EA SPORTS WRITER DAN DAVIS WITH JASON GIAMBI

In his first six years with the Oakland Athletics, power-hitting first baseman Jason Giambi has topped or tied both his previous year's home run total and batting average every year. In the 2000 season Giambi put up superstar numbers and led the A's to their first American League Western Division title since 1992. In recognition of his outstanding campaign, Giambi was named the A.L.'s Most Valuable Player. But the award was only icing on the cake.

Days before receiving the MVP award, Giambi was named the cover athlete for EA SPORTS™ Triple Play Baseball™. Taking time away from his preparations for a game against Alex Rodriguez and the Texas Rangers, Giambi sat down with EA SPORTS in the A's dugout at the Oakland Coliseum. Here's what he had to say about video games, baseball, playing on the same team with his younger brother Jeremy, and his enthusiasm for TPB.

Q: What was your reaction when you found out you were going to be on the cover of Triple Play Baseball?

GIAMBI: I was ecstatic to be a part of that. All the names and the faces who have been on the cover of the game are all superstars of the game, so it's pretty exciting to realize you've come into that realm of those other elite players.

Q: What was the reaction of your teammates?

GIAMBI: They were fired up. They were thinking "free video games." We've got such a young team here, so they're all pretty much gamers. They were excited for me.

Q: Did your parents realize the significance of it?

GIAMBI: Oh, definitely. Jeremy and I grew up playing video games, so they were ecstatic about it. They heard about the whole process I had to go through to do the game, so they were pretty thrilled about it.

Q: What was your favorite experience working on the game?

GIAMBI: Probably just being able to be there at the beginning of it, getting to see how it's done. When I went to EA, I saw how the game progresses at different levels, from meeting the people who set up the graphic design, to the people who create the game, everything that goes into the faces and animations. I went up to Vancouver and did the whole motion-cap. It was pretty cool.

Q: What impresses you most about the game's realism?

GIAMBI: It's incredible. Just the little details in the game. When you go to every stadium, it's exact. When I first saw the game, they had a setup of [Cleveland's] Jacobs Field -- that's the first one they had set up -- and that's exactly what I see when I look out there. The little picnic benches to the trees to the parking structure out there -- it's actually like being at the ballpark.

Q: Did we miss anything?

GIAMBI: The only difference I think between being on the field and [playing the game] is the music you come up to bat with. Every guy has a song. We were talking about that today, but to get the rights to all of those songs would be incredible. I guess the only thing you could do to go even further is to throw some superstitions in there. Guys who don't shave if they're on a long hitting streak, things like that. But I don't think it could get any better, to be honest with you.

Q: Do you have a superstition?

GIAMBI: Yeah, I put on my uniform the same way every day.

Q: That might be tough to get in the game.

GIAMBI: Yeah, that might be tough. Of course, guys eat fast food, or whatever. Everybody has their little quirks in this game.

Q: You said before that Madden NFL™ Football and Tiger Woods PGA TOUR® Golf are two games that you and others on the A's play a lot. Do you take any consoles on the road with you?

GIAMBI: Actually, Ben Grieve, who used to be here, used to take his video games on the road all the time. We have them up in the clubhouse now but there's not a guy yet who takes them on the road.

Q: Was Ben the best at the games?

GIAMBI: Yes, definitely. He lived and died on them. Eric Chavez is pretty good on most of the games. A lot of the guys like to play the golf games because they can switch it up and get a lot of people on the game.

Q: What is it like playing yourself in Triple Play Baseball?

GIAMBI: It's actually really cool. I got a chance to talk to all of the design people, and they then of course made me the best player in the game.

Q: Triple Play Baseball gives you the ability to create your own player. How would you create your ideal player?

GIAMBI: From an offensive standpoint, you definitely have to have a lot of power. You'd want to make him one of the faster guys also, then you could go hit 40 home runs and steal 40 bases every year. Maybe if you could put tattoos on a player, that would be cool too.

Q: What do you like better about playing TPB than playing the game in real life?

GIAMBI: Well, after going 0-for-4 you can just turn off the game and you don't have to read about it in the newspaper the next day.

Q: Do you have any tips for new players?

GIAMBI: Well first of all, like I said, you have to have me on your team, because I'm the best player in the game. That's one of the perks of being on the cover. Also, the thing that I love about it is it's not a game you can master. You can definitely be good at it and learning things makes you a better player but that doesn't mean you can master it.

Q: Did you and Jeremy play video games a lot as kids?

GIAMBI: Oh, definitely. Video games, all the time. We used to spend days upon days, bugging mom and dad for dollars to play video games. Yeah, we loved it.

Q: Were the two of you pretty competitive at that as well?

GIAMBI: Definitely, especially at those games you would go down to the arcade and try to master, like Dragon's Lair and games like that.

Q: Who was usually better?

GIAMBI: I was probably better because I was older.

Q: At what point did you realize you had what it takes to make it to the Majors?

GIAMBI: Well, that's all I ever wanted to be when I was a kid. It's all I ever dreamed about. I wasn't that kid that wanted to be a cop or a fireman. I always wanted to be a ballplayer. I think Jeremy followed suit later on, feeling "if my brother can make it, I can make it."

Q: Did you two ever talk back then about playing the Major Leagues together?

GIAMBI: Of course. We dreamed about it. We never even played on the same field in high school or little league because we were four years apart, so every time he was coming up, I was leaving. The only chance we had was in high school when he was a freshman and I was a senior, but he didn’t make the varsity squad because we were good that year. When he was in Kansas City, that was the first time we stepped on the same field together. But then we never dreamed that we be on the same team at such a young age. I thought maybe it’d be at the end of my career.

Q: Is there a particular job you just wouldn't want to do?

GIAMBI: No, I mean, work is work. But I get to live out that dream of doing what I love. I'm one of those few people that actually gets to live out their dream every day.