THE CAPTAIN HAS SPOKEN

Yankeeland is in a tizzy right now.  Everyone knows it.  Many are panicking, yet the one guy, the leader, the true baseball icon in America right now, Derek Jeter, has a message for everyone out there... Don't panic.
When I see that phrase attributed to him, I feel calm. Why? Because this is a guy that's been through it all, and he always comes out a champion.  This is a guy that you want your children to root for. This is the guy you want your daughter to date. Derek Jeter speaks... and people listen. That's why he's the Captain and a great one at that.  Jeter talked about confidence as a ballplayer HERE and ESPN has it.  Look, just read his quotes...that's all you have to do to know that Jeet means business.
 
"Still got to have confidence... Unfortunately you can’t win every day. You’d like to – the approach is to win every day, but you’re going to go through highs and lows. You still have to have confidence, and we have a lot of confidence."

"Yeah, it's tough right now... but you can change it. We beat some teams early on, right? Baseball’s a funny game, a funny sport. Sometimes you struggle a bit, and then all of a sudden, things seem to change and you roll off a lot of wins. Hopefully we start that... I'm not one to panic."

He nailed... "You can change it."  It's very true.  In baseball, it's 1 moment in a game that sometimes changes momentum.  There have been tons of times that I've watched a game and said, "Wow, that play right there just turned the tide", meaning, here comes the rally, or the streak or the win, whatever.  The point is, things change fast sometimes and while the Yankees are in a slump, trust me, the Captain has spoken...and hopefully the team responds.

Finally, think about what else Jeter talked about.  He talked about confidence.  This is a guy that the whole world wrote off after his .270 season. But he made some changes in his swing and he began hitting again.  I recently wrote WHY JETER LEADS BY EXAMPLE. In it, I wrote this simple sentence... "...it starts with confidence, a trait Jeter has always had..." There we go, dipping into the confidence well again, but it's significant because confidence is what made him not give up on his ability to play the game after the New York Sports Media wrote him off, and confidence is what he speaks about again now.  The Yankees can do this...they just need to have confidence.

By the way, you know where I saw confidence yesterday? Russell Martin. Martin's hungry and the reason why I know that is because he busted down the line, slid into first base, was not only safe but got an RBI home as well.  Martin believes too and it's "that moment" I was speaking about that could change the whole season.  Maybe the Captain speaking confidence and Martin showing confidence will start alittle something...just sayin'!


OK Yankees...clean slate... we start winning today!

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