ESPN The Magazine's Tim Keown wrote a cover story on Jason Giambi earlier this year.

And now for the all-important cultural analysis of Jason Giambi's seemingly inevitable decision to play in the World Series for four or five of the next seven years:

Spare us. Please.

Save the New York-as-proving-ground psychobabble for another time and another guy. Forget the idea of small-market expectations not translating to the bright lights in the big city.

In this case, past performance is indicative of future results: Jason Giambi is going to own New York.

Before the ink on the contract is dry (actually, before there's ink on the contract at all), everybody wants to know if. If he can handle it. If he's got the personality for it. If he can swagger into the world's biggest meat grinder and keep from becoming paranoid, or bulimic, or whatever the latest Dateline-induced disease/fear is.

New York is hard. New York is tough. New York doesn't take nothing from nobody, no matter who he is, or thinks he is.

Giambi put up a pretty good front with the Oakland A's, winning an MVP in 2000 and putting up numbers this past season that happened to be far superior to the guy who ended up as the MVP. But we all know there's a huge difference between producing in Oakland and producing in New York, because ... well, because everybody says so, that's because.

And if everybody says it, somebody's going to believe it, right?

You can argue Giambi's impending move on its for-the-good-of-the-game merits ("Welcome to Capitol Hill, Mr. Selig. George Steinbrenner on line two.") but the other stuff is mindless speculation.

How's Giambi going to get along with his teammates? They're going to love him. Why? Because he's going to hit .330 with 45 and 140, and he's going to be friends with everyone from the clubhouse kids to Weird Roger.

How's Joe Torre going to manage him? The same way Art Howe did -- put his name in the lineup and hope he doesn't get hurt.

But how will he handle the New York media? Again, please. The reputation of the New York media was built on pulling the wings off flies. They kill the weak and suffering, the down-and-out and the almost-fired. Once they get a load of Giambi's glib, working-man smack, they're going to lionize him. They'll be peeling the crust off his bread by March 1.

Just wait till he starts ripping screamers down the right-field line at Yankee Stadium.

Remember, the guys who can't make it in New York are the introverts and the paranoids. Giambi is neither. There will be comparisons to David Wells, who ran New York like his own private deli, but they're not entirely accurate. Giambi is smarter and savvier than Wells, less of a one-note musician, more charming and disarming.

And, oh yeah, he's a much more valuable ballplayer.

Culturally speaking, that counts for a lot.

Tim Keown is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at tim.keown@espnmag.com.