Jason Giambi is on fire in the month of June. He has come a long way since his "apology for whatever."

It’s an incredible time to write about sports while living in the Boston area. The Celtics won the NBA Championship Tuesday night to make it six sports championship titles since the turn of the century for Boston teams. Three Super Bowls, two World Series wins, and now the NBA championship for the first time in 22 years. Congratulations to the Boston Celtics on their great worst to first season, and their championship win.

As great as Boston is, all the baseball entertainment you could ever want is available in New York. I don’t mean to belittle the teams around the rest of the country. In fact, when I say entertainment, I’m not talking about the players and the games. You can see 15 games on any given night and be entertained. I’m talking about the soap opera that is the business of baseball, and nowhere is it more entertaining than in New York.

This week’s fun in the Big Apple started with the tragic injury to Chien Ming Wang, who tore up his ankle running the bases in an interleague game. Sadly, the Yankees will be without their ace, perhaps until September, because of the injury. The entertainment aspect of this comes from the offices of the Yankees punk owner, Hank Steinbrenner, who expressed his considerable anger to the press after the bad news about Wang became public. “The AL, minors, colleges, high schools, they all have DH’s.” Steinbrenner told the NY Daily News in a telephone interview.  “You don't need to lose your best pitcher. The pitcher has enough work to do. It's something Bud (Selig) needs to address and he needs to address it soon. Don't give me that traditionalist crap. We go to these NL cities, draw great crowds and we end up losing one of our best pitchers. I'm not happy. I just think it’s time the NL joined the 21^st century,” Steinbrenner said.

Is Hank Steinbrenner suggesting that pitchers need not be athletes? Does he truly believe that pitchers should never have to run? Last time I looked, pitchers in the AL (and college, high school, and the minors) still have to cover first base. As a fan of the game, I’d like to see it the other way around, and have all those various levels do away with the DH. Let’s return the game to its original rules, and have all pitchers hit. Let’s bring strategic thinking back to the American League. The DH rule is a monstrosity that never should have been implemented in the first place. I happen to think that the Micah Owings and Carlos Zambranos of the world are the better players in the game because they can help themselves out with their bat. You need only remember that the greatest player of them all, Babe Ruth, a Yankee no less, was a pitcher first. If he had never batted, where would the game be today?

Not to be outdone, the Yankees’ cross town rivals, the Mets, have their own little soap opera going. Like a thief in the middle of the night, Omar Minaya fired Mets manager Willie Randolph at 3 am New York time. He allowed the team to travel to the West Coast before replacing Randolph and two of his assistants. Minaya had a little news conference to explain his actions, saying he did it this way for logistical reasons, and to be fair to the players. Huh?

I hope the Wilpon family realizes soon, that the mistake was in not firing Minaya. I happen to like Omar Minaya. He is a great evaluator of talent, and he knows how to develop players; but he is in over his head as a general manager, and the current Mets team as constituted was poorly conceived and put together. It’s Minaya who ought to swing for this, not Willie Randolph.

I feel sorry for Randolph, and sincerely hope he gets the chance to manage again. Perhaps he will. He got the shaft from the Mets, and the guy who fired him should be ashamed of the way he did it. And the Wilpon family should do the right thing, and get rid of Minaya too.

Geez, I had so much fun there, I nearly forgot about the games. Let’s take a look at some box scores.

Chad Billingsley blanked the Reds for 6 and a third innings, scattering 5 hits and allowing just one run, while striking out 9, (including Jay Bruce three times). Billingsley scored his first win in nearly a month, despite pitching very well over the four starts since his last win. He is worth picking up if someone left him for dead in your league.

The Red Sox continue to run amok on the bases, with six steals in seven attempts against Carlos Ruiz of the Phillies. Ruiz has allowed 31 steals this season, and thrown out 11, or 26% of attempts, and he’s batting just .231. Meanwhile, backup catcher Chris Coste is batting .311, and has thrown out 10 of 30 base stealers or 33% of attempts. Hmmmm. Coste is a great catcher for leagues that use two. He won’t hurt your batting average, and he has 6 home runs too. Surprisingly, the Sox appear destined to have four players with double digit steals this season – two are already there - Jacoby Ellsbury (34), Coco Crisp (12), and two are on the way - Julio Lugo (9), and Dustin Pedroia (7). The Sox have morphed from a team that relied on three run home runs to win games, to a small ball club that can kill you on the base paths

It’s taken a long time, but Nick Swisher is finally starting to hit like he should be for the surging White Sox, who spanked the Pirates for 16 runs Tuesday night. Swisher went 3 for 3 with a pair of walks, scored three, and knocked in another. In June, he’s batting .327 with 4 home runs, 11 RBI, 16 runs, and his OBP is a robust .407. He should have a remarkable second half and is someone to target for a trade.

Looking for a shortstop that has a little pop? Try Mike Aviles of the Royals, who hit his third home run in 12 games since his call up. He’s batting .333 and 9 of his 15 hits have been for extra bases.

The Detroit Tigers are winning games and crushing the ball in the manner their lineup should, but the guy doing the damage lately isn’t one of their big pickups from the winter; it’s Marcus Thames, who hit his 8^th homer in his last 10 games Tuesday night. He’s homered in his last five consecutive games.

Another guy who on fire in June is none other than Jason Giambi; he had a pair of homers last night, and has gone long six times in June to go along with a batting average of .364.

The Oakland A’s put a hurtin’ on the Diamondbacks (what’s happened to them?) Tuesday night, tagging Brandon Webb for 7 earned runs. The A’s were led by Mark Ellis, who hit a pair of home runs, and is batting .309 in the month of June with 8 RBI and 10 runs scored.

Ryan Braun also had a pair of home runs Tuesday night to bring him up to 20 for the season. Looking at Braun’s splits, I was surprised to see that he is batting almost .200 points lower against southpaws this season. Last year he hit .450 in 111 at bats against lefties, this season he is batting .269 in 67 at bats so far. Interesting.

One guy who has really turned his season around is Brad Hawpe. Since his return from the DL, he’s batting .317 with 5 home runs and 10 RBI in 11 games. He is another guy to target in trade, though the buy low window has probably slammed shut at this point.

Scott Kazmir continues to dominate on the mound, but I’m a little worried about his pitch counts. They’ve been creeping higher with each start, not because he is going deep into games, but because of inefficiency. Tuesday he threw 110 pitches in just 4 2/3 innings, walking 4 and striking out 7, while holding the Cubs powerhouse offense to one run on three hits. He did this last season too, and it may have contributed to his arm troubles early in the season. He’s a great pitcher, no doubt about that, but the inefficiency will lead to trouble down the line. Given his arm woes in April, he might be someone to sell high if you can get a good deal.

That’s all for me today folks. Shake it easy.