Yesterday, in his final at bat - mired in an 0-19 slump - he tapped back to the pitcher, a routine play that happens in full view of the batter. Almost all MLB hitters jog it out - even the ones not named Cano - and nobody complains. But Jeter didn't jog. He busted it, sprinted down the line. Then he kept his head down, while running to the dugout - 0 for 20, his average dipping to levels never seen in September.
Calgon Beauty Bath, take me away...
The FOX cheerleaders started suggesting excuses, with the exasperation of Lucille Ball standing over an accelerating chocolate assembly line. Somebody said Jeter hasn't been the same since Joba Chamberlain hit him on the elbow, a month ago. That's the kind of excuse that cuts in two directions, because if Jeter was really hurt, he should have rested rather than tank the Yankees season. Then again, did he really have the option of calling in sick? The Yankees built the 2014 season around his farewell tour, and everybody knows that in a nostalgia concert, the headliner has to come out for the final song. For 20 years, he's been the soul of the Yankees. He is beyond our judgment or critique. He is just Jeter.
But it kills me to see him staggering to the finish line.
In another universe, Nick Swisher caught that line drive two autumns ago, instead of swallowing his adam's apple and letting it bounce to the right field scoreboard. As a result, two plays later Jeter didn't range to his left and snap his ankle like a breadstick. In that world, he retired with Mariano at the end of 2013, and who knows what happened, considering how close they came last season to reaching the wild card? Replace Alfredo Gonzalez and Eduardo Nunez with a guy who hits .300, and it's easy to imagine the Yankees playing last October...
Ah, but this is just self-torture. We don't get to choose our universes, do we? We can only imagine them, skittering on the edges of our consciousness. What happened yesterday was that Derek Jeter went 0-4. He tapped to the pitcher, and he busted it to the end. Not everybody does that.
Damn, it feels like November. This farewell crap has gone way too long.
Sad, sad, sad. He just collapsed down the stretch, which is not the Jeter we've known for so many years. Yeah, he should've retired last year, but would never end on an injury, of course.
ReplyDeleteIf Jeter was an overnight date of Jeter's, he would've been sitting in the back of a limo taking apart his gift basket a month ago...
who knows if Jeter even wanted to go out like this? he may be doing it only because the organization asked him to. his last contribution to the team that's meant so much to him, and to us. A selfless act.
ReplyDeleteI can chose how I feel, can't I?
I'm with KD, I'll choose my own reality, LOL!
ReplyDeleteIn every city there's a ceremony, every at bat a sea of cell phone cameras recording every nuance of the guy, it's exhausting, especially for a player that just wants to focus on the game. It's also been obvious for some time that there's no realistic 'chase' for a wildcard spot, AND this organization has been selling and selling this one player all season long, ad nauseam,,,, and I'm sure it was the organization's idea to do it this way since they raked in big bucks last year with Mo's Adios-O-Polloza Tour.
If we hate to listen and watch this '14 team, how frustrating must it be to play day in and day out with them,,,, no offense!