#tbt to this moment, which I didnt actually see with my own eyes, despite being at Yankee Stadium watching the game (thanks to Lina Recine). Instead, I saw Derek Jeter racing towards foul territory, lost sight of him because of the angle of my seats, heard the cheers confirming he made the catch, then felt the collective gasp of everyone in the stadium as he emerged from the stands with a bloody chin. Result of the play: He caught the ball, saved two runs from scoring, and ended the inning. Baseball writers have debated the merits of this catch for years. Some say he knowingly sacrificed his body to make a heroic catch, while others point out that he made the catch well before he dove into the stands, so he may not have known the risks when he started after the ball and made the catch. (Still others will say that he didnt have to dive into the stands at all, but these people are idiots, lacking even the most fundamental understanding of physics and momentum.) My 2 cents: Great players make great plays whenever they can, because they can. I bet the only thing going through his mind when he made that play was I can catch this ball. Only after the ball was in the glove did he probably think something along the lines of oh shit. Baseball is a game of failure - if a player only gets a hit in 1 out of every 3 at-bats, that player is GUARANTEED a spot in the hall of fame, despite failing the other 2/3 of the time. Mentally, I imagine that can get incredibly exhausting over a full 162-game season, especially when thousands of fans will not hesitate to boo every one of those failures. In my opinion, one of the main reasons the New York Yankees won 5 World Series rings with Derek Jeter is because he PLAYS HIS ASS OFF EVERY DAY, no matter what. Winning streak? Work. Losing streak? Work. World Series 3-peat? Work. Even now, with 20 seasons under his belt, his team in miserable shape, and his career coming to an end that could be considered more whimper than bang, this guy is still known to put in work like a rookie trying to make it in The Show. Ive no doubt that kind of work ethic permeated the clubhouse and rubbed off on the rest of the team over the years. As a lifelong Yankee fan, Ill miss a lot of things about Derek Jeter, but most of all might be the fact that for 20 years, my team has had a ROCK who led by example and put most peoples definition of work ethic to shame. Forget about pitching and offense - Brian Cashman can buy and/or trade for that all winter and beyond - but how long will it be until we can look at the Yankees lineup and say thats the nucleus - thats the guy thats going to hold this team together when shit gets tough?
Posted on: Thu, 18 Sep 2014 21:26:07 +0000