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Giambi – the records, the scandals, and life after baseball

The baseball season is well and truly underway and we are starting to get a good idea of who might be going home with the World Series in November. 

It has been an interesting season and it has been great to have fans fully back in the stadiums again. You can find the best MLB odds for the rest of the season and the playoffs here. 

Today, we’re going to be taking a break from looking at the unfolding events of the league and we are going to look at a baseball figure of the past. 

The baseball player we will be looking at today is the first baseman, Jason Giambi. 

While Giambi never won a World Series, he was generally considered a successful player, until he admitted that he had been taking performance enhancing drugs throughout his career. 

Today, we are going to be looking at the records, the scandals, and the life of the first baseman Jason Giambi. 

Early Life 

Giambi was born in West Covina, California in 1971. 

While in high school Giambi played football, basketball, and baseball – and his teachers referred to him as a three-sport standout. He played the first baseman in baseball and he was also his team’s quarterback in football. 

He wasn’t the only future MLB player on his high school team at the time. The South Hills High School baseball team also features infielder Shawn Wooten, and pitchers Aaron Small, and Cory Lidle. 

After high school, he entered the 1989 Draft and was picked 43rd overall by the Milwaukee Brewers. He decided not to sign and went to college instead. 

College And Minor Leagues 

Jason Giambi went to Cal State Long Beach, where he played varsity baseball for the  Long Beach State 49ers baseball team. 

During the holidays, he would play in the Alaskan minor baseball league for the Alaska Goldpanners. 

After graduating, Giambi entered the Draft again in 1992. He was selected by the Oakland Athletics and was immediately sent to play for one of their minor league teams. 

He spent a short season with the Southern Oregon A’s who played in the Northwest League. He did not get much game time but he hit .317 in 13 games

That same year, he played for Team USA at the Barcelona Olympics. The team came third overall. 

After joining the Athletics in their 1993 Spring training, Giambi spent the next three years splitting his time between some of the teams other minor league teams – the Modesto A’s, the Huntsville Stars, and Kauai Emeralds. 

MLB 

Oakland Athletics (1995–2001)

New York Yankees (2002–2008)

Oakland Athletics (2009)

Colorado Rockies (2009–2012)

Cleveland Indians (2013–2014)

It wasn’t until 1995 that Giambi made his MLB debut. 

At this point, the Athletics had a full time first baseman, so Giambi filled in whatever position the team needed him to – throughout his first two seasons he played as an outfielder, third baseman, and first baseman. 

At the end of the 1997 season, Mark McGwire, the first baseman of the Athletics, moved to Saint Louis and the full time role was handed over to Giambi. He really made the most of it in that next season. 

In the 1998 season, he hit 27 home runs, 110 runs batted in, and a .295 batting average. He upped his batting average to .315 in 1999 and hit 33 home runs. He was nominated for the MVP award that year. 

He was nominated for it again in 2000 and 2001. He had two amazing years where he batted over .477 (2000) and .378 (2001). In 2001 he won the Silver Slugger Award. 

At the end of the 2001 season, Jason Giambi moved to the New York Yankees. He won the Silver Slugger Award again in 2002. He was called up to the All-Stars for four years in a row from 2000-04. 

Giambi was caught up in a doping scandal in late 2003 and the rest of his career never reached the same heights. After seven years with the Yankees, he bounced from team to team before retiring in 2014. 

Doping Scandal 

At the height of his career, Giambi was investigated by the FBI who believed he has a connection with a doping ring. His brother was also under investigation. 

The pair ended up admitting that they had both been taking steroids that they had been given by their coaches. 

Despite admitting that the had been taking performance enhancing drugs, Giambi faced no consequences in the MLB and continued to play through the multiple trials that followed. 

He admitted to using steroids during the off seasons from 2000 to 2003. These were the most successful years of his career. 

Life After Baseball 

After retiring from baseball, Giambi moved into business – this included some real estate work. 

Earlier this year, after a head injury, Giambi’s brother Jeremy (who was also an MLB player) shot himself. The family did not talk a lot about the event. 

Jason lives in California with his wife. Giambi was featured on an episode of South Park that talked about MLB doping scandals.