In life, the only things that are certain are death and taxes. Well, a third that isn't too much of a stretch is that there is plenty of news (or things that are turned into news) in the arena of sports. There are no shortage of topics to weigh in on: any of the numerous Sochi Olympics storylines, Michael Sam coming out and projecting to be the first openly gay player in the NFL, the Jon Martin bullying case, and so many more. My choice, though, will make sense in light of my first post in this section. I want to write about Derek Jeter's announcement to call it a career following the conclusion of the 2014 season.
Jeter has been as much a fixture in my life as just about anyone and anything else. For 19 years there were few things I knew for certain. I basically knew my parents were there for me no matter what, and I knew that Derek Jeter would be standing between second and third base when the Yankees took the field. I was six years old when he made his major league debut, seven when I first saw him in Spring Training, and eight when he helped lead the Yankees to the first of four World Series titles in a five year span. While Tino Martinez was originally my favorite Yankee, due in part to his batting stance and in part to the fact that Gonna Fly Now, the theme from Rocky, was the music he selected to play as he came to bat, over the years that shifted to Jeter as other players came and went. Jeter was not a perfect player, but there are so many things that made him special, particularly in this day and age.
First, you have his on field performance. The numbers, by and large, speak for themselves. Yes, to some extent they are a reflection of his longevity; he has compiled a lot of impressive stats because he has played so many seasons. These stats are not solely a reflection of tenure, though. Make no mistake about it: he has been a great player over the last 19 years. Offensively he piled up the hits and got on base like few others could, and in his prime he had a very underrated opposite field power. He could and did steal bases, took walks, and could do anything you needed him to. Bunt, hit and run, drive a double into the gap, you name it, he could do it. Defensively I think his actual performance exists somewhere in the middle of "Gold Glove" and "atrocious according to sabermetrics". Sabermetrics still have a bit of subjectivity on the defensive side, and while there's no denying Jeter didn't have the best range, I still will point out the flaws in UZR as they have massive fluctuations from year to year, and they also have dependencies on other factors that are not contemplated in the statistic. Depending on the point of his career, I would say that Jeter occupied the above average to below average classification with a propensity to make all of the routine plays, fewer of the higher caliber plays, but always managed to fit an absolutely spectacular play in there somehow. The 2001 miracle flip in the ALDS to possibly save their season against Oakland is the first to come to mind.
Much was made about comparing him to other shortstops of his time, and some argued there was never a single season where he was the best shortstop in the league. That might be true, but there are multiple factors to take into consideration. First off, it is impressive that part of the reason for this is that Jeter spans two generations of big league shortstops. He was one of the best in the game during the renowned Jeter/Nomar/A-Rod/Tejada debate, and he was one of the best in the game when the next generation of Tulowitzki/Ramirez/Andrus players came along. His prime was in the first of those two groupings, and instantly what stands out is to performance enhancing drug issue. A-Rod is as authentic as a Ken doll, Miguel Tejada had been caught using PEDs, and while Garciaparra never has been caught, some believe he was a user, hence his body breaking down and his rapid decline at a relatively young age. I won't make that assumption, but I do know that his statistics were heavily influenced by Fenway Park, as is the case for nearly all right handed hitters. His home/road splits over the time period varied dramatically over the time period, whereas the same cannot be said for Jeter as a Yankee. The fact that Jeter's numbers were what they were, independent of where he played, without (presumably) the aid of performance enhancing drugs, all while exhibiting a propensity to stay on the field (he had a freak injury or two prior to the last few years, but he would never be considered injury prone like Garciaparra), you can probably paint his statistics in the most favorable light of the bunch.
When talking about "greatness", there is usually some qualities beyond pure numbers that factor into the discussion, too. This is an area where Jeter stands out to me. First and foremost, the coolest thing as a fan is to grow up with a player, and in the free agency age, that is very rare. Seldom will you find a player spend his entire career with a single team. Historically this was not always the case due to the lack of free agency in the past, but what is historically rare is the length of the tenure with one team. Jeter will become only the 18th player in MLB history to spend his entire career with one team with a tenure of 20 years or more. That is an impressive feat no matter how you look at it, but one that true baseball fans will appreciate. That he did it on the biggest stage in New York is just icing on the cake. That segues nicely into another intangible; the guy kept his nose clean. It's pretty well documented that Jeter has dated numerous models over the years, but he always managed to stay out of the limelight off the field. He never got in trouble, he never did anything stupid or put his selfish desires in his personal life ahead of his profession. There was one isolated incident where he went out on the town for his birthday, missed curfew, and the late George Steinbrenner, true to form, called him out on it in the papers. How was the situation handled? The two starred in a Mastercard commercial making light of the incident. You don't spend 20 years in New York with as clean of a record as Jeter in this day and age, yet somehow he did it. Perhaps the "he played the game the right way" talk is overblown, but in a time where so few athletes really make good role models, wouldn't you want your kid to emulate Jeter ahead of so many other athletes of today? In a way, he doesn't just represent the Yankees, he represents America's pastime, the part of the game that a father shared with a son, and a time when a family could go to a game without spending half a paycheck to do it. He reminds us of the perfect, romanticized view of baseball in a day and age where headlines are dominated by steroid use and other controversy.
With Jeter's impending exit, so goes the last of the Yankees' "Core Four" that comprised such a significant component of their turn of the century dynasty. He's the final cog to leave, it it was close that era of Yankee history completely. While his ability is diminished, the loss of his presence and his legacy is still a significant occurrence not just for the Yankee organization, but for baseball in general. It is unclear who is next in line for the shortstop position for the Yankees in 2015, but one thing is for certain: he has some mighty big cleats to fill.
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