St. Jeter Canonized By SI; Woods Sees Frogs In The Forest

December 3, 2009 By Leave a Comment

By Beaker

I’d like to comment on a couple of things: St. Jeter and Horny Woods.

Heard a celebrity PR, damage control expert (now there’s a gig. Like being a “life coach.” I gotta tell ya, if you need a coach to make you live you have problems. I digress) make the following assertion about the useless Tiger Woods story:

“You have to remember good people do bad things.”

That seems like a reasonable thing to say. But after you let the fumes of the paint primer exit your brain, you come to the realization it’s a silly line of thinking.

Good people don’t do bad things. Bad people do.  Good people tend to avoid things like driving 100 in a 30 zone, murder and adultery.

Woods knew what he was doing. He was having an affair. It doesn’t make him bad. Just weak of the flesh and guilty of being stupid. So much for his mental toughness. He may be mentally tough on a lousy golf course but the game of life demands a different kind of inner strength. It also makes him, like every man alive, horny; perhaps perpetually. Who knows and I sure don’t care. Whatever it may be, he has to face the music.

Buh-bye.

What a lame story. It’s a story because people live vicariously through celebrities. They make up all sorts of neat, if not unrealistic, images of the person in their minds (because, you know, they want to believe in role models) and go bat-shit when they find out their…human. The news  network machine, slaves to celebrity gossip now, jump on the story knowing the pathetic psychological state of its viewership and make it a “headline.”

It brings me to something a buddy, not particularly known for his adherence to moral epitaphs and philosophical thought, once said, “You want a role model? Believe in yourself.”

That’s great advice people can use.

***

Derek Jeter (cue Ave Maria or Handel’s Messiah) was named sportsmen of the year by Sports Illustrated. Nothing wrong with that. He had a great year. Chase Utley (or Albert Pujols) never had a prayer. New York is the market when it comes to baseball.

Watch the hyperbole come in…wait….it’s coming…NOW!

“This verifies my idea that he is on the level of Ruth and Gehrig,” McDonell said. “He’s the greatest shortstop in the history of the game.”

I’m sure SI Group Editor Terry McDonnell knows his sports, but really.

8790 004 7DF5BD20 St. Jeter Canonized By SI; Woods Sees Frogs In The Forest

Wagner: We got your back

No, he’s not. It’s as simple as that. He may have surpassed those two baseball titans in sheer numbers on a couple of stats but Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig are two of the greatest players to ever play the game.

In case he forgot, how soon we all forget Pittsburgh Pirates legendary SS Honus Wagner – who until the arrival of St. Jeter was acknowledged by most experts as the greatest SS ever. I would settle for the best SS in Yankees history which is nothing to sneer at. But spare me lumping him with Ruth and Gehrig.

Then again, some may claim Jeter is not even the best shorts stop on the Yankees – Alex Rodriguez is. They’d have a point.

About that:

“McDonell was impressed by Jeter’s leadership, how he “stepped in and molded a team” this spring with the arrival of three expensive free agents, and Alex Rodriguez’s admission to using steroids from 2001-03 and then having hip surgery that kept him out until May.”

I like the way the media always tries to make A-Rod Jeter’s gimp. Yeah, I know how disliked A-Rod is along with the fact he used steroids and is considered to be a fake to some, but  A-Rod had a wicked season. It’s possible without him they don’t win the World Series.

About Jeter’s leadership. Measuring leadership is a fool’s game. Not that saying he’s a great leader is wrong. There’s enough evidence to suggest he is. However, perspective is needed from time to time. I seem to remember a period between 2000-2008 where his molding floundered. I also remember when he didn’t stick up for A-Rod like he did for Giambi. His leadership is selective. Just saying.

Jeter is a great, great ball player. A player who seems to have an uncanny ability to be at the right place at the right time (cue Handel’s Messiah again) permitting him to make all sorts of “wow” kind of plays. He had a great year and is beloved by New Yorkers. All he has is deserved.

BUT. He’s not on the level of the aforementioned players.

I know this is blasphemy to say. Meh.


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Stats Corner: A Most Amazing Accomplishment

September 7, 2009 By 3 Comments

Some statistics are just that impressive.

Consider Derek Jeter who sits just three hits behind Lou Gehrig on the New York Yankees all-time list. Jeter has 2718 hits in 2115 at-bats while Gehrig needed 2164 to knock in his 2721. So Jeter will likely have done it in less at-bats – I doubt he’ll go into a severe slump.

Note: Figures above originally published in error: not at-bats but games played. We regret the error and the person responsible has been killed.

Jeter has had to surpass the likes of Babe Ruth (3rd), Mickey Mantle (4th), Joe DiMaggio (6th), Yogi Berra (8th); names revered in Yankees folklore.

His contemporary and team mate during the Yankees dynasty of the 1990s,, Bernie Williams, sits in a 5th spot with 2336. Imagine that.

If he stays healthy, Jeter will become the first Yankee to reach 3000 hits.

***

I was looking over the list of hit leaders by team and a couple hit me:

An American of French-Canadian heritage, Napoleon Lajoie remains the Cleveland Indians all-time leader with 2046. Lajoie played early in the 20th century, when it was still fashionable (I’m guessing) to name your kid Napoleon. Prior to this it was Charlemagne. I kid.

In any event, it’s been a long-time sits the Indians have had a new chief, cough, in town.

Another one that hit me – deliberate pun notwithstanding – was Ty Cobb’s 3900 hits for the Detroit Tigers. I know we should never say never but man, that’s going to be one tough record to crack.

It’s like the Edmonton Oilers and the records Wayne Gretzky owns.

I wonder how many more Roberto Clemente would have clocked. He’s the all-time Pittsburgh Pirates leader with 3000. These are rough times for the Pirates, what, with them having the most consecutive losing seasons with 17 of all the four major pro sports in North America. They passed the Philadelphia Phillies who held that record for 16 straight seasons from 1933-1948. Good times for Philadelphia, eh?

The all-time hits leader and eternally wallowing in baseball purgatory, Pete Rose leads the Cincinnati Reds with 3358.

dCtYca4o Stats Corner: A Most Amazing Accomplishment

T'es encore cool, Eli!

As for the Canadian (teams) Tony Fernandez leads with 1583 for the Toronto Blue Jays. That record should fall at some point. Too bad Roy Halladay can’t hit.

And my beloved Expos – now Nationals – were led by one of my favorite Expos ever Tim Wallach with 1694 hits.


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Jeter Wants A Piece Of Yankee Memorabilia

September 20, 2008 By Leave a Comment

By Rebecca Glass

Rumors have abounded as to what Derek Jeter wants to steal from the Stadium. The most prevalent one concerns the Joe DiMaggio quote sign, but word has reached me of another, more interesting memento…

I quote:

In the original clubhouse underneath the bleachers there’s a chair, where in 1939, after Lou Gehrig retired but stayed with the team as captain, he’d go and sit after every game and weep. Before games, Jeter goes and sits in the chair and meditates.
To give himself “strength”

Apparently, the team found out and sent the chair to Cooperstown before Jeter gets his hands on it.

Now, unlike a good journalist, I’m going to admit that as far as I know, it’s just a rumor, but given Jeter’s recent feat, which, coincidentally (or not so coincidentally) involves Gehrig, I have to wonder if Gehrig doesn’t live on in the Captain…

This Purist Bleeds Pinstripes


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Is Derek Jeter In Decline?

April 30, 2008 By Leave a Comment

By Rebecca Glass

This is not a topic that will appease many. Some will consider it downright blasphemy.

Heroes, after all, are supposed to be immortal. They are supposed to be more than human, faultless, blameless, and incapable of aging past their prime.

For over a decade now, Derek Jeter has been more than a hero to legions of Yankees fans. Ask anyone on the street, pink hat or not, to name the quintessential Yankee of the last ten years, and you would be shocked and appalled if “Derek Jeter” did not cross his or her lips.

It is hard to quantify how much Derek Jeter has meant to the Yankees. Four World Series rings, six World Series, seven League Championship Series, twelve Octobers…and still, this does not seem to do him justice.

His name is uttered in the same breath as the other Yankee icons–Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Berra, Mantle, for example–and right now, it seems an impossibility to imagine an Opening Day roster without Derek Jeter present.

Yet, sooner or later, he will retire. There will be a plaque in Monument Park to start (and, perhaps a half-century or so down the line, a monument as well), a ballot to Cooperstown, an appearance (or two or three or ten…) at Old Timer’s Day, and a spike in sales of “vintage” Jeter jerseys.

While the day that this happens might still be a few years off–Jeter is 34 this year, so it’s not unreasonable to expect another five–the decline that precipitates it is not.

Derek Jeter is not Lou Gehrig; it is highly unlikely his decline will be as sudden and complete as Gehrig, who was, of course, victim of ALS. Instead, it will likely be more subtle–a play here or there that he would have made in his youth that he can no longer make. Perhaps one of those spin-jump-throws he does so well is the first place you see it, because the jump isn’t quite as high as you would have expected from the Captain.

However, the decline will happen, the production at the plate will begin to drop off a bit and the fielding will cease to be as crisp and a day might eventually come where Alberto Gonzalez (or whoever is on the team at the time) replaces Jeter in the field in later innings in a close game for better defense.

When it does happen, it will become the elephant in the room–the one topic that must be addressed, though no one will want to address it.

No one is going to want to replace Derek Jeter–if the Yankees can find anyone remotely similar to the way Tino Martinez was for Don Mattingly, it will be an accomplishment.

No one wants to talk about the decline of Derek Jeter, but eventually, the Yankees–and thus their fans–will have to. They’ll have to talk about the decline, find a replacement (Despite how long Jason Giambi has been with the team, he still doesn’t seem to be the proper replacement for Mattingly and Martinez, and while Melky is coming into his own, it will, rightly or wrongly, be a while before people mention him in the same breath as Bernie Williams) and move on, and somehow, somewhere, someone will have to admit that Derek Jeter is human.

In terms of what he has meant for the Yankees, Jeter is as immortal as they come. No true Yankee fan would question that, but the sooner Yankee fans realize that he won’t play forever, the sooner he is no longer made untouchable, the easier it will be when Jeter’s decline reaches the point that it can no longer be ignored.

Rebecca blogs at This Purist Bleeds Pinstripes


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