SOME GUYS YOU DON'T BET AGAINST

If you listen close you can hear the whispers. Listen. Do you hear that? They’re faint and you might miss them under the heartfelt cheers and well wishes showering Derek Jeter each time he steps foot on the field. Spring Training crowds at “The Boss” and around the Grapefruit League are taking every chance they can to catch The Captain one last time…but as the old  saying goes, “Your fans are in the streets and your critics are in the weeds.”  And there are some already reading Jeter his last rights…softly.

It is true that this spring has been an ugly one offensively for the Yankees’ 40 yr old shortstop.  He really has to rebuild it all from the ground up. Once the ankle mended and he was able to get his legs under him again, Derek needed to play catch up after basically missing an entire season. This would be a tough task for a 26-year-old coming into his prime, and unfortunately for Jeter and the Yankee faithful…Jeet is the Big 4 0 in June. Did you hear that? The whispers were joined by snickers…probably folks from Boston. Figures.

Joe Girardi and others in the New York ranks have deflected any and all “Are you concerned about Jeter” questions. They may be doing it out of respect, but I think they know that there are just some guys you NEVER bet against. Derek Jeter is one of those players.

I grew up emulating San Francisco 49ers’ legend Joe Montana…which caused me some abuse living in the Tri-State area. My Dad has always been my coach, and at an early age he told me to model my game after Joe. He wasn’t the biggest. He wasn’t overwhelmingly fast and didn’t have an arm like Marino or Elway…but Joe knew how to win. He took the frame and physical attributes he was born with and made the most out of them.

He was also a Patton-like field general. He instilled confidence in his teammates and made the entire unit better just taking the field. In my opinion he was the best ever to play the position. It’s up for debate I know, but what is not is the FACT that you could NEVER count Montana out. Even when the Niners pushed him off to Kansas City Joe still showed them and Steve Young that he was still the man and that 8 was only half of 16.

There have been others cut from this same cloth. They never let up. Even in the face of Father Time these players always come through in the end. I don’t care if you are in the sad, delusional sect that calls Jeter overrated or chose not to like him outright. I don’t care if you are an absolute Hall of Fame naysayer and clown like Skip Bayless. You can’t take it away from Mr. Jeter. He is special. A once in a lifetime type winner and this season he WILL show up. Bank on it.

As the Yankees get ready to break camp, Derek Jeter’s last, you can almost hear a powerful John Williams movie soundtrack starting to build. It haunts you like the lone French horn in the intro to “Superman”.


The season will be memorable for sure, but I think it will be more than that. On the day he captured his 3,000th hit (a dinger by the way) he also went 5 for 5. He mentioned that he couldn’t have scripted that way. But think about it, could it have been any other way for “#2 From Kalamazoo”?

Jeter, like Montana, isn’t the strongest. His entire career he’s heard that there were better shortstops all around him (Miggy Tejada in Oakland, “No Mah” in Boston and that suspended guy that played next to him at 3rd). But ask yourself, would they have been there to flip the ball to Jorgie in time to tag Jeremy Giambi? Would they have thrown themselves into the stands for a pop fly against the Sox? Would they have sent a rocket over the right field wall as the clock struck November in 2001.  I can’t say for sure, they were all great players, but I’m leaning towards a big ol' NOPE.

What will Jeter’s numbers be at the end of the 2014 season? I couldn’t say. Will he go out hitting over .300 with a Gold Glove and World Series Title? Well, it’s Derek Jeter, it might seem impossible to those whispering in the weeds, but for those of us cheering him in the streets, we just won’t bet against it.

 

--Mike O'Hara, MLB Fan Cave Host, Season 1
   Twitter: @mikeyoh21
"Paulie was always my favorite player."



You've made BYB the fastest growing Yankees fan site in history. Now shop at the Bleeding Yankee Blue store!  Follow me on Twitter @BleednYankeeBlu and LIKE Bleeding Yankee Blue on Facebook!

MIGUEL TEJADA SUSPENDED BY MLB

A quick note just to keep you in the loop.  I'm not getting into this PEDs thing now... it's too nice out in the Northeast and I want to chill... but Miguel Tejada was suspended for 105 games. That report comes from Yahoo Sports and Jeff Passan (HERE), who's all over this story:

"Kansas City Royals infielder Miguel Tejada will receive a 105-game suspension after twice testing positive for Adderall, a penalty that could end the career of the 39-year-old former American League MVP, sources told Yahoo! Sports.

Because Tejada had previously tested positive under the league’s amphetamine policy, he was subject to a 25-game ban for a second positive, which was found in a test this season. A third positive, in close proximity to the second, called for an additional 80-game suspension, totaling a concurrent 105. "

PEDs have destroyed this great game... let's get back to clean baseball, what do you say?

The Bleeding Yankee Blue store is opened! CLICK HERE TO START SHOPPING! Also, follow me on Twitter @BleednYankeeBlu and join the group Bleeding Yankee Blue (Official) on Facebook, just type it in.

VERDUCCI JUST DRAGGED JETER INTO THE AROD MESS

"Rodriguez brought his fraudulency to the Yankees next, and with it came the discomfort caused by being teammates with Jeter. People speculated that their friction stemmed from a 2001 Esquire article in which Rodriguez took an unsolicited shot at Jeter, saying, 'Jeter's been blessed with talent around him. He never had to lead. He can just go play and have fun. And he hits second -- that's totally different than third or fourth in a lineup. You go into New York, you wanna stop Bernie [Williams] and [Paul] O'Neill. You never say, 'Don't let Derek beat you.' He's never your concern.'"

The article didn't help, especially for a guy like Jeter, who demands cold-blooded loyalty. But associates of Jeter knew what also bothered Jeter was Rodriguez's PED use, a whispered secret among players. It wasn't so much the popular comparison among the AL shortstops -- Jeter, Rodriguez, Miguel Tejada and Nomar Garciaparra -- in which people (including Rodriguez himself) degraded Jeter for his relative lack of power, his price for playing the game clean. It was that Jeter knew the two of them were wired so differently, with Rodriguez choosing the deceit of steroids to play the game."

That quote is from Tom Verducci in his SI piece HERE,  and my only question is... are you seriously bringing Derek Jeter into this? Why make it worse?

I have told you here at Bleeding Yankee Blue that the whole PEDs thing is icky to me. The media starts to call the users villains, (They're not, they're cheaters, there's a difference), and with players being fingered and some accepting their suspension and ARod not, yet, not admitting to NOT using. Meanwhile, the ones who accept are now considered guilty and some of them even previously denied any use. It's a circus and a mess.  One thing I won't stand for though is acting like a victim, like Alex did in his press conference.  The second thing I won't do is stand for people like Tom Verducci, whom I respect, dragging our Captain into it.  All this does is allow people to look at what  he wrote and suggest, "Well, Jeter knew Alex Rodriguez was using, could he be an accomplice?"  Jeter is sacred to Yankee fans, to baseball and it's wrong.  You know how people are, this PEDs story has legs and Verducci just added a few legs to it, putting Jeter and PEDs in the same sentence.

Look at that fool Skip Bayless last season when he "didn't say" Jeter was using but was basically saying there is no way he could be "that good" without dabbling.  Read SHAME ON SKIP BAYLESS for context on that.   Now, I'm not comparing Verducci with Bayless. They are on different levels, but Verducci was trying to be provocative here and I don't appreciate it. This time being provocative at the Captain's expense was wrong.   I would assume that Jeter doesn't like it either and you know what? You shouldn't either.

There are certain players that were and are good for the game of baseball.  Cal Ripken Jr... Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter and of course... in generations before me, there were several too.  Jackie Robinson for example.  Look, I'm not going to keep naming names, you get the idea.  I just didn't appreciate the tone of Verducci's piece is all and wanted to point it out.

Did Tom mean anything by it? Probably not, unless you consider "clicks" a crime, but throwing Jeter into the PEDs mess... it's' not needed... trust me, we have enough to talk about. Keep the Captain out of it!

What do you think? Comment.

The Bleeding Yankee Blue store is opened! CLICK HERE TO START SHOPPING! Also, follow me on Twitter @BleednYankeeBlu and join the group Bleeding Yankee Blue (Official) on Facebook, just type it in.