Welcome to the offseason, when we gather around our hot stoves to debate the burning questions of the day. You know what I mean. Will George Steinbrenner go on another international shopping spree? Will ALex Rodriguez finally win the MVP? (He did.) If Pedro Martinez gets out of Game 7 without giving up a lead, does Grady Little keep his job? (For that matter, if he brings in the bullpen and they implode, does he keep his job?)

But I'm here to ask a very different question, one that has been floating around my mind for a long time. It is, why are Jason Giambi and Mike Mussina not loved?

Before all you Mussina and Giambi fans jump on me, let me clarify. Yes, of course they have their fans. Mussina has some fans so ardent, they followed him from the Orioles. You certainly see your share of Giambi jerseys when you go to the stadium. But neither of these two players is adored on the same scale as Derek Jeter. Maybe Jeter is a poor example because there are few humans on earth, much less baseball players, who are adored on THAT scale. But say, Jorge Posada? When was the last time you heard Jorge get booed at Yankee Stadium?

This is not to say that boos are the proper measure of how much you are loved by the Yankee faithful, David Wells is loved, no question, but he gets booed lustily when he craps out. There was a great moment this season, in a game where Wells fell flat on his face at the Stadium. As he left the field to a chorus of negativity, he tossed his hat and his glove into the stands while rolling his eyes.

And let's not forget that Mickey Mantle got booed at Yankee Stadium as well. Mickey Bleepin' Mantle! The god-like idol of a whole generation of American males, some who didn't even like the Yankees, just Mickey! I wonder, does Jason Giambi think about that whenever he strikes out with men on and really hears it? This guy has averaged 114 RBI and 40 HR a year since coming to New York, led the league in walks, and yet gets booed at the drop of a hat. Hard to understand. And unlike Mickey Mantle, or David Wells, Jason Giambi has not yet been swept into the bosom of Yankee fandom as one of our own.

Mike Mussina on the other hand, rarely gets booed. Or, maybe it's hard to tell since people also yell "Moooooooose" for him. More likely it is that Mussina has been so darn good, so consistent, that there have not been many chances to boo him. He has been as good as advertised, maybe even better at times, so why does it seem that he too, for the most part, is not met with the kind of passion that the fans have for Roger Clemens?

Strange, isn't it, that Clemens, who met with a chilly reception at first (...grumble grumble ex-Red-Sock mumble mumble...) captured the hearts and minds of the Yankee faithful?

I remember when it happened, when the ice broke. It was the final game of the 1999 World Series. Clemens seemed to be dominating the Braves in that game with his fiery personality as much as his fireballs. Somehow, his winning seemed like an act of will by a single man. Somehow, his performance fired the imagination. Did it help that the night might end with champagne? Of course. The higher the stakes, the deeper our emotions will run. When Clemens went to cover first, though, late in the game, he tweaked his hamstring and had to hand it over to the bullpen. Otherwise you had the feeling that he was going to pitch the complete game, that's how dominating and encompassing his performance felt. Instead, out he came, to a tremendous ovation. I was watching that game from a rental home in Orlando, Florida, while my friends were all partying the night away at downtown Disney. I cried when he left the mound, not because I was sad, but because I was overcome by the emotion pouring out of the crowd, out of the television set. Holy seminal moment, Batman!

Later that night Clemens told the media "I finally know what it feels like to be a Yankee." Because he finally was one. Later he tried to soft-shoe the comment, but there was no doubt he had reached a tipping point with the fans. The following year there was the one-hitter against Seattle, another Cy Young award as the team rallied around him with awesome run support, and then the march of milestones up the all-time strikeout list and win list, to his 300th and beyond. As a Yankee. If Clemens goes into the Hall of Fame sporting the interlocking NY on his head, you won't see many Yankees fans looking at his plaque saying "eh, him, he used to be from Boston."

You might say that achieving postseason greatness is one way to mint a Yankee. It worked for CLemens, it even worked for David Justice! But both Mussina and Giambi have had significant October moments. Have people forgotten that it was Mike Mussina who pitched a 1-0 victory over Barry Zito to stave off elimination when we most needed a miracle in the dark autumn of 2001? People remember "the Jeter flip" from that game. But that play means nothing if Moose gives up one little dinger. Mussina was our ice-water veined saviour. Or how about a more recent appearance, in game seven of the American League Championship Series against the toughest Red Sox team in decades? Torre had told Mussina to be ready, but had also told him he wouldn't bring him in in the middle of an inning. He'd only use him to start an inning. As circumstance dictated, though, Mussina came in with men on and had to strike out a contact hitter and induce a double play. Absolute mastery, a virtuoso performance. And yet what people still talk about was the fact that when the game went to extra innings, Pettitte went to put his spikes on. As one newspaper put it, that became "an instant part of Yankee lore." And Moose's role was seemingly diminished.

And let us also not forget in that game that without Jason Giambi homering off Pedro Martinez--not once but twice!--we never tie the game, never go to extra innings, and Aaron Boone does not get his big Yankee moment. Giambi, who has been hampered all year by eye infection, knee trouble, and the crushing weight of expectations. As Torre put it, he might hit better if he stopped trying to squeeze sawdust out of the bat... but he came through in that game, that must-game. Is that not enough?

You hear people talk May 17, 2002 as the day Jason Giambi became a Yankee. Actually it was May 18th by the time it happened. In a game against the Twins, who were contenders that year, the two teams battled in extra innings. In the top of the fourteenth inning the Twins scored three runs (was it off Sterling Hitchcock? I believe so...). In the bottom of the inning, the Yankees loaded the bases. Giambi came to the plate. The rain was coming down at that point but there was no way the umpires were calling a delay. You know what everyone left in the stadium was thinking. I know what I was thinking, watching the game from a friend's house where I was cat-sitting. I was thinking gee, if he smacks one here, the Yankees will win it 13-12... is it fate? is it destiny? I've seen Giambi hit a lot of great home runs. Back when he was with the A's I saw him hit a game-winner off Mike Stanton in Oakland, off a 12-6 curve ball, with a full count and two out. Could he do something like that here?

He could, and he did. The game became a highlight of the season. In spring training of 2003, when Yankees fans get together in Florida to hound our heroes for autographs and photographs, we were still talking about it. "Remember that night in May..." "Oh, you mean the night Giambi became a Yankee?" How about Mussina almost pitching a perfect game against Boston? If he had done it, do we feel differently?

If Giambi hadn't struggled this year, maybe he would be climbing closer to the territory inhabited by other free agent sluggers like Reggie Jackson. Reggie was a Yankee for a relatively short time, and he was booed too, and always stirring up controversy. But he is loved. He is ours. Why do we not seem to own up to Giambi and Moose as "our guys" in the same way? What's stopping us?

It isn't that they came as free agents, although the "home grown" guys like Jeter, Jorge, Bernie, Mariano do seem to automatically get a free pass, or at least more leeway. (When Mo starts to struggle, you don't hear him booed off the mound the way you'd regularly hear Mike Stanton and Jeff Nelson harangued when they would slump.) Reggie Jackson is proof that you can come from outside and become a part of the Yankee canon. How about Paul O'Neill? You could never boo O'Neill because he was already smashing a water cooler and beating up on himself. But how about a guy like Tino Martinez. He'd hear it when he struggled, but we loved him. Heck, we even loved that headcase called Chuck Knoblauch.

Was it because they were champions? Is that it? And Moose and Gi have no rings?

I don't think so. I think it is because Moose and Gi don't exhibit much personality to the media.

In Moose's case this is not a surprise. When he came to New York, every report before his arrival was about how taciturn, quiet, and private he could be. Small town boy, they said. Might wither under the glare of the lights and the pressure. As it has turned out, he hasn't withered on the mound, but that doesn't change the fact that he's a low-key guy who doesn't say a lot. He has a degree in economics for chrissake. The most colorful habit he has is he does a crossword puzzle at his locker every day. He is not a colorful guy. He is a great pitcher, but he can be so quietly efficient, that he doesn't incite the emotions of the crowd. He keeps it all tamped down, just like the opposing offense. He doesn't excite the imagination. So we, as a whole, appreciate him as a great pitcher, but only on this intellectual level. We don't have the same feelings for him that Clemens inspired. That takes nothing away from Mike Mussina's talent or his achievements as a Yankee. The jersey I wear says "Mussina" on it, but I don't know--will he ever capture the imagination of New York and beyond? I'm not sure I want him to. Given his success, I wouldn't ask Mike Mussina to change one whit. If he keeps winning, one day we'll wake up and realize that the arranged marriage has blossomed into love.

In Giambi's case it isn't that he doesn't have a colorful personality. It's that he has tried so hard to whitewash it, to grow up, to be a "Yankee" in the corporate mold, that he has quashed not only his own natural approach to the game (and life), but fan enthusiasm as well. What happened to the drive-thru burger eatin' metalhead who reportedly coined the motto "Rake like an All-Star, party like a rock star, and hammer like a porn star"? Some players play best angry. I think Giambi plays best with a touch of bravado that he has tried to erase. In his attempt to fit in in the Derek Jeter clubhouse, Giambi has tried hard to always say the right thing, and do the right thing. He cut his hair, shaved his beard, and got married. He doesn't make waves. He doesn't give the sharks in the media pool anything to crow about on the back page. For those who envisioned the second-coming of David Wells, they were disappointed.

Once in a while I see a touch of the old Giambi bravado. I think this year's Home Run Derby was a great example. Until Giambi's round, it had been the most boring home run derby ever. The highlight to that point was Bret Boone swinging and missing (!!) at a pitch! The crowd in Chicago was getting restless. Hadn't they come to see some fireworks? All they were seeing was some fizzles. Then up came Giambi, the defending champion. Now if you ask me, he was the "winner" two years before that also, in that he was the one who electrified the crowd and actually whacked the most total homers. But the dopey head to head rules made him a runner up. He went into 2001 determined to win the thing, and pulled it off. In 2002, with nothing left to prove, he just got up there with intent to rake. And did. Shot after shot. Oh yeah. Someone had to give the people what they came to see, and he did it.

If he can get healthy and keep knocking them out of the park in big moments, the love will come. If he can relax a little and let the fans live through him a little, if he can let more of that exuberance come through, he will win people over. I think he will be more successful at the plate AND better loved by the masses if he lets his hair down (figuratively).

I don't know if we're going to see that happen any time soon, though. There is the cloud of this possible THG supplement scandal looming. Giambi, Barry Bonds, and dozens of other athletes in many sports were all subpoenaed recently in a grand jury investigation into a northern California lab that may have provided some athletes with an as-yet still legal 'designer steroid' called THG. (Or it may be a frame job by the lab's competitor...) Then there is the cloud hanging over every muscle-y slugger, what with baseball announcing that last year's anonymous random testing revealed 5% to 7% of players on steroids. It makes me wince every time I see the Giambi deodorant ads on television. (Actually, they make me wince anyway, because they are SOOO corny ... talk about a "cleaned up image!" If you can't live without seeing this ad, and haven't yet, you can open the following URL in WIndows Media Player: http://www.ahultramax.com/offers/video/wm_hi/wm_hi.wmv -- this is the original commercial. There is a recent update that is even cornier and features a bunch of beautiful women flocking around him...) At the end of the ads, Giambi pumps his bicep and states that his deodorant has "a little extra muscle." God, how ironic will it be if he turns out to have a little extra muscle himself?

And will public opinion turn on him if he does? Mark McGwire was on androstenodine during the Roger Maris home run chase, but no one seems to care overmuch about that. Big Mac was loved beyond even baseball. So is Sammy Sosa, and we can laugh off the corked bat thing and still be thrilled out of our wits when he hits a game-saver in the NLCS against the Marlins. Will Giambi be cut the same slack by the baseball public? I am thinking no. We're so critical of him already.

I, as someone who does love Jason Giambi, and who loved him before he was a Yankee, back when he was the "enemy" with the A's, have to hope that the whole steroid thing blows over, that the knee surgery he had yesterday to clean out the inflammation is successful, that his batting eye never changes, and that he becomes without question one of the biggest Yankees of all time. He wouldn't be the first left-handed slugger who hit for power and average who was an All-Star for another team before becoming a star Yankee. How about the "Big Cat," Hall-of-Famer Johnny Mize? Mize played for four teams and was a star with the Cardinals before coming to the Yankees. His Hall of Fame plaque is one where the hat shows no affiliation. But if you go to the Johnny Mize museum, at Piedmont College in Demorest, Georgia, you will see how much a Yankee he was.

Hmm. So, I'm convinced that the personality thing is important. But maybe winning some championships really does help. With the love thing, I mean. Call it consummation, if you will. We have a whole 'nother year to wait.