Update:

"Baseball, that cruel witch, is doing it again.

For two weeks, Jack Cust was Babe Ruth. Or Roy Hobbs. Any preferred derivation of the left-handed slugger doing inconceivable things would suffice. He hit eight home runs for the Oakland Athletics, big, towering parabolas, including one game-winner that earned him a friendly beatdown from the mosh pit awaiting him at home plate. Only then, as he strode the final 90 feet around third base, did Cust believe he was finally here to stay in the major leagues.

This all seemed too good, too fairytale. Over his 11 professional seasons, Cust has put up superb minor-league numbers, yet it took a yellow bus worth of injuries for him to see his first extended playing time in the major leagues. And now that Milton Bradley and Mark Kotsay are coming back, and the young Travis Buck is looking like the second coming of Nick Swisher, and Mike Piazza – the man paid $8.5 million to occupy Cust's designated-hitter spot – is starting to rehab by swinging a bat, Cust is fighting to shake off the feeling that he's baseball's version of a $2 bill.

Interesting and unique and still worth next to nothing.

"I hope this is the start of something," Cust said. "With the luck I've had, maybe this is the opportunity. Maybe there was a reason I waited around for so long.

"I really hope so."

Cust sat in the clubhouse at U.S. Cellular Field. The clubbies had given him an unoccupied locker in which to place his extra belongings. Such a privilege is generally extended to only the most tenured players. Teammates asked if he wanted to participate in extra batting practice. He nodded, comfortable with himself, feeling accepted, looking confident, ready to hit cleanup that day. How could he know that less than two weeks later he'd be mired in a 1-for-23 slump that would threaten to undo everything those first two weeks did?

Baseball is funny like that.

"No," Cust said. "Funny is not the right word."

***

Just the usual. His .222 batting average is unsightly, even if his .411 on-base percentage ranks 14th in the American League among those with at least 75 plate appearances. His 32 strikeouts in 72 at-bats are downright miserable, even if he is seeing 4.4 pitches per plate appearance, second in the AL to Jason Giambi.

Cust can be great, and Cust can be awful, and the A's soon will decide whether that duality merits a major-league uniform."

from http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=jp-cust053107&prov=yhoo&type=lgns