WHY DEREK JETER IS A MAN WITH CLASS

By now the dust has settled a bit on Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine's absurd comments towards Derek Jeter and the New York Yankees regarding the infamous "flip play". I think in the end even Valentine realized what a fool he looked like trying to get a rise out of the Yankees Captain. I am not going to get into what Valentine said and how he made an ass out of himself. Casey did a great job of that a few days ago in his piece, WHY IT'S JETER 1, VALENTINE 0. What I wanted to write about though is something I think often gets overlooked when the discussion of Jeter comes up...it's how much class he has. You know, I often hear things like, "this guy has so much class." But what does that actually mean? So, I went ahead and looked up the definition of class:

CLASS: (used as an adjective) of high quality, integrity, status, or style

So based on that definition above, let me ask you this...has there ever been a professional athlete who has carried himself with more class in his career than Derek Jeter? I am talking any sport in any era. Maybe you can name a few who had as much class, but you can't name someone who has more class than Jeter...am I right?

(In Photo: A much younger and still classy Derek Jeter)
Like most of you, I've been following the Yankees for a very long time, including Jeter's entire career and I cannot remember one time when he has ever come close to throwing his team or teammates under the bus. I cannot think of one time he has badmouthed opposing players, no matter what the circumstances were. I cannot think of one time when Jeter has ever got into a "fight" with another player or manager using the media. And as you all know, there have been plenty of times during Jeter's career when he could have, but he just doesn't allow himself to get sucked in and it's because he has so much class. Casey brought up a point about how once that "flip" play happened and everyone was complimenting our captain, Derek pushed the spotlight off himself. Here's Casey's quote: "A humble Derek Jeter tried to take the spotlight off himself making that dynamic play and instead he complimented Yankees training. Anyone listening to Jeter knew he was deflecting because he's about TEAM... at least I did." (Read WHY VALENTINE IS BASEBALL'S UNCLE RICO.) It makes sense...Class all the way.

So thank you Derek for leading by example. Thank you for talking the talk and walking the walk all these years with so much dignity and class. Now, lets go kick some Boston ass!

--Mikey Blue, BYB Senior Writer
Email: DonnieBaseball2323@gmail.com
Twitter: @MikeyBlu23


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