PRAYERS FOR DAMAR HAMLIN

Not sure if you saw it or not, and no it's not a baseball thing, but it's a humanity thing.  Damar Hamlin collapsed in last night's Bills / Bengals game, and the entire football world went quiet.

WHYY writes:

"Hamlin collapsed on the field during the first quarter of the nationally televised game against the Cincinnati Bengals and was given medical treatment for nearly 20 minutes before being taken to a hospital.

“Damar Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest following a hit in our game versus the Bengals. His heartbeat was restored on the field and he was transferred to the UC Medical Center for further testing and treatment,” the Bills said in a statement. “He is currently sedated and listed in critical condition.”

I don't care how passionate you are a sports fan, you never wish this on anyone.  Sadly, assholes like Skip Bayless and Charlie Kirk think this is a moment to be provocative:

The Kirk story is brought to you by MSN.com

"In a tweet, Kirk claimed that the collapse of the 24-year-old Buffalo Bills player fits in a series of recent incidents involving "athletes dropping suddenly," something he said has become an "all too familiar sight right now."

Kirk's comment, as many responding to his tweet picked up on, fuels fears and concerns over COVID-19 vaccinations making people sick, a theory that anti-vaccine proponents in the U.S. and the rest of the world have been pushing forward for the past couple of years."

Loser.

Here's Skip Bayless being an idiot:

What makes it worse is the smug picture of Skip on his tweet. He's just a prick.

These 2 are pieces are garbage. They always have been and hopefully this moment will amplify it. They're ridiculous and pathetic.

Prayers for Hamlin and his family right now.

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."



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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.

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NOT EVERYONE CAN BE A YANKEE

As a native New Yorker, one of my favorite activities is to watch New York News, particularly the sports segment and skim the pages of the latest edition of one its tabloids.  Like many New York sports fans, I look forward to the back page headlines about Jeter, Robinson Cano, and Mark Teixeira.  The cleverly worded, creative juxtaposition of fact and fiction that even if only for a day, tells the New York audience and perhaps even the world that something profound, something amazing, or something dreadful happened to one of our teams, or one of our players.  Not everyone can take the criticism dealt by today’s finest reporters who by trade are trained to investigate, probe, and cover today’s teams intimately, professionally, and uniquely. 

Take for a moment our favorite son, Derek Jeter, who recently underwent two interesting media angles- Skip Bayless’ steroid implication and an interview with ESPN’s Rick Reilly, which launched the now famous “Hit or Miss” article.  In the Bayless situation, Jeter quickly shot back, read HERE.  BYB went off about the implication from Bayless (Read SHAME ON SKIP BAYLESS), we found it ridiculous. And when it came to Reilly, the article may have “baited” Jeter to “miss” when asked if he would ever change teams, read HERE.  No one ever doubted that Jeter loves to play baseball, and that he exemplifies the famous, “I’d like to thank the good Lord for making me a Yankee” quote.  It was just a hypothetical question, and after the interview, Jeter went back to doing what he does best- hit.  Yankee fans, the true ones, like us, really paid no mind to it, chalking it up to just another media angle. 

Sometimes these kind of angles rattle players who come to New York after playing for smaller market teams.  Take for example, AJ Burnett, who for the last two seasons with the Yankees had a miserable 5.20 ERA with a record of 21-26.  When the trade to Pittsburgh was official, Burnett said “he is very glad to be getting away from the New York Yankees.”  Blaming the team for “tinkering with his pitching”, perhaps what he was really saying was that he couldn’t take being in the media hot seat, read HERE.

Future hall of famer, Randy Johnson, couldn’t make it in New York either.  His two seasons with the Yankees were not memorable ones.  “It seems that he just didn't know what he was in for when coming to New York,” according to 2010 article published in the Bleacher Report, HERE.

ARod has handled the sometimes not so friendly New York press like a champ.  He had a little trouble swallowing some of the comments made this summer by his friend and former Yankee Reggie Jackson, who was never afraid of any type of controversy in his career.  According to the Sports Illustrated article, Reggie Can Still Cause a Stir (HERE), “Jackson knows what makes for a sexy story and what makes reporters turn their tape recorders off, and so he gives a warning.”  Condemning A-Rod for his steroid use, Jackson’s comments caused more hurt to A-Rod than any of us.  To us, it is a story, a headline soon forgotten as A-Rod goes back to work. 

The difference between Jeter and A-Rod vs. Burnett and Johnson: Thick skin and a high tolerance for New York media.  Not everyone can be a Yankee and not everyone can make it to the Yankees, but when they do, they need to know how to navigate fans, traffic, and yes, the media.
 

--Suzie Pinstripe, BYB Opinion Columnist
Twitter: @suzieprof





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DEREK JETER FOR MVP? CONSIDER IT

You can’t deny Derek Jeter the opportunity to become the 2012 American League MVP this season.  He has done everything a captain can do for a ball club riddled with injury and struggle.  He has hit well, almost to the point of finding the Fountain of Youth, all because he found new life in what appears to be just being alittle more patient at the plate.  A tiny mechanical thing that he only found by accident when he was rehabbing last season down in Tampa.  Thank God he found it, because it’s making a ton of sports writers who wrote him off in 2010 really eat crow right now… and you know how I love that.  Just to rehash, because I can, this is what many of the headlines read back in 2010:

USA Today (October 2010): For a Yankees Icon, the beginning of the end

Business Insider (June 2011): Derek Jeter is getting old

Yahoo (July 2010): A Declining Derek Jeter on Collision Course with New York Yankees

ESPN (November 2010): Yanks will overpay for Jeter

New York Magazine (April 2011): This is the Derek Jeter Start Yankee Fans Feared

NBC New York (August 2010): The Derek Jeter Slump Hits the front page

New York Times (July 2010): Is a Slump a Reason for Concern?

New York Daily News (April 2011):   Yankees' Derek Jeter looks lost at the plate...

Just the headlines alone give a negative vibe that the end was near for Jeter, even if you read their pieces and it was mildly positive, the headline itself is like a slap at our Captain.  This is what Bleeding Yankee Blue’s headlines were right around that time:

WHY DEREK JETER IS OUR CAPTAIN

THE APPEAL OF DEREK JETER

WHY JETER DESERVES A PAY DAY

Why am I comparing? I'll tell you why... because we never gave up on the captain when everyone else in the media did. That's significant.

Now, as we approach one of Derek Jeter’s best seasons since 2009, (.334 BA in '09), you really have to starting thinking, could this be real life?  Could this 38 year old guy who’s pretty much won every type of individual and team award in his career also tack on a 2012 MVP award? Here are his numbers this season: 195 H / .323 AVG / 15 HR / 53 RBI. Look, It’s true, there are plenty of options, great players also have great seasons.  Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels is killing the ball right now (163 H /.331 AVG / 27 HR / 77 RBI), and many believe he’ll be the guy, but there is also another “little” award he should collect first. 

(In Photo: Derek Jeter, 1996)
It’s called the Rookie of the Year award.  Remember that award? Derek Jeter won it in 1996.   

Miguel Cabrera continues to have a great season (179 H / .328 AVG / 36 HR / 118 RBI), he always does and let’s not forget, this guy is just a great hitter. Sure, he deserves consideration too. 

And Josh Hamilton? Sure, the guy hits the ball well and has terrific numbers (145 H /.298 AVG / 41 HR / 121 RBI), but I have to tell you, it almost seems logical that Derek Jeter be considered ahead of them, and even more so than a guy like Robinson Cano. Why? The reason is simple… The comeback.  I hate to use that term because Jeter hasn’t gone anywhere.  What I mean is Jeter came to life again...hard! All us Yankee fans knew he still “had” it, but finding it took alittle while.  Couple that with Jeter being a classy, clean ballplayer with no scandal attached…not even PEDs Skip Bayless (Read SHAME ON SKIP BAYLESS) and we may be onto something big this year for Jeet.

Look Derek Jeter is currently batting .323, his best average since 2009 when he ended the season with a .334 average. His home runs are up (2012: 15 - 2011: 6), his OPS is up (2012: .817 to 2011: .743) and this is another factor, but a factor that won’t be (and probably shouldn’t be) considered in the voting.  Jeter at this point has 3283 hits in his career and 195 this year.  He’s quickly approaching Pete Rose and his all-time hits record.  He’s tied with Willie Mays (Read HERE) and about to pass guys like Honus Wagner and Stan Musial...legends.  I mean are you freaking kidding me?  We are talking about a living legend right here, right now in Derek Sanderson Jeter.

Now would Jeter want to hear about MVP talk? Hell no.  He just wants to win another ring, as a team. He just wants this Yankee team to win more games than just 1 in a row and instead rally for a winning streak in September.  That’s all he’s thinking about. For Jeter, we all know these individual awards are weird for him and that’s fine, you need to admire that.  Jeter’s a gamer and a team player, but my God, the fact that fans at Yankee stadium aren’t yet chanting “M-V-P” when he walks to the plate is puzzling to me. We need to start drumming up the chatter Ladies and Gentlemen, tonight! Why?

Because while 20 year old Mike Trout has played a terrific season, so has 38 year old Derek Jeter.  Think about it, he’s never slowed down this season, he’s been consistent and has kept that average up all year, there really is no drop off.  Amazing.

Yeah, I’m just rambling and slobbering at this point, we all know the voting wouldn’t even consider a New York Yankee anymore.  They’re done with rewarding us, almost like they think we’ve “Won too much,” but they need to think long and hard about this vote, because love the Yankees or hate them, everyone admires Derek Jeter.  I don’t care if you’re a Red Sox fan or a Padres fan, What’s not to admire? Jeter is the ambassador of Major League Baseball. The classiest guy, and one of the hardest working players out there and at 38, I have to tell you, it’s time he needs to get his. 

 

So yeah, when the fans pile into Yankee stadium tonight against the Rays, let’s start the Derek Jeter “M-V-P" chant… the time is now, we have to start drumming up the hype and help out the Captain… he deserves it. I have no doubt in my mind. Jeter could be the 2012 MVP… Damn that's got a nice ring to it, don’t it?

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JETER & POSADA EXCHANGE TEXTS: PART 3

Posada: What’s up HGH!

Jeter: Shut up bro. Skip bayless is a tool!

Posada: I know, hilarious. Laura and I read it and we knew you’d brush it off

Jeter: I’ve heard a lot of things in my time, but not me doping. Silly

Posada: you did the right thing, you homered and shut him up

Jeter: that’s my game, I want to win, who needs this crap??

Posada: right. then you almost got cracked in the head in Cleveland. WHOA

Jeter: that was messed up. 

Posada: i've never seen you that pissed DJ. 

Jeter: i was

Posada: except for that time I put ben gay in your jock! lol

Jeter: that wasn't you, it was Mo... what a dick, i remember that! i was pissed!

Posada: lol

Jeter: so u coming back or what? I heard your getting fat lol

Posada: f u!working out like a monster

Jeter:  sure. We know if I put a twinkie in front of you its all over :)

Posada: oh I see how it is, I break ur chops and you twist it around

Jeter: I can’t have you get the last word :)

Posada: whats Andy doing

Jeter: he’s milking that ankle lol

Posada: is he coming back next year or what? Maybe I’ll join him

Jeter: he said he may. U serious??

Posada: oh yeah, ill come back if Cash is game

Jeter: no way, SERIOUS?

Posada: DJ, im not coming back bro. lol what’s wrong with u?

Jeter: wishful thinking. Ok, screw u

Posada: but I miss it. Right about now

Jeter: we could use u

Posada: just win it this year ok?

Jeter: you got it

Posada: and stop thinking about Pete Rose you selfish son of a bitch

Jeter: OOHHH!

Posada: lol

   

(NOTE: THESE ARE FAKE TEXT EXCHANGES. THIS IS ME USING HUMOR AND MAKING A GUESS OF HOW THE PEOPLE INVOLVED WOULD SPEAK TO EACH OTHER VIA TEXT. THERE IS NOTHING REAL ABOUT THIS. IT IS DONE STRICTLY FOR LAUGHS. ENJOY)

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WHY DEREK JETER IS THE GREATEST

Sure, when the reporters asked Derek Jeter about the comments Skip Bayless made in regards to Jeter and his HGH accusation, Derek could have told the media to tell Skip to go “F himself.” He could have looked into the camera and pulled a “Skip, why don’t you come over here and test me!” You know, a Gary Sheffield type attitude that is totally out of character for Derek Jeter.  He didn’t.  He merely suggested that he didn’t want to get involved in it.  He was disappointed and said:

"This is a first for me, man...I don't know what to tell you ... What do you want me to say?  I ain't getting involved with this, man. You can say whatever you want to say now, huh? There's no repercussions."

"Whenever you have people that anytime you bring something like this to light with guys that are doing things, it's like, now you have everybody questioning everything....That's the unfortunate thing. Maybe Skip should be tested." (Read more HERE .)

(In Photo: Derek Jeter on Wednesday night)
I love Jeter. Jeter joked about it...he knows the whole thing is BS.  Then, with as much class as you can expect from a Captain and Major League baseball icon, he went on the field on Wednesday night and cranked a home run.  He’d forgotten about it. That’s his job. We fans never forget. That’s our job. We protect our boys and we will damn sure protect Derek Jeter.

What has happened to ESPN? Sure bias is fine and we call out ESPN for their slant against the Yankees and we’ve heard plenty of it over the years.  They twist their coverage, not always in an obvious way, but intentionally yes...they slap the Yanks from time to time without a doubt. This is America, they have that right I guess.  They have Peter Gammons, a former Boston Red Sox writer for the Boston Globe from 1969 to 1986. Now, oddly enough a Baseball Analyst.  I never understood that one. Once you write for a team for that long, it's pretty obvious you're a fan. If you think I'm being silly, I counter that...why else do you become a writer for a certain team in the first place?  Let’s be fair, if he has an allegiance to the Sox, let him analyze the Sox. What do I, a Yankee fan, care what Peter Gammons says about the Yankees or any other team for that matter? 

They you have Skip Bayless who has built a career, good for him. I remember when he was a writer in Dallas.  He’s made a name for himself, not being too creative mind you, he just spews stuff to push everybody’s buttons, but that’s his job now.  Bottom line, It’s not about being responsible, it’s about him being provocative.  I guess if you know that going in, you accept it.  But what he did to Derek Jeter was horrendous.  For those of you who don’t know, Skip said this in reference to Derek Jeter: "I am shocked by what I'm seeing from Derek Jeter right now. They all said he was washed up. All of a sudden, this man has turned 38 years of age in June and already he has more hits than he had last year. ... I'm seeing a whole new guy this year from last year ... Are you kidding me? You would have to have your head in the sand or your head somewhere else not to at least wonder, 'How is he doing this?' " Read more of that stupid stuff HERE.

Now, if anyone in ESPN actually had a brain in their head, they’d bring Skip in and tell him, “Shut your mouth. Accusations like that don’t fly.” But, they won’t.  You want to know how I know? Because Rick Sutcliffe was in rare form too the other day and it had nothing to do with Derek Jeter and everything to do with ethnicity.  I was taken back by Rick Sutcliffe suggesting that Melky Cabrera should be “deported”  for his recent failed test that suspended him for 50 games. Read HERE.  

It’s a bit outrageous.  Again though, ESPN should sit Sutcliffe down and tell him to shut his mouth.  Melky should sue them.  That doesn't seem like an opinion from Sutcliffe as much as it's seems like a threat…it’s over the top and like I mentioned the other day in PINEDA'S DUI IS WORSE THAN MELKY'S LIE. DON'T GET IT TWISTED, Melky is hurting himself, not others with his PEDs use. Yes, what Melky did was stupid, but Melky should get deported Rick? I'm not seeing the connection.  ESPN used to be the gold standard in Sports news.  They are a bunch of hacks that grasp desperately at topics to get as many clicks and views as they can.  My goodness.

But back to Derek Jeter for a second.  I don’t think in all the years he’s been in baseball has anyone ever NOT called Jeet a competitor.  Sure, in 2010 they called him “slower” and “older” but one thing he never lost was the fire in his belly.  This is a guy that won 5 championships with the Yankees. This is a guy that has manned shortstop officially for the Yankees since 1996.  This is a guy that leads this team when the team can’t win.  He’s always there and if he’s not hitting, his reaction is the same as if he was.  He pushes the others to do better and knows that he’ll come around soon enough.  He our Golden Boy. He’s Major League Baseball’s Golden Boy, like it or not.  Derek Jeter is the ultimate athlete.

I recently wrote a piece about Jeter and his hit record and how Jeter is about 1000 hits away from  Pete Rose .  Read CAN JETER CATCH ROSE? NEVER SAY NEVER IN NEW YORK  I have a feeling and it’s just a feeling…Derek Jeter will break that record.  Here’s why…  If you think about it, Derek Jeter has never been a fan of individual records.  He feels uncomfortable and uneasy when he’s standing there as an individual holding up his helmet to a standing ovation.  

That’s why 2008 at the old Yankee stadium was so symbolic.  It was Jeter standing there with 25 guys holding their caps high, as a team! That’s what he represents. But there’s more to it.  If there is 1 record in baseball that you want, especially the type of hitter Derek Jeter is, it’s the hits record.  Sure 1000 is a long way off, but he’s broken so many records already that while he’s appreciative of all of them and the players he's passing, he’s not “thinking” about it.  Now, he sees Pete Rose in his sights and as he makes this historic run, I think he’ll think to himself “I’ve always been a team player, but 4256 is staring me in the face. How do I NOT go for it?”  Sure, he won’t over think it, that’s not his style, but it will be the only record in the back of Jeter’s mind right now. It should be at least, whether it’s Jeter’s personality or not...eye on the prize.

Jeter needs this for him first, then us. Sure, it's easy for him to say, "I'm already going to the Hall of Fame, why bother?" But why would he do that?  Yes, it won’t be easy, but this is Jeter we’re talking about. If he stays healthy and just plays the game the way he has always done it, there is nothing he can’t accomplish.  I believe that. Why? Because Derek Jeter is the greatest...that's why.

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