Growing old in baseball means growing up and that is never easy. Just ask Derek Jeter, the greatest Yankee of our time. In a press conference this afternoon, Jeter said he was angry with the free agency process and how negotiations have been portrayed. He didn’t like hearing the words “greedy,” “ego,” and “arrogance,” associated with his name, the brand he’s worked so hard to cultivate.
Jeter is so much more than a player. He’s a great star, a great New York star. “He’s a bi-racial angel”–the best line in Will Ferrell’s latest movie, featuring a cameo by Jeter. From his rookie season, it was clear that Jeter was mature and poised. He was the kind of kid grown-ups liked, the good son, team player, head down, plays hurt gamer. He learned from Darryl Strawberry and Reggie Jackson and maintained control over his image, with only a few minor bumps, in his brilliant 16 year year career. Jeter doesn’t want to talk bout the end even if it is on everyone else’s mind. But he finally got into a situation that he could not control and it pissed him off.
I don’t blame him for being mad. If I’d worked so hard to do everything right, been so careful, so deliberate, I wouldn’t like the loss of control either. This is a hard lesson that Jeter will unfortunately have to learn, at least partially, in the public eye, whether he likes it or not. Beneath his cool exterior, longtime Yankee followers know that Jeter has a lot of heat in him–remember Ken Huckaby?–but he rarely shows that side to us like he did today. He didn’t lose his temper but he looked vulnerable, like a sheltered kid. I enjoyed it, like I enjoy almost everything about watching Derek Jeter on and off the field. Watch enough post-game interviews and you can see that Jeter has a sharp sense of humor; his eyes are always alert. I hope he’s so pissed that he hits .300 next year.
It doesn’t end well for most ball players, no matter how great. Joe Namath was long gone from New York when he retired; Clyde Frazier petered out in Cleveland, Patrick Ewing was dismissed to Seattle. Jeter will surely have a more satisfying end, but who knows what the next few years hold in store? Does he pass 3,500 hits or start to break down and turn into Don Mattingly?
I was talking to the writer and old jock Pat Jordan not long ago. He’s 70 and still works as a freelance magazine writer. He has to work, has to keep pushing himself. “Alex, old age is God’s final test for us,” he said. “How we handle ourselves now, how we deal with loss and pain, with growing old, is the final test of our character of who we are. That’s all there is, it’s beyond money and ego.” Pat was excited. The jock in him loves the challenge.
Derek Jeter is only at the end of his career but loves a challenge too. It will be fascinating to see how this story ends. Will he be like so many others? Will he turn into Brett Favre? How do you finish the perfect career on a high note?
“I’m afraid of life after baseball,” Dennis Eckersley once said. “Petrified. I’m not ashamed of saying it. I’ll be all right, but nothing will ever compare with this…maybe I’ll grow up after I get out of this fuckin’ game.”
Nicely put, Alex. I'm glad this all got settled; I'm no Yankee fan, but Jeter is a favorite nonetheless, and it would have been sad to see him in another uniform. Here's hoping he's got another great year or two in him (followed by him waving at some grounders up the middle against the Cardinals in the World Series).
Time to grow up DJ. I love watching you play but you will join the rest of us the sidelines very soon. Get married have kids and go back to college but know that nothing will ever be as much fun again.
Fortunately, you can chose your own future. Money gives you that option.
yo al, what are we really talking about here? jeter's not reading blogs right? and you think he's talking to the fans, getting some WAR-based argument in his face and being told he's greedy?
he's talking about the younger MSM writers that are hip to stats and up on player worth and aging projections. THAT"S what surprised him, right? he's not feeling any public backlash - i can't imagine he's been in public to experience whatever is out there.
straight out, cashman knew he would find at least some sympathy for his value-based argument out there, and jeter was a little blindsided. he thought he'd read a chorus of lupicas. but he got a mixed bag. cash knew better where their heads were at and, from our blogging POV, he won the public debate.
[3] That's because Cash does read blogs... in fact, I'm convinced he has an online profile here. I'm sure he digs the Taster's Cherce posts and likes to get into it with Will Weiss >;)
"I hope he’s so pissed that he hits .300 next year."
It's a drag getting old. Your hope for Jeter's pissed off revenge year is still 14 points below his career average.
[5] I'd love that as a movie, Jeter's Pissed-Off Revenge. I've got to run with that. I only hope Gardner does likewise...
I'm on it! >;)
[3] i don't think that is what it is jon - i think his "anger" stems simply from the little barbs and digs the yankees threw at him and in particular did through the media.
from a winning, financial perspective of course the yankees had to keep the years and aav down - but did they really need to take shots at jeter through the media - i certainly don't think so and if i were jeter i would have been pissed too.
[6] Bravo, sir!
[7] Good point. But is seemed to me that Alex is talking about Jeter's reaction to the hits his public image took. If the Yanks had made insults and everybody had unified against them, Jeter's image would be intact. Jeter's real concern is that half the writers were on the Yanks' side, confirming their insults.
[9] okay, got it. i just read some of the quotes over at lohud. if i am interpreting jeter's quotes correctly - i don't think he is reacting to the hits his public image took as much as he is reacting to what he perceives as the proper way to do things. he did not appreciate the negotiations going public; he says those were not his salary demands; and he says he told the yankees he was not going to test the free agent market and yet they told him to do so. i can see why that bothered him.
as alex has said many times we don't really know these guys. one thing i do think is so about jeter is that he has a pretty fixed sense of what he believes is the "right" way and the "wrong" way to do things. these perceptions are of course very subjective but when that is broken there is a reaction to it.
[11] I agree w/ you and Derek, I did not appreciate the discourse, especially coming from the Yanks. It's like the "Baffling" comment was some great insult that needed all out attack. It wasn't.
It seems to me that the Yankees presented an offer, Jeter rejected it, for whatever reason and when he did, the Yankees told him to see what he could get elsewhere, saying in so many words that the offer presented to him was fair and reasonable.
I fault neither side in the way they handled negotiations, they did what they supposed to do; they each have their own best interests in mind.
gorgeous freaking photo, alex. love it.
You quoted Eckersley. I am ashamed of you.
13) Thanks, B. He was a nice guy too.