Rain Delay Flashback: Channeling Jeet's Nose

By a great writer, Michael Martone (formerly of Syracuse & Naptown)

Oct. 2006, Esquire Magazine

Martone, conjuring the deep thoughts of Derek Jeter:

The day began with the launch at Lever House. I told the press that smell sparks the clearest memories, and that I have always worn cologne but from now on I would only wear Driven, my signature fragrance. Outside, a Town Car's parked on Park to whisk me to do a live spot on Regis and Kelly. I was wearing a gray suit that the Barneys guy told me was the same as Cary Grant's in North by Northwest. The glen plaid strobed when I sat down onstage to say that smell always evokes the sharpest memories. Then we raced to The View for Meredith's last day. Everyone weepy. "Memory comes alive," I said, "when you smell it."

In a spot downtown, with Mizrahi at my side, I mention that the scent is designed to capture courage, ambition, passion, confidence. A smell will conjure up an exact memory of something you have forgotten.

What I remember about the Catch is this: The fan I flew into in the stands was wearing Amazing by Bill Blass. Amazing. Holding Envy under my nose brings back the Flip to Posada. The earthy nose of the cologne mixed with the musk emanating from the ump's upraised right arm. Last night a contradictory odor seeped from Scott Proctor after he walked Thome with one out in the seventh, infusing the infield in waves. I tapped my mitt, releasing the buttery smell of the neat's-foot oil. Konerko came round on the ball too, broadcasting a fresh application of pine tar.