Portfolio: Lidz: Jason Giambi: Bronx Cheer

The G-string…uh, no thanks.

Off the field, Giambi is a freewheeling character with a smile as wide as the gap in left center at Yankee Stadium. He loves strip joints, cites Letters to Penthouse as his favorite work of literature, and lives by the motto “Party like a rock star, hammer like a porn star, rake like an all-star.”

“I’m a year older than Mickey Mantle was in his final game,” he says. “My teammates used to call me the Modern-day Mick because I could play all day and party all night. Now I’m more of a family guy. I drive an Escalade to the ballpark.”

...When this season ends, the Yanks could pick up Giambi’s 2009 option for $22 million. Or they could pay him $5 million to go away. Though Giambi would happily take a pay cut to stay in New York—“Money doesn’t drive me,” he says—the team will likely give him a buyout and invest in younger, less limited talent. No doubt he’ll sign on with another franchise, quite possibly the A’s.

Giambi doesn’t plan to hang up his cleats just yet, but he’s not exactly ruing the day he does. “After A-Rod retires, he wants to be a real estate mogul, the next Donald Trump,” Giambi says. “I could care less. As long as I can have a fast boat and a margarita machine and can light my hair on fire, I’ll be just fine.”