The crowd at Yankee Stadium was restless for the Home Opener. Unlike last year's jubilant Opening Day, pained ALDS Game 2, or raucous ALCS Game 5 ("No Game Six!"), today's Yankee Stadium was schizoid and a little touchy. I guess that's the result when an unsettling event happens, like oh, not winning the World Series. Many of our stalwart favorites are gone: O'Neill, Tino, Knoblauch, Scotty Bro, even Clay Bellinger and Luis Sojo. And we're still getting used to the new guys, so you can't blame us for being a little ambivalent. We love the Yankees but we're not sure, yet, if we love Robin Ventura, Rondell White, and Jason Giambi. Yet.

You have to be happy about a shut out win, even if it came at the expense of the Devil Rays, and even if Jason Giambi was oh-for-five.

It was a tough day for Giambi, which Tyler Kepner of the New York Times sorrowfully encapsulated with the words "It was opening day at Yankee Stadium and everyone had a great time except the man who looked forward to it most."

Some enjoyed it a little TOO much maybe, like the woman in the skimpy sweater in upper deck section four, who stood up and started dancing, apropos of nothing in the inning other than the amount of alcohol she had imbibed. Six hundred men in a radius of sudden attention around her began chanting, in unison, "show your tits!" a la Bourbon Street in New Orleans. She let it go on far too long, and when she finally lifted up her top (showing only her low cut bra, not her actual naked flash, I might add), she was ejected from the stadium. We saw her after the game, at the school bus that the police were using as a super-size paddy wagon to take a busload of folks to the drunk tank.

Giambi was cheered when announced before the game, but the loudest cheer by far was for David Wells. It was Boomer's kind of crowd, loud, energetic, and not too polite.

When a fellow in upper deck section one complained to the ushers that people in his section were smoking and being too rowdy, and the police came up to investigate, everyone in three whole sections pointed at HIM and chanted ASS-HOLE! ASS-HOLE! When more policemen came to see what the disturbance was, and folks began to hope that the complainer would be ejected, the crowd began chanting "Na-na-na, na-na-na, hey, hey, good-bye!" No one ended up ejected.

Perhaps if the game had been more riveting, folks would have spent more time watching the field. Or if it hadn't been so bitterly cold (42 degrees at game time), they would have drunk less. Or maybe if the overall feeling in New York were not that things are getting back to normal, people wouldn't have let their hair down so far.

Who knows? I, for one, though I was annoyed by the people smoking cigarettes and was irked by the people booing Giambi (my mother was getting downright protective of him), was happy to see it's back to business as usual in Yankee Stadium. During the postseason last year, we cringed at every airplane that flew over, looked nervously around for suspicious packages, and spent a lot of time hugging one another and crying. This year, it's comforting to see that New Yorkers are back to being rude to each other and, I am willing to bet, in other parts of the country you will once again be hearing "Yankees Suck" -- something even that fans at Fenway couldn't bring themselves to chant last September when the wounds and sympathy were fresh.

Giambi came to bat with men on first and third, no outs, in the first inning. Every fan wants to see him do great things, so it was naturally disappointing to see him ground into a double play, killing the rally, although a run did score. (No RBI on the DP, though.) There was a smattering of boos after the double play. That one run would be all the Yankees would need, but they did get more, no thanks to Jason. He struck out in the second and the boos got louder. In the third there was quite a rally, as the Yanks plated three on four hits and Giambi came to bat with two on and two out. This time when he struck out the boos were quite loud. He got a fourth at bat in the seventh, when he led off, and grounded to third, weakly, on the very first pitch of the inning. Think he wanted to get it over with? Ouch. Very loud boos this time.

Giambi got a fourth at bat in the eighth. About half the crowd had left, the cold weather too much for them and the game lacking suspense or drama with it 4-0 Yanks and the Devil Rays looking more hapless by the inning. This time Giambi was greeted by very loud cheers as he came to the plate. Many people stood, clapped, shouted, and whistled. It was as if the crowd was trying to will him to get a hit, like we did Paul O'Neill in Game 2 of the ALDS. Just like Paul O'Neill in that game, though, he didn't hit. He did wallop the ball hard, and the rest of the crowd who weren't standing, leaped to their feet. But the ball came down in the glove of the centerfielder (as every ball hit that inning did), and then the boos were the loudest they had been all day.

Is it a form of ritual hazing? Does every superstar in New York have to go through a rough courtship? (Derek Jeter didn't, but he was home grown, a rookie, with low expectations...) Think about Tino Martinez. Is it necessary for Yankees fans to give Giambi the same hard time we gave Tino, in order to stay true to Tino? We still love him, y'know. Just like we still love Don Mattingly. Number 23, 24, 25. Tino didn't hit for about three weeks when he first came to the Yankees, and was booed roundly. Then he hit a game-winning grand slam in the fifteenth inning at a game in Camden Yards, and was loved pretty much from then for six years.

We know Giambi's big moments will come. We know he's good. But I can't blame the crowd for demanding that he prove he's that good. He has to earn the adulation in pinstripes, and until he does, there will be boos.

Today, actually, he got his first RBI as a Yankee. It was a little thing really, again in his fifth at bat of the day, the Yankees already crushing the Devil Rays 6-2 in the eighth inning. Same phenomenon as on Opening Day, where he was cheered every time he stepped in the batter's box, and then booed when he left it, both cheers and boos getting louder with each at bat. When he came up in the eighth, Soriano and Jeter were at first and second, two out. A very loud chant went up: "Let's Go Ja-son!" in place of "Let's Go Yan-kees!" It was like the crowd was trying to give him some mojo to break the slump.

He got a ground ball that went through for a base hit and an RBI as Soriano scored. The crowd went nuts. Not as nuts as they would have for a three run homer, but, hey, we'll take it. I hope it felt good to the guy. A minute later Joe Torre took him out for a pinch runner (Jason was the DH today), and Giambi got another big hand as he came out of the game. Knowing Torre, he did that as much to get Jason another ego-boosting ovation than to protect his hamstring.

If there is one saving grace, it is that the Yankees are winning. Giambi cannot be feeling that he is hurting the team. There is pressure, but it is the pressure to live up to expectations. I am sure that Gi- hears the muttering--things like hey, Carlos Pena, the rookie who replaced him at first base in Oakland, has already hit four homers this season. David Justice, who the Yankees dumped, has hit two homers and a triple. Robin Ventura, who the Yankees don't expect to hit a lick, has already had two GAME-WINNING homers. Heck, Ron Coomer had his first at bat as a Yankee yesterday, and HE hit a home run on the first pitch he saw! If he doesn't start acting/hitting like Jason Giambi soon, people are going to start to think he's hurt. Or worse.

As for me, I hope both Jason and I are prepared to face another unruly crowd in a few days. The Yankees arrive at Fenway Park this coming weekend. I have tickets to three of the four games. I hope Jason has a lot of big moments stored up for the occasion.