Exhibit A

The Yanks and Giambi typify what's wrong with baseball

The next time Bud Selig goes to the Halls of Congress, I suggest he brings Jason Giambi along with him. Jason Giambi in pinstripes.

"You want to know what's wrong with my game?" Bud can tell the snoring legislators. "This -- Exhibit A, Mr. Muscles as a New York Yankee -- is what's wrong."

Jason Giambi should be an Oakland Athletic for life. Or at least until he no longer can turn on a fastball. He should not be sitting in front of the cameras with his roughly $120 million contract for the next seven years, telling us how the A's were a couple of dollars short in the great rush for his services. Somehow -- any way possible -- he should have been forced, cajoled, or convinced to stay where he was.

How can a town, a team, feel as if it is in the major leagues when its best stars move along as soon as they can for the bigger and the better? You say good-bye to Jose Canseco. You say good-bye to Mark McGwire. You wait through the building programs, renew your interest . . . and now you say good-bye to Jason?

The Yankees, on the other hand, said good-bye this week to Tino Martinez and Chuck Knoblauch, two aging parts in their machine. St. Louis happily scooped up one. Kansas City scooped up the other. Are the people in those cities supposed to feel that their teams have made wily moves for the pennant? Are they supposed to feel a part of the big leagues?

The big fish eats, then leaves the scraps for everyone else in its wake. This is Baseball Economics 2001, ruining the game, and Jason Giambi is the new poster child.

Leigh Montville's commentaries appear regularly on CNN/Sports Illustrated. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.

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