Hatcher tomorrow.
Mike Stanton will file for free agency if he can’t reach an agreement with the Yankees on a new contract before the deadline, which is 15 days after the World Series ends.
“This is where I want to be,” said Stanton, who could command as much as a four-year deal worth in the area of $16 million on the open market. “I look at myself as a Yankee.”
