TORONTO – Jason Giambi said he is concerned his honesty in talking to slumping Alex Rodriguez will be viewed in a negative light.
Giambi is quoted extensively in a Sports Illustrated story that is out today about A-Rod’s August problems at the plate.
Though Giambi explained his comments to Rodriguez and Joe Torre were offered in a positive way, Giambi was upset when informed he told Torre to stop codling Rodriguez.
According to the story that Giambi wasn’t aware of until being told about it yesterday afternoon, Giambi requested a chat with Torre in Seattle and said, “Skip, it’s time to stop coddling him,” speaking of Rodriguez.
“I don’t remember saying that,” Giambi said before last night’s game against the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre. “What I remember is being in Boston and telling Alex that we really needed him, that if we were going to win the World Series we needed him.” Torre recalled a conversation in Seattle in the dugout after Giambi was removed from a game.
“Jason didn’t come to me, we came together,” Torre said. “We were standing on the (dugout) rail and we saw what Alex was doing and [Giambi] volunteered what he felt.” Giambi’s message to Torre was that Rodriguez wasn’t OK and that people should stop telling him he was.
“I have been there when people keep telling you everything is going to be OK and you know it’s not OK because you aren’t getting any hits,” Giambi said.
After hearing Giambi’s words, Torre decided to bring Rodriguez into his Safeco Field office. Ill with a throat infection, Rodriguez listened to Torre.
“I told him to be honest with himself,” Torre said.
“I knew he had a tough series in Boston, he had a couple of hits but wasn’t as good as he wanted to be. I watch body language and that’s where I was going with the honesty stuff. I said, I know you are hurting inside because you know how much we count on you.” Rodriguez, who said he hadn’t read the story, was unfazed by it. In it, Giambi is quoted as saying “Alex doesn’t know who he is. We’re going to find out who he is in the next couple of months.” “That doesn’t bother me at all because I have gotten a lot of support from this team,” Rodriguez said. “This is the most support I have ever got from a team. Jason is a very supportive teammate as well. There was tremendous support because the struggles were so clear.” Later, Rodriguez moved through the clubhouse and saw a cluster of reporters smothering Giambi at his locker.
“Jason, you get traded?” Rodriguez asked.
Giambi answered, “No, I apparently yelled at you, apparently.” Rodriguez said he remembers talking to Giambi but doesn’t recall the particulars of the conversation.
Giambi said he meant no harm, that his only goal was to get Rodriguez out of a funk and back to the productive player the Yankees need to win a World Series.
“It was more of a trying to find a way to help him out,” Giambi said. “I have been there before, you feel the world coming down on you. During that time I was his biggest supporter. I have been nothing but supportive of Alex.”
