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Faceoff

Should Giambi have been AL's comeback player of year?

GIVE HIM CREDIT FOR BEING CLEAN AND GOOD

On May10, with boos greeting him almost every at-bat, Jason Giambi was close to being demoted by the New York Yankees. He was hitting .195, was mired in a 4-for-38 slump and had three home runs and six RBIs. Exactly three months earlier, Giambi was at Yankee Stadium making his first public comments about his steroid use and his testimony in the BALCO case before a federal grand jury.

Things did not look good for Giambi, especially after coming off a 2004 season in which he missed 82 games with an intestinal parasite. The only way to quiet his numerous critics was to start producing, and that's exactly what he did. He ended the season with 32 home runs, 87 RBIs and a .271 average. He's a big reason the Yankees are in the playoffs.

You can say he doesn't deserve the comeback player of the year award because of the steroids, but that has nothing to do with it. No evidence has come out publicly since his testimony that proves Giambi is back on the juice. Fact is, Giambi could have faded away, kind of like Rafael Palmeiro. Instead, he proved that a healthy, clean Giambi is about as good as the old Giambi, and that's why he won this award.

- RODNEY PAGE

Jason Giambi stunk last year. This year, he didn't.

If that was the only consideration in determining the American League's comeback player of the year, then the Yankees' first baseman was the right choice.

But if you give a whit about fair play or integrity in sports, there's no way this guy should have been honored.

Steroid use (which he reportedly admitted to a federal grand jury in the BALCO case) made him one of the most dangerous hitters in baseball. Getting off performance enhancers, for a time, made him one of the worst.

Sure, he rediscovered his swing while enduring rumors and innuendo after his testimony was leaked.

But Giambi's wounds were self-inflicted. He knew the risks of steroid abuse and reaped the rewards.

Andres Galarraga coming back from cancer in 2000. Tommy John returning from a permanently damaged elbow tendon in 1976 after doctors told him he would never pitch again. These are comeback players of the year.

What did Giambi come back from?

Cheating?

- FRANK PASTOR