JETER MUST LET US BREAK DOWN HIS WALL FOR A BRILLIANT FAREWELL

We all know that Derek Jeter gives you absolutely nothing when he communicates to the media.  He doesn’t talk out of turn, he will never say a bad thing about management, the club, an individual player.  He’s a team player… and that’s what you want.  No, you don’t want a robot, you want loyalty and respect.  That’s what Derek Jeter offers.

It didn’t surprise me that Mariano Rivera “didn’t see it coming” when Derek Jeter announced his retirement.  I think that many of us Yankee fans have this perception that the Core Four literally text each other all day long and hang out "tooling around" New York City for the past 15 years going to clubs and across the white, pinstriped limo they drive around it, it reads "CORE FOUR" across the doors or something.  Truth be told, these guys all have lives and families and while they grew up together in the Yankees farm system, there’s a time for fun and a time for baseball.  They were professionals and while I’m sure they did their thing to blow off steam every once in a while, there was a code of conduct and they respected it and lead by example.  I don’t believe they were constantly lounging out in each other's pads day after day though.  And that’s why it didn’t surprise me about Mo not knowing… and by the way, it’s no big deal that he didn’t know. In fact, it makes sense if you’re Derek Jeter. He’s private. It fits in line with what he’s done for years.

In an ESPN piece earlier this week, Mo said, “I didn't see this coming at all. I didn't see it… For sure I was one of the guys that said they would have to pull his uniform off his body to take him out. But I was wrong, and this was a surprise to me.''

I guess it’s honesty right there. Mariano gave ESPN even more saying of now Jeter’s farewell tour and comparing it to his own:

"It will be better… He deserves it. He has given everything for the game of baseball, and when you have a player like that, he deserves that and more.''

God. I think about how amazing Mariano is with the media and how generous and respectful he is to the guys with their pens and pads, willing to give them a great bite to print, but it’s more than that.  He loved being a Yankee and he loves his brothers, Jeter, Jorge Posada, Andy Pettitte and Bernie Williams.  Those were his boys for years and there is something  to be said about a bond that tight… it can never be broken.

Mariano had an incredible “Farewell tour”, but Mariano is right… Derek Jeter’s WILL be better.  And if you asked Jeter about it, he’d tell you he wouldn’t want that at all, because of his love of Mariano. Jeter is never the type to overshadow any other player in the game, because he respects the game, but this year is something different. We need to force him to enjoy it. We need to help him break down his wall and help him take it all in, he deserves it.

It’s Jeter’s time to sit back and enjoy himself.  He’s done so much for the game, for the fans and for the team. It’s his time, and in his strategic and programmed world of never giving us anything, he’s going to have to just re-program himself this year and learn to enjoy it.

I hope he can, because we’ve had the priveledge to see great things from Derek Sanderson Jeter for 20 years… and now it’s his time, whether he’s comfortable with it or not.

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