Who is this Derek Jeter guy? Or is it Jerek Deter? I don't really know, because I have never heard of him. Thankfully, Wallace Matthews is here to fix this problem and tell me a little bit about Derek Jeter. Without Matthews, God only knows how we would find these obscure players. Yes indeed, Wallace Matthews somehow thinks Derek Jeter is OVERLOOKED on the Yankees team.
Derek Jeter has more hits than any Yankee who ever played the game, which is quite a statement when you remember that the guys who are behind him have names like Ruth and Gehrig and DiMaggio and Mantle and Berra.
I had heard of those other guys, but never heard of this Jeter guy. How did he get all those hits with such little media coverage? So Jeter plays for the Yankees...does Scott Brosius still play for them too? How's Andy Hawkins looking this year? Is he or Dave LaPoint going to be the #2 starter this year?
He also has more hits than any active player in major league baseball, passing Ken Griffey Jr. in the first inning of Friday night's game between the Yankees and the Chicago White Sox at Yankee Stadium.
Ken Griffey Jr. then pulled a hamstring and went on the 15-day disabled list as he tried to pass Jeter the next night.
He's got five World Series rings, a career highlight reel that most players would kill for,
And yet, I had never heard of him and have focused on the other Yankees like Kevin Maas this whole time.
and a reputation for being a big-game player that even a few of his teammates would die for.
Don't tease me anymore, introduce me to this man. I hear he gets a ton of base hits, has a 10 on the clutchiness scale, has steely eyes that can stare down a bear...but does he date attractive brunettes? If so, I have no idea how I have overlooked this man.
And yet, in a Yankees lineup that boasts the likes of Alex Rodriguez, closing in on 600 home runs, and Robinson Cano, who is rapidly emerging as one of the best all-around hitters in the game, and Mark Teixeira, an MVP threat in every month but April, it is quite possible that Jeter, among the top five in so many offensive categories in Yankees history, may be no better than the fourth-best hitter.
(Me done pretending I don't know who Derek Jeter is)
What Wallace says here may very well be the reason Jeter is overlooked this year. Who is the fourth best hitter on the Red Sox this year? The Dodgers? Granted, many people may know that, but Jeter isn't the Yankees top hitter so there may be a reason for him to get overlooked every once in a while on the Yankees team. Not that I am saying he is overlooked, because the one thing The Jeter is not is overlooked. I could see how on a team with other great hitters the focus isn't always on him.
For 15 years, his level of performance has been so high, it is easy to take for granted.
Yet he hasn't been overlooked at all and everything about him has been reported 1,001 times already. We know almost EVERYTHING about Derek Jeter on the baseball field, and in fact, the weaknesses (defense) he has are overlooked and sometimes made up to be seen as strengths for Jeter because of what a great player he has been. He has 4 Gold Gloves and defense hasn't traditionally been his strength. That's a weakness that I think got turned into a strength by those who vote for the Gold Glove.
The only thing overlooked about Derek Jeter in the past has been his weaknesses.
But that doesn't mean he is easy to overlook, nor should he be.
Good...because he isn't overlooked at all. I am tired of typing "overlooked." Wallace Matthews, you have written a bad column.
As Andy Pettitte said after Jeter salvaged his worst outing -- and the Yankees' first come-from-behind win -- of the young season, "When anybody asks me, of all the guys you've played with, who do you want at the plate in a big situation, I mean, it's got to be him. He's the man, you know?"
Clearly this is a quote on how overlooked Derek Jeter truly is. He's the one guy Andy Pettitte wants at the plate in a big situation. When will this man get some respect?
Derek Jeter has been to 10 All-Star games, 4 Gold Gloves, won the 1996 Rookie of the Year, has received votes in 11 MVP races, and plays for the most popular team in the largest market in Major League Baseball. He is in no way overlooked nor ignored.
Or, as White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen put it a little more bluntly, "He is God."
So based on this information from Pettitte and Ozzie Guillen how could one come to the conclusion that Jeter is overlooked in any way? Sure, there may be better hitters currently on the Yankee roster, but Derek Jeter is still the guy a lot of people think about when they think about the New York Yankees.
Perhaps it is easier to appreciate Jeter from the elevated vantage point of the pitcher's mound, or from the opposing dugout, because when Jeter's own manager was asked to assess the performance of his soon-to-be 36-year-old shortstop, he started out by praising a Brett Gardner at-bat that preceded Jeter's game-winning triple before falling into familiar clichés: "Jeter's a winner ... works extremely hard ... plays smart ..." yada, yada, yada.
Perhaps Joe Girardi did this because Jeter has NEVER been overlooked on the Yankees team and in fact has probably been overpraised. A person would think Jeter is overlooked unless he/she thinks we need to see the video of Jeter diving in the stands for a foul ball isn't shown enough or his cut-off and underhand throw to the plate against the A's in the playoffs a few years ago needs to be shown a few thousand more times. Also, when I see a shortstop backhand a ground ball and jump up in the air and throws the ball to first base...I think of Derek Jeter. He's over-respected.
Girardi appreciates Jeter, he just knows there isn't much else to say about him at this point.
You expect it, see? It no longer surprises you, which it shouldn't, and in some senses, it no longer even awes you, which it should.
What else needs to be said at this point? It is not like Jeter still doesn't get enough recognition for the things he does. Why does Wallace Matthews believe we must stay in continual awe of him?
At an age when most shortstops are playing golf or, in the American League, DHing, Jeter continues to play the field as if he were 22 years old, and on every at-bat, continues to tear down the baseline as if someone were chasing him with a knife.
He's gritty, gutsy. Sentences like this are the very reason The Jeter is not overlooked. The fact this article tries to make him seem that way is ridiculous.
Watching Jeter in 2010 must be what it was like to watch Ruth in the late '20s, or DiMaggio in the late '40s or Mantle in the mid-'60s -- watching a great player who should be in the winter of his career continuing to play as if it were midsummer.
Babe Ruth was 33 and 34 years old in the late '20's, Joe DiMaggio was 33 and 34 years old in the late 40's and Mickey Mantle was 33 and 34 years old in the mid-60's. They were all still playing at a high level at this point, but the other two players, except for Babe Ruth, were declining rapidly or no longer playing well at the age Derek Jeter currently is. So basically I am saying, it is like watching those players, except Jeter is playing better than Mantle and DiMaggio at an older age. This is why no one takes Jeter for granted, it's insane to say otherwise.
Opposing teams that overlook him do so at their peril; so, too, do fans who take him for granted.
I think the point Wallace wants to make with saying the same thing over and over to stretch the article out, is that Derek Jeter is awesome and nobody knows it but him. Quit taking him for granted America and start talking a little bit more about him.
Jeter probably saved a run in the fifth inning with a spectacular backhanded stop on a grounder headed for the hole,
This play may have been more routine for another shortstop, but much like Jim Edmonds, Derek Jeter has in the past forced to make the spectacular play to make up for his limited range.
I am just kidding about Edmonds. He had great range, he just slowed down for flyballs to make the catch look more spectacular.
Jeter probably saved a run in the fifth inning with a spectacular backhanded stop on a grounder headed for the hole,
A child in Section 109 didn't have enough money to buy a hot dog at the concession stand, but then he found $5 in the back pocket of his pants, which was THE EXACT AMOUNT HE NEEDED! Derek Jeter saved this boy from going hungry.
There was a puppy outside new Yankees Stadium wandering around before a game two weeks ago. Derek Jeter noticed the puppy and petted him. One day later someone found the dog and gave the puppy a permanent home. Derek Jeter saved this puppy from getting run over by a car.
All these great stories of Jeter's exploits, yet we treat The Jeter with such disdain and scorn. Shame on us all.
In the bottom of the same inning, after Gardner battled back from 0-2 to slap a changeup into right for a single, and then stole second, perhaps rattling Sox starter Freddy Garcia,
I think the fact he was on the pitcher's mound at all is what rattled Freddy Garcia. He's not a great pitcher anymore.
Jeter jumped on a hanging curveball and deposited it in the left-field seats to tie the game 4-4.
The home run gave him four for April, twice as many as either Teixeira or Rodriguez.
I am sure Wallace Matthews will be keeping score of how many home runs each of these players have at the end of the year when Tex and A-Rod have doubled The Jeter's total. Actually, I am sure Wallace won't do that. It's not as much fun to take small sample sizes and have them try to prove something when they don't say what you want them to.
The game remained tied until the seventh, when after Francisco Cervelli was hit by a pitch and Gardner singled again, Jeter fought off two 95 mph fastballs from 6-foot-6 left-hander Matt Thornton before finding one he could drive to right for a triple, scoring both runners and providing the Yankees' margin of victory.
So what's the point? It is not like people ignore how good of a shortstop Derek Jeter is. We know he is a good player and these types of things are what good players do.
"I thought I blew it," Jeter said, having just missed by a foot or so when he dunked what he considered a hittable fastball into the right-field corner two pitches earlier. "Fortunately, I got another one."
Pettitte didn't think there was anything fortunate about it. "If you need a big hit, you want him up there," he said. "He loves it. You can see it in his eyes."
His steely eyes that betray nothing to anyone...other than the fact they betray he has steely eyes and is the definition of clutchiness and grit. He has so much intestinal fortitude, he hands out guts in the locker room before the game. Alex Rodriguez's great postseason last year had nothing to do with him being a good hitter and has more to do with the fact Jeter donated guts to him to help the team out. Not only does The Jeter help the team by donating his guts to another player, he helped the team in the process. A-Rod having a good postseason last year made 2 year old in the South Bronx smile for the first time in his young life. The Jeter saved this child from being depressed and committing suicide as a teenager.
He's been successful enough times in situations just like that, that when he comes up in one, there's almost a sense of inevitability about what is going to happen.
Yet for some reason Wallace Matthews seems to believe we still overlook him. I think he is just making shit up to be honest. It is at that point if there isn't 100 articles written a month about Derek Jeter and how great he is, then everyone is overlooking him. There apparently has to be constant media coverage for The Jeter to get the appropriate amount of due for being a great player.
Said Guillen: "If he's not in the lineup, we win that game."
How many managers have said or thought that over the past 15 years? More importantly, how many more will?
I don't know what motivated Wallace Matthews to believe that a 10-time All-Star and one of the most decorated players in Yankee history has been neglected in some fashion, but he is terribly wrong. If anything, Derek Jeter has been overpraised in the past and Wallace Matthews contributes to this history of being overpraised in this column.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention The Jeter was on the cover of Sports Illustrated this past week. I bet no one knew who that guy was in the picture with Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada, and Andy Pettitte.
I looked all over for Wallace Matthews on the Newsday site, not even knowing he had gone to ESPN New York. What a treat it was to find him there a month or so ago.
I also want to mention that Bill Simmons' past two columns have been pretty weak. He had this column from two weeks ago where he said the following:
It's a gimmick that needs no introduction. It's a gimmick that says "I couldn't come up with a real column that has a beginning, middle and end," as well as "You're hopefully going to be entertained anyway."
Here's my little twist: We're calling this the "2010 NBA Playoffs Human Power Rankings." Why? Because I Googled "2010 NBA Playoffs Human Power Rankings" and nothing came up.
Is it possible he is running out of column ideas or just doesn't give a shit anymore because he is waiting for his ESPN contract to run out? I vote for the latter.
Then his first column this week was basically a column that said, "I have a high opinion of myself and think everyone would like to hear about how awesome my life is. Isn't it weird that I am a Celtics fan and attended an L.A. Lakers game? That's so bizarre, I may be the first Celtics fan to ever do that. Want to hear about all the cool people I know and see now that I live in Los Angeles? I don't know if you know this or not, but I am a big deal and eat at fancy restaurants that famous rappers also frequent."
This column said all of that. For me, it wasn't a bad column, but it really does seem like Bill is becoming more and more impressed with himself and all the famous and rich people that he sees. I don't know why I get this impression, possibly because he keeps name-dropping in his columns. There is just something very egotistical about a person that seems to give public a play-by-play of his life in a national sports column, as if his life is so important we should/will all be entertained by it.
For me, there is a huge difference in a column about a bigger sports topic that includes portions of one's life in that column as part of the bigger topic of the entire column about sports and a column about a person's life that includes portions of a sporting event as part of the bigger topic of the column about his life. When the sport isn't the focal point, I think the ego of the writer takes over.
Then on Thursday, Bill wrote a column that was more of a traditional column that involves reporting. Of course it is Bill Simmons-type reporting in that the column has several allusions (long allusions too, not just mere mentions) to the Boston Red Sox and how tortured the fan base was/is a total of 6 times in the first 1/3 of the column and one allusion at the end of the column. Bill also wants us to know that he is on a personal level with Steve Kerr and that access is part of his reporting in this article. So we get a lot of Steve Kerr quotes.
It's all a little weird for me personally, I feel like we haven't had a traditional Bill Simmons column in a while. I don't know if I miss it, but I am believing more and more he is done with ESPN after his contract runs out. Then he can tell stories with curse words and sexual references about how cool his life is in California and how important he feels when he sees famous people on his own personal site or for another sports website that is more lenient with what their columnists can write.
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