Is this a 'news' story? Seriously? Derek Jeter is not going anywhere. We shouldn't even have to discuss this beyond the fact that the Yankee Captain is just that--THE CAPTAIN. DJ is an old-school player- a throwback to an era when athletes had class and dignity, on and off the field. He fully understands the idea of 'legacy' and how his would be needlessly tarnished by jumping ship in the waning years of his career.
I mean, think about the ship that he would be jumping from? The Yankees have-BY FAR-the most amount of money to offer, plus you're dealing with one of the most storied organizations in sports, an organization whose greatest members are immortalized for what they did in pinstripes.
Mr. October? Scott Brosius, Paul O' Neil, even the Great Bambino himself. All these baseball legends spent a fair amount of their careers outside of The Bronx, but aside from Baseball historians, who the hell cares and/or remembers? When someone mentions these all-time greats, we immediately envision them on the field-donning pinstripes.
And speaking of 'Don'ning, Derek Jeter has a sense of lineage. He evokes his predecessor, Donnie Baseball--the last Yankee captain--who finished all 14 of his years in Major League Baseball playing first base in The Bronx. Don Mattingly is a hero--not just to Yankee fans--but to any sports fan that has a sense of decency and respect when it comes to the National Pastime. Everybody loves Donnie. Guy could have his own sitcom if he wanted. He was pretty funny on the Simpsons. Even Red Sox fans don't mind him. This is noteworthy because he played for an organization that is so passionately reviled across the land they even wrote musicals about it. But even if people despise the Yankees they don't mind Don Mattingly nor Derek Jeter. This is because these guys have loyalty--something almost impossible to imagine in the sports climate of today. They also both have career averages on the HOF side of .300. It's only a matter of time till they're both knock, knock, knockin' on the Hall's door, and there won't be any drama about what hat these guys are wearing on the way up to Cooperstown.
Soap opera sportswriter drama is never what DJ has been about. He made that abundantly clear today when he said he won't be talking about his contract at all during season. The Captain of the Yankees is only interested in bringing more Championships back to New York. Jeter has done it five times already and he's showing no signs of stopping.
So obviously Derek would never have even the slightest inclination to leave, but--oh I almost forgot: it would make absolutely ZERO sense for the organization to even think about cutting The Captain loose. Out of his 14 complete seasons with the Yankees, some of his best stats come from these past several seasons: since 2005 he is batting a combined .322 with an on-base percentage of nearly .400. This last year was one of his all-time best, batting .334 on his way to a 5th World Series Title. Derek Jeter is aging like a fine cabernet sauvignon. To pour him down the drain now would be more retarded than what comes out of a 45 year-old womb. In other words, something the Mets would do. We are not the Mets. There's a reason why we're up by 25 and the Core Four are a big part of it.
Written by:
