NANCY NEWMAN UNDERSTANDS WHAT MAKES JETER GREAT!

I like Nancy Newman of the YES network a lot. In fact, over time I'd like to have a more in depth chat with Nancy and bring her into the Bleeding Yankee Blue family.

Anyway, I wanted to share this story that ran on YESNetwork.com. It's about Derek Jeter and his parents Dr. Charles and Dorothy Jeter. Amazing parents and from what I can tell, great people too.

Check this out:


Now, as you know, we speak alot about parenting and guiding our children in the right direction here on BYB. I'm of the belief that baseball and life are parallel with very similar stepping stones and I wrote about it in BYB 4 YEARS LATER: INSPIRED BY YOU!:

"It starts as early as Tee-ball, or childhood, and then develops into the Farm league, or, elementary school and the social aspect and learning that will take you further.  

Before you know it, you’re on a 60-90 diamond and you’re in the real world.  And that swing you have may need a tweak.  Or, maybe that swing’s your attitude and how you handle people in the real world. Baseball’s about stepping stones and in life, you constantly climb mountains.  There are obstacles, and dammit, it’s the hardest fight in the world. Many times you’re tired and you want to give up.  You stare at the mountain and you think to yourself, “I could stop right now and be content.” Then you mind wonders, and you think...  “But what if I make it?!”  Suddenly, there you are on top, and looking in the distance, there’s another mountain, slightly bigger than the one you just climbed.  But here’s the difference this time; You have the confidence to tackle it and go further."

That's Derek... that can be your child as well. Look, I'm not here to get all Joel Osteen on you, but I am here to tell you that parenting and focusing and guiding your kids is key. It makes them better people in life.  Clearly the Jeter parents handled it well and I applaud them for their parenting of Derek and Sharlee.  Strong-willed individuals. They did it right.

I was touched by the interview above.  It's just a great tribute.  Parents want the best for their children. Parents want their children to climb the mountain and be successful.  I once wrote a piece called WHY JETER IS EPIC FOR 1 GOOD REASON.  It was written in June 2011.  In it, I wrote:

"So why does he have this incredible drive, this refusal to fail and a positive outlook on life? Amazing parents. I'll never forget it, my wife, who could care less about baseball and thinks BYB is my mistress, knows one thing, a person's presentation. She doesn't care about the players themselves, but does care about how they present themselves because after all, they are role models to our kids."

Seeing Jeter, and seeing what good parents are all about, makes it addictive for us parents. We want little Jeters.  More importantly, we want our kids to become great in themselves.  We want successful "Jimmys" or "Saras" too.

I leave you with this. It was from the same piece:

"As a father, I can tell you, there's no better gift in life than seeing your kid standing on second base after he just knocked in 2 runs and put his team in the lead. The moment the 2 of you look at each other isn't a "Look dad. I did it", it's "Thank you dad, that one's for you."

That same boy I wrote about is in a more competitive league now in 2014 and pushing hard to perfect the craft of baseball. But more importantly, when he or any of my kids fail, they learn from it.  Then, they try it again.  Success is about failure, and learning from it.  Baseball's hard, and guess what... so is life sometimes.  But being there for your kids helps... and I applaud the Jeter parents.

One minor critique... and this is not directed at Nancy or Jeter or the Jeter family at all. It's directed toward the web production of YESNetwork.com.  Make Nancy look good! 

Instead of using bad quality stills of Jeter, spend a few bucks, use some high quality stills for crying out loud! We live in a high resolution world these days! Make the product sing!  Make Nancy look great, she deserves it!

Anyway... I also applaud Nancy Newman for doing this important piece. Bravo girl! Love your work!

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