Take a close look at the two men above. If you know anything about the Yankees you know that one of them was raised in the organization and represents everything it wants to embody. The other is the owner's son.
I am by no means a Yankee fan but I do love Derek Jeter. He is what's right with sports. He doesn't get in trouble. He always says the right thing. He performs on the field and generally plays everything the right way. He has class and tact, things you often don't find in pro athletes.
Yet somehow, the Yankees have decided to play hardball with him during his new contract negotiations. Did I fall down the steps and hit my head? Did they? What could they possibly be thinking? More than perhaps any other player on the Yankees, Derek Jeter is the Yankees. He is the face of the organization. He has watched as the team has thrown countless millions at other hot ticket players during his tenure. Can we fault him for wanting to get paid for his value? I don't think so.
The problem is defining the term value. For his whole career, Jeter's value was all the things I listed above. The Yankees clearly used his clean cut image, in addition to his statistics, to draw in fans and support. Now all of a sudden it's just business and we are doing what's best for the team. All we keep hearing is "his numbers have dropped", "he's lost range at short stop" and so on. Again, maybe I fell out of bed into an alternate universe where just winning a Gold Glove doesn't count. Clearly the award should dispel the argument that he can't play defense anymore.
This must be even tougher for Jeter to take as he watches the Yankess trot out their best ass kissing unit to go after Cliff Lee, a guy that just beat them in the playoffs and someone that any real Yankee fan, or winner for that matter, shouldn't want on the team.
Speaking of things that Jeter has had to put up with during his time, can he at least get a pat on the back for not strangling A-Rod. To use one of those great sports phrases, here's a guy that just doesn't get it. If A-Rod isn't tanning on the rocks in Central Park and injecting himself with steroids, he's cheating on his wife with Canadian strippers and the corpse of Madonna. Though his numbers say otherwise, his first years with the Yankees were rocky at best. Did you ever hear a word from Jeter? No, and you probably never will.
I think the play that can sum up their careers as Yankees happened back in 2005. It was a late summer game against the Orioles. The Yankees are getting killed 8-2 early. Midway through the game a routine flyball heads towards third and short. It seems to be Jeter's ball but A-Rod is there just in case. A-Rod keeps creeping over till he and the sun cause the ball to fall right between them. Jeter's response pretty much sums up his general response to the A-Rod circus, he put his head down for a second, threw the ball back to the pitcher and got back into his fielding stance. No yelling. No finger pointing. All class and winning.
Derek Jeter has been the face and, moreover, the son of this franchise for years. He has been here to lead them to some of their most successful years. He is the epitome of a champion. A man like this has earned whatever money he wants and should have earned the respect to not even make money an issue. Jeter is part of the Yankee family. The Yankees can say it's just business but as we all know, when it comes to family, it's personal.
