Interview with Yankees' Jason Giambi
- March 31, 2004 17:01 PM PST
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Talking baseball and ESPN MLB 2k4 with Jason Giambi
GamePro sat down with the cover athlete for ESPN Major League Baseball 2K4 to talk about his involvement in the game and the coming season.GamePro: Tell us about how why you signed on to be on the cover of this game.
Jason Giambi: Getting approached to be on the cover of a game -- that's a pinnacle of your career. I'm from the generation that grew up playing video games. If I'm on the cover of a game, I can show my kids someday, and they?ll know I speak "cool." I got to put my signature on the game -- I run, hit, and throw exactly like I do in real life.
GP: What parts of the game really impressed you, and how did you advise on its development?
JG: The biggest thing is the Confidence meter. If you strike out twice, you start getting booed, your confidence starts going down, you become a worse player. When you hit a home run, you get a curtain call, your confidence goes up, and you become a better player. Another cool thing was the first-person, where you get to look through the eyes of the hitter, the fielder, the pitcher. That was another thing I got to talk about -- when you stand at home plate and look out to center field at Yankee Stadium, what do see? What?s different in our game from what you actually see?
GP: How well does the new first-person mode compare to the real thing?
JG: It's exactly the same. It's mind-blowing -- that's exactly what I see. When you see guys like Nomar tapping his cleats, Sheffield's got the wag -- they didn't miss anything.
GP: How closely do pitches in video games resemble real life in terms of their speed and break?
JG: They're pretty close. Miller's got his big knuckle curve that comes in there, or Pedro with his change-up. They're pretty realistic. To be honest with you, it's the same type of timing too. I'll actually tap the button to hit in the game and be perfect at it. That's as close as I think you can get.
GP: Do you play a lot of games yourself?
JG: Growing up as a kid, that's all I used to do. That's my chance to beat down my brother. When I was with the A's, we played all the time because we were a young team and we took them on the road. With the Yankees, there are a lot of older players, but I usually play their kids all the time. Funny story -- their kids don't like their dads, they like other players. Robin Ventura's son Jack wanted to get my jersey instead of his dad's. That?s the fun part -- you get to see who the kids' favorite players are.
GP: What do you think is missing from baseball video games?
JG: I was mindblown about how realistic they made it. The only place left to go is a virtual game where you actually stand up and swing the bat virtually, or go through the motion and pitch.
GP: Did you get them to make you the best player in the game?
JG: (laughs) Oh yeah, that's a guarantee! I sat down and said, forget A-Rod, forget Barry, I gotta be the best player in the game.
GP: What's it like to see yourself up there on the screen?
JG: It's cool, it's fun. One of the ESPN Videogames' guys was playing as me, and he was singing at bad pitches, and I said, you're killing me! I don't swing at those pitches!
GP: How's your knee doing, and how are you feeling about the upcoming season?
JG: Great, the knee's doing great. It's healthy and I'm excited about going again. I think if there's anybody on the planet that wants to win more than we do, it's Mr. Steinbrenner. He goes out and gets Sheff and Kevin Brown and Vasquez. Of course, the Red Sox got a lot better too. They're going to be great. I think they're going to be our biggest competition. Growing up in Southern Cal, you always heard about this rivalry, but now, being part of it, it's everything that it's cracked up to be. It's 18 playoff games a year.
GP: What was the switch like moving out to New York from California?
JG: When I first got to the team, I was like a deer in headlights. The media outweighs the players, and you're a traveling rock star. I loved playing in Oakland, I miss the guys, I grew up with all those guys in the Bay Area. That was probably the hardest part. But it's pretty incredible when you realize you're playing on the same team as Maggio and Mantle.
Giambi strikes a pose for Gamepro.com in Vegas.
