“I’ve experienced so many defining moments in my career: winning the World Series as a rookie shortstop, being named the Yankees captain, closing the old and opening the new Yankee Stadium. Through it all I’ve never stopped chasing the next one. I want to finally stop the chase and take in the world...
"There are many things I want to do in business and in philanthropic work, in addition to focusing more on my personal life and starting a family of my own. And I want the ability to move at my own pace, see the world and finally have a summer vacation.
“But
before that, I want to soak in every moment of every day this year, so I
can remember it for the rest of my life. And most importantly, I want
to help the Yankees reach our goal of winning another championship.”
Go there, send him a message, the man probably needs a hug right now.
Posts
19 comments:
Rocking chairs made of bats.
Local pols & industry titans copping reflected glory.
Giant checks "raising awareness."
Red Sox taking the high road.
Giuliani and Kim Jong Un blubbering into human-flesh hankies at the gated Food Action Station.
Another god damn year of this.
2014 is ruined.
Cheer up, Mustang. in 2015 we'll have A-Rod back. Maybe he'll take back his old position at short!
OK, I'm over that. Now Jeter's retirement just feels like a cold blast of mortality.
Here's the difference between Jeter and Joe DiMaggio: when the Jolter knew that he was too old to help the team anymore, he held a press conference and retired IMMEDIATELY. No seflish grabbing another year's fat salary; no ego-bloating through an entire season of sentimental tributes; no burdening the team with a 40-year-old witn no range at short who can't hit right-handed pitching any longer and will probably have trouble with lefties as well by now.
In other words, DiMaggio: dignity, grace, putting the team first. Jeter: megalomania, greed, and ego trumps team.
Pardon me if you don't find me reaching for my hankie to dab my eyes. A lunge for the barf bag is more like it.
An addendum to my remarks above:
There's another example of a great player leaving the game with dignity and class and humility. You can read about it in the famous essay "Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu," by John Updike. Here's a link to the piece:
http://www.baseball-almanac.com/articles/hub_fans_bid_kid_adieu_article.shtml
I know it's heresy on this site to speak well of anything Boston--unless it be in the aftermath of a terrorist attack--but screw it: great writing is great writing, and the truth is the truth.
Sorry--the Baseball Almanac version of the Updike essay alters the final paragraph, to its detriment. Here is the version with the original final paragraph, which is far superior:
http://www.boston.com/sports/redsox/williams/july_7/updike_essay.shtml
Poor John and Suzyn. They barely got through last year knowing Mo and Andy were going to retire. Now Jeter is retiring. John's going to hit the bottle harder this year, let's pray for his well being.
I wonder if this might be John's farewell tour, too. He'll have called every major league pitch ever thrown to Derek. Why go on?
Jeter knew he was on borrowed time when Sheppard died. When you have a dead guy announcing your at-bats, you're on the way to emeritus status.
I think the extra year was pretty classy and competitive, Anonymous. Mo did the same thing. These guys aren't going to go out on a year wasted to injury. They want to put in one more good one and then go. Plus, Jeter didn't step on Mo's victory lap. Or Andy's, for that matter.
But it's definitely a lot more the first reason than the second.
Nobody has ever been like DiMag. Nobody. You have to drag most guys off with a giant hook and sometimes they're in Japan when you do it. And Williams...well, he was a great player whose irascibility and general dickness became a lot more lovable when he got old and gray.
Koufax was a special case because of his problems. Damn, he was good.
Koufax's exit is not comparable because it was due to traumatic injury, not to gradual age-related loss of skills.
Williams, apart from any "dickiness," went out like a gentleman and a champion. Jeter is going out as a grasping, vulgar self-promoter.
Such a bad attitude. Jeter is going out as a guy who does not want his last year to be 63 ABs and .190.
I can't fault anyone for that. Obviously, you would just quit and go out a cripple. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Jeter really had his options defined for him.
He didn't want to end his career on IR. Granted, we all want that last run down the mountain.
He couldn't retire last year, even if he knew it was what he should do. MO was retiring and Jeter was not about to take any spotlight away from Mariano.
Jeter is as much an icon as MO and, therefore, he would choose to go out the same way.
I do agree with anonymous to a large extent, but thus is the way of today's world.
The sadness will be if it is Jeter who holds the team back.
It won't be. The team has very little with or without a .230 hitting icon who has no range.
As Duque says, a kid with range and that same .230 average, is three years away. And I am not a believer in the Cito optimism.
If am the only person in the Yankiverse to believe in Cito Culver, so be it.
Write this down: He's going to turn out to be our most productive first-round pick since Jeter.
To Mustang--
Sterling did not call every pitch thrown to Jeter. Mercifully, there was a time when he deigned to share the booth with other play-by-play men--Joe Angel, Michael Kay, and Charley Steiner--before he realized that no other human being rose to the Olympian stature needed to qualify for that task.
I happened upon a YES replay of the snowy home opener of 1996, part of which uses the Sterling play-by-play audio. I noticed that he was much sharper and quicker then, more the workaday pro and less the bulbous self-glorifying madman of the present.
He is the only possible Voice of the Bizarro Yankees.
Let's see how Jeter does this year before we judge him. There are a lot of ways this might yet play out. DiMaggio and Mantle didn't have the DH. It's not uncommon for great pitchers to tweak something any never throw again. (Look at Pineda!)
Jeter will be a cripple whether or not he retires now--that ankle will never hold up.
The main problem is that he will be crippling the team. He cannot hit right-handers anymore, and he cannot adequately field his range-critical position anymore. So his only useful BASEBALL function would be as DH against left-handed pitching, a vanishingly small sliver of usefulness for any team.
DiMaggio and Mantle both had "cripple" numbers in their final years; this did not prevent them from tacking on another year of salary and snatching at the improbablility of a last lunge at glory at the expense of the team. They stepped aside like true team men and champions.
Jeter is playing the gesture for all it's worth in money and megalomania. Chances are that injury or embarrassing level of play will force his hand before the season ends, mercifully cutting short his tacky victory lap and allowing the team to move on-- a well-deserved comeuppance for this image-obsessed fame zombie.
Edit of previous post for sense (change in ALL CAPS):
DiMaggio and Mantle both had "cripple" numbers in their final years; this did not TEMPT them TO TACK on another year of salary and snatch at the improbablility of a last lunge at glory at the expense of the team.
can't wait for you all to eat crow when Jeet bats .300 and moves, gracefully, to 3B. He will request the move. you heard it here first!
Batting .300--the mantra of the baseball ignoramus.
Jeter's walk rate is way down; his strikeout rate is up; his foot speed is way down; his power is in the toilet; so if he does manage to hit .300--an absurd improbability--it will be the weakest .300 of all time.
Moreover, he will give up so many runs on defense, wherever he plays, that it will more than counteract any miraculous uptick on offense.
Of course, for baseball "analysts" who have never progressed beyond the crawling stage, .300 is really awesome!
Post a Comment