Yankee fans cheered a former Yankee: should they?

Jason Giambi played for the Yankees 2002-2008.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009 Giambi returned to Yankee Stadium as a member of his original team, the Oakland As.  Giambi was 1 for 4: a single off former teammate Andy Pettitte in the 4th.  Giambi played again the next day and was 0 for 6.  September 1, 2009 Giambi played his first game for Colorado.

Friday June 24, 2011 Jason Giambi played in Yankee Stadium again, this time for the Colorado Rockies.  Some Yankee fans brought signs to honor Giambi, perhaps thinking this was his first game back.  Giambi rewarded them with a home run off A.J. Burnett in his first AB which prompted an ovation from at least some of the crowd.

Someone questioned that to me, indicating that Giambi was a waste of $120,000,000, that the Yankees failed to win the World Series with Giambi and that Giambi did not hit well in the playoffs with the Yankees.  Also that Giambi broke down because he used performance enhancing stuff.   I did some research.

Click this: http://www.baseball-reference.com/play-index/share.cgi?id=9PYmr

Among Yankee 1B, Giambi is second only to Gehrig in batting (OPS+).

Yankee seasons:
- qualified for batting titles 5 of 7 seasons; others: 322, 303 PA; 502 PA required;
- MVP rank: 5, 13, 14, 18;
- 6 playoff HR, THREE against Boston 2003 ALCS (2 off Martinez in game 7), one 2003 WS;
- first Yankee since Mantle with 40 HR in consecutive seasons (41 first two seasons); also 37, 32, 32.

Was Giambi a terrible fielder?   Better fielder than Gehrig.  Giambi was terrible throwing, OK on grounders but no range, and good digging low throws out of the dirt.

Did Giambi break down because he used performance enhancing stuff?  Beats me.