Why I Find the "Overrated Baseball Players" List Amusing

There was a whole to-do yesterday over four Yankees being named to Sports Illustrated's poll of the Most Overrated MLB players, with Alex Rodriguez, Joba Chamberlain, and Derek Jeter taking the top three spots, and Nick Swisher tying Jayson Werth and Jonathan Papelbon for fourth place.

And for once, A-Rod, the "winner" of the contest voted on by his peers, outdid Derek Jeter, No. 3 on the list, when it came to handling negative attention with a smile and a laugh. For that matter, Joba Chamberlain, who came in second, said all the right things, too. Jeter, not so much.

Here's the scoop. Erik Boland of Newsday describes the scene in the clubhouse yesterday, with Joba, who "won" the title last year, teasing A-Rod about it:

"I lost," Chamberlain proclaimed for the rest of the clubhouse to hear. "I got beat out. No. 2, though...I guess I passed the torch on to Alex."


Upon seeing Rodriguez enter the clubhouse, Chamberlain, surrounded by reporters, yelled at the third baseman.


"You’re next Al, you’re next!"

Here's how A-Rod reacted:

Rodriguez smiled for almost the entirety of the time he spent talking about the anonymous poll.


"I’ve been on this list before," A-Rod said before pausing and taking note of 3/5 of the list comprising Yankees. "So it’s three Yankees? So I’ll see you guys next summer again."


Rodriguez also poked fun at his past reasons for making headlines.


Players vote?


"I’m sure I’ll be on it next summer so I’ll try to come up with some better material for you guys," he said.   "But, I will say this. If this is the only thing we’re talking about, fellas, we’re doing good."

 Here was Jeter's reaction, which wasn't quite so jovial:

Jeter was not close to being amused.


"We're doing this again?" he said. "I have no comment on anonymous polls. I've never understood those anonymous polls."


He added: "It's the same thing they do every year, right? I'm focused on more positive things. How about that? There's your quote."


Discussing his chase of 3,000 hits later on, Jeter amended that.


"Consistency is underrated," he said, putting emphasis on "underrated." "That's the quote."

Jeter usually has the right thing to say, as in saying nothing while saying something, but I thought he came off as really cranky here. This poll, voted on by 185 MLB players, is the quintessential example of the "you're just jealous" sentiment. Yankees win every year (Jeter was just as perturbed when he "won" the honor a few years back), because players are jealous of the attention and money they get.

Jayson Werth is on the list this year because he's making a ton of money with the Washington Nationals, and others are envious of his money. Nick Swisher is on the list because of his fame, endorsements, and probably jealousy about his TV-star wife. I would like to think that Jonathan Papelbon is on the list for being annoying, but his inclusion is most likely about jealousy, too. Any player who is on this list ought to consider it a badge of honor, quite frankly. A-Rod and Chamberlain took it in that spirit, while Jeter was peeved.

At any rate, Jeter's talk of his "consistency" is no longer applicable to his career, unless you consider consistently hitting .257 over the past year, with just seven homers, as a good thing. From the start of his career, until May 31, 2010, he put up the following stats:

.317 BA .387 OBP .458 Slug .845 OPS

Here are his stats from June 1, 2010 through yesterday:

.257 BA .333 OBP .336 Slug .670 OPS

Yikes!

Subway Series and the End of the World

Apparently, the world will end just before the second game of the Subway Series. This would mark the second straight Saturday night Yankee game preceded by an apocalyptic event, following last week's Posada Adventure.

As Squawker Lisa never fails to remind me, the Mets experienced their own form of doomsday during the Subway Series two years ago courtesy of Luis Castillo. That dismal year also included Francisco Rodriguez walking Mariano Rivera with the bases loaded. Unfortunately for me, Lisa and I were at both of those games.

Last year, we were lucky enough to get to sit in Legends seats for a Subway Series game at Yankee Stadium. Here's how long ago that game seems - Mike Pelfrey and Phil Hughes were both 9-1. Pelfrey's loss that day sent him into a weeks-long tailspin. Hughes went into a tailspin in the second half and still hasn't come out of it. And now he's on the DL.

At least Jose Reyes hit two homers that day. But it'll really be doomsday if Reyes is hitting homers next year at Yankee Stadium in a Yankee uniform.

This will be the first Subway Series in years without Castillo and Oliver Perez on the roster. Castillo's time with the Mets wasn't all bad, but in 365 games, his overall OPS was just .691. It's hard to win with that kind of OPS in your lineup.

But Lisa, the Yankees sure seem willing to try, with Derek Jeter (2011 OPS .636) and Jorge Posada (2011 OPS .672) holding down two lineup spots.

And Jeter and Posada are making a total of $28 million this season, which is a lot more than the $18 million the Mets are paying Castillo and Perez for 2011.

Prediction: Mets take one of three. Bleacher Creatures do roll call for potential future Yankees Carlos Beltran and Reyes. Mets GM Sandy Alderson tries to lead them in a chant for K-Rod. Beltran homers and John Sterling has a home run call ready to go: "A belt for Beltran!"

On Philip Humber, Phil Hughes, Breaking Up No-Hitters, and Booing After a Missed Pop-Up

Last night, when Chicago White Sox pitcher Phil Humber was in the seventh inning of a no-hit game against the Yankees, I tried to jinx him on Facebook by talking about it. And within 20 seconds (I am not kidding!), Alex Rodriguez got a hit to break up the no-hitter. It was the highlight of the evening for me! (Oh, and by the way, a friend pointed out that if Humber had succeeded in throwing a no-hitter, he would have been the seventh ex-Met to do so, with the Mets still never having a no-hitter of their own. I loved telling Squawker Jon that!)

Now, the not-so-fun stuff. After a setback Monday, Phil Hughes has a date with an MRI tube today. I don't understand why the Yankees have been so reticent about having Hughes checked out earlier. I wrote on April 9, after his second start, that he should get a medical exam. It's now April 26, and he's finally going to be checked out, weeks after being put on the disabled list. What was the holdup? Did the Yankees had to get a referral from their HMO or something?

I felt terrible for A.J. Burnett -- we had the Great A.J. last night, but the Yankees couldn't get any runs to help him.

There was something very weird that happened in the ninth inning, when Rafael Soriano was on the mound, that I thought would be a pretty big story. But I only saw it mentioned in a Wally Matthews ESPN blog entry, and at the end of a Star-Ledger game article. Alexi Ramirez hit a popup in the ninth inning. Soriano pointed and motioned, as if to say that he couldn't get it. Derek Jeter came charging in, but he wasn't quick enough catch the ball, which dropped to the ground.

And then the crowd booed. Yes, Yankee fans were booing! Now, it was unclear whether the fans were booing Jeter, or Soriano, or both, but Twitter and Facebook were all a-flutter last night over the incident. (Unless I missed it, the YES Network, of course, didn't get into discussing the booing, and didn't show the clip again in the postgame wrapup.) At any rate, I thought this would be a much bigger controversy, but it's downplayed in today's papers. Very strange.

What do you think? Tell us about it!

In Defense of Ian O'Connor's Derek Jeter Book

Yes, I'm going there. After many months of criticizing ESPN New York columnist Ian O'Connor for his writing a half-dozen fawning articles about Derek Jeter this winter without disclosing that he was writing a book that promised "unique access" to the Yankee captain, I actually feel compelled to defend O'Connor on a couple of things that I think he's being unfairly criticized for.

First off, there's the curious case of Jeter going up to New York Post writer George King the morning after the Post published a front-page story about the book. That article discussed how The Captain: The Journey of Derek Jeter revealed how Jeter's dislike of teammate Alex Rodriguez put A-Rod in the Yankee "snubhouse" (The Post's term, not O'Connor's!)

In a followup piece by King entitled "Jeter: It's not my book," Jeter didn't confirm or deny any of the tidbits. But he told King:

"Make sure everyone knows it's not mine," Jeter said. "I had nothing to do with that book."

Well, nobody had suggested that Jeter had actually authored the tome himself. But if he really had "nothing to do with that book," a book that has been promoted of giving "unique access" to Jeter, then why is he quoted talking to O'Connor in the book, according to an ESPN New York article about the tome? And why would Newsday columnist Ken Davidoff, who witnessed the King-Jeter conversation, write that "Jeter was aware [the book] was being written and agreed to be interviewed for it"?

Not to mention the fact that O'Connor did over 200 interviews for the book, many of whom were people in the Jeter camp. Did Jeter have control over everything written in O'Connor's book? Doubtful. But he did agree to be interviewed for it, and many of the people close to him were also interviewed for it. To say that he had "nothing to do with" the book is pretty disingenuous.

The second thing I will defend O'Connor on, albeit in a backhanded way, is the notion that he was somehow out to get Jeter. I've even heard him compared to Selena Roberts. Really? Roberts wrote nasty column after nasty column about A-Rod before writing an entire bile-filled book on him. O'Connor is just the opposite. In a town where burnishing the Jeter legend is par for the course with New York columnists, O'Connor is in a class by himself. Remember these moments, all written without any mention of the upcoming book?

* October 24, 2010:  In an article entitled, "Expect Yankees to splash cash on Jeter," O' Connor said, "I believe a fair deal would be for four years at $23 million per."

* October 28, 2010:  O'Connor writes a bizarre column tying in Joe Girardi's job fortune to Jeter's, saying that Girardi should get a warning with his next contract saying, "Change, or we'll hire someone else to bench The Captain."

*November 21, 2010: O'Connor interviews Jeter's personal trainer Jason Riley for a column. Ian managed to keep a straight face when Riley said "I think it's very realistic" for Jeter to play through 2017, and when Riley said, "The desire to be the greatest can never be turned down by Father Time."

O'Connor also uncritically ran this other Riley comment (basically, most of the article is an infomercial for Jeter and his trainer): "You can't put an age on the heart of an athlete, and Derek's got one of the purest hearts in sports," Riley said. "He's not going to allow himself to have another down year, if he even considers 2010 a down year. His internal drive separates him from others. I've worked with very few people who go after the game like he does." The piece ends with O'Connor saying, "If the trainer is right, this next contract Jeter signs won't be his last." Oy.

* December 5, 2010: Regarding the Yankees coming to terms with Jeter on a new contract, O'Connor wrote, "The Yankees could have offered Jeter minimum wage, free parking and cab fare to and from the ballpark, and he would have found a way to accept it."

* March 26, 2011:  "For now, Jeter is still Jeter, a future Hall of Famer who just needed some extra face time with the hitting coach, Kevin Long. With the contract done and the footwork adjusted, the smart money says the captain will make something of a comeback this year."


There's also O'Connor writing for the Bergen Record in spring 2009 that the Yankees would be a better team without A-Rod, and that the team should just release him. So it's not like O'Connor is a Team A-Rod writer.


I haven't gotten to read O'Connor's book yet, but I just find it hard to believe that O'Connor did a hatchet job on the captain. Go to Houghton Mifflin's web site and read the book description, and an excerpt from Chapter One, and see what I mean. Heck, the book starts with this line, "Like all good stories about a prince, this one starts in a castle." Does that sound like an author with an agenda to get Jeter? I don't think so. Just because O'Connor has written that Jeter isn't always perfect doesn't make this a smear.

What do you think? Tell us about it!

Post Publishes Juicy Tidbits From Ian O'Connor's New Book About Jeter/A-Rod Feud

Sorry I haven't squawked for a while -- I have been working on two real-life projects that have consumed almost all of my time. I knew I had better get back to squawking soon when I got this email the other day, with the subject line "Do You Know there are 2 teams in NYC?"  Here's the email:

Hey…do you guys know that there is another team in town. They are called “the Yankees.”

Would think that there is only one team in NYC, to read your blog lately.

What’s the story???

Harsh, dude! Ouch!

Anyhow, on a brighter note, Happy Easter! When I got online this morning and saw that the New York Post had information from Ian O'Connor's upcoming book, "The Captain" (you know, the one that he's been working on at the same time he's been carrying Jeter's water in his columns), I knew I'd better squawk, or some might think I was comatose!

This "exclusive" article has inside details on the feud (although, for some odd reason, the Post calls it an "unauthorized" bio), and has pretty much vindicated a lot of what I've said over the years. Some tidbits:

* Jeter, the modern day Joe DiMaggio in a lot of ways -- including holding grudges -- so intimidated one Yankee front office person who admitted to being afraid to talk to Jeter about burying the hatchet with Alex. "It would've been the last conversation I ever had with Derek," he said. "I would've been dead to him. It would've been like approaching Joe DiMaggio to talk to him about Marilyn Monroe."

* At the 2001 All-Star Game, according to the Post's account of the book, "a smitten Rodriguez introduced him to Latin songstress Joy Enriquez. Jeter wasted no time -- the singer and the shortstop began dating."

* Don Mattingly tried to get Jeter to make up with A-Rod. "I faked it with Boggs," he said. "And you have to fake it with Alex." Heh!

* Brian Cashman also asked Jeter to "fake it" with Rodriguez, after noticing Jeter's lack of defense when it came to other players and fans criticizing the third baseman. "You've got to lead them all, the ones you like and the ones you don't," he told Jeter. He asked Jeter to defend A-Rod to the fans. "I can't tell the fans what to do," Jeter countered. (Of course, Jeter did just that when it came to Jason Giambi and Chuck Knoblauch, although the article doesn't mention that.) I don't know how many times I wrote over the years that the captain's job was to stand up for all of his teammates, not just his buddies. So good for Cashman that he told him the same thing!

Then there's this tidbit:

It all came to a head during a Yankee loss in August 2006 to Baltimore.

An easy pop-up hung in the air between A-Rod and Jeter. Both players closed in and Jeter bumped into A-Rod, knocking the ball out of his glove. Jeter shot A-Rod a withering look.

The gesture did not go unnoticed. Cashman pulled Jeter aside and ordered him to knock it off.

"Listen, this has to stop," Cashman said. "Everybody in the press box, every team official, everyone watching, they saw you look at the ball on the ground and look at him with disgust like you were saying, 'That's your mess, you clean it up.' "

A-Rod also felt betrayed by manager Joe Torre, who players said added fuel to the fiery feud.

"He would never call Jeter on anything, but he'd have no problem doing it to Alex," one player told the author.

I remember that well. And I remember how much grief I got from fans for pointed out that obvious dis. Believe it or not, readers used to argue me all the time when I said it was pretty obvious Jeter couldn't stand A-Rod. But It was pretty clear to me starting with the way Jeter mumbled and grimaced through A-Rod's introductory press conference in 2004 that the Captain didn't want him on the team.

It's funny -- people would tell me over and over how Jeter would do anything to win. Yes, except for making the peace with Rodriguez!

Even though most of the New York media mostly ignored the issue as it was happening, it was pretty clear that there was a huge issue here. And since I was one of the few people anywhere writing about it, I got a lot of "How do you know, you're not in the clubhouse" in response, and people insisting that Jeter would never be so petty. Oh, really?

What's funny is that O'Connor's book, written with the cooperation of the Jeter camp, has such tidbits which reflect so negatively on Jeter (although, to be sure, the information also reflects negatively on Rodriguez, saying that Jeter didn't like A-Rod acting as a diva as a Yankee, and that A-Rod obsessed over Jeter. IMHO, I think A-Rod could have been Mother Teresa as a Yankee, and it wouldn't have made any difference!)

After all, so much of Jeter's mystique has been on his vaunted leadership skills. But instead of embracing getting the best player in baseball at the time for the team, this article makes it clear that Jeter was "less than thrilled" when A-Rod became a Yankee. And that one of the reasons the Yankees gave CC Sabathia $161 million was to mend the clubhouse, From the article:

"CC's main concern was our clubhouse, and how people got along," Cashman told the author. "I told him the truth. 'Yeah, we are broken. One reason we're committing [$161 million] to you is you're a team builder. We need somebody to bring us together.' "

I guess it would have been too much to expect the team's captain to bring the Yankees together, eh?

What do you think? Tell us about it!

Derek Jeter Makes Buck Showalter's Hate List, and Nielsen's Most Marketable List

Two notes: I wrote today for The Faster Times about how Buck Showalter called out Derek Jeter and Theo Epstein. I think what Buck did is fine -- in fact, I compared him to Rex Ryan in taking on the big names! If the Orioles are going to compete in the AL East, he needs to keep on channeling his inner Rex Ryan. IMHO, you have to admit that Jeter is a little bit of an actor at flinching at pinches, that the umps favor him in calls, and that Theo Epstein does benefit from a healthy payroll.

In other news, The Nielsen Company sent me information on MLB's Ten Most Marketable Players. To nobody's surprise, Jeter is No. 1. But what did surprise me was that Mariano Rivera is No. 2, and Alex Rodriguez is No. 9! They are rated on an N Score, which measures "name and image awareness, appeal and personality attributes such as sincerity, approachability, experience and influence, both at the national and local levels." Here's the entire list:

1 Derek Jeter New York Yankees
2 Mariano Rivera New York Yankees
3 Josh Hamilton Texas Rangers
4 Albert Pujols St. Louis Cardinals
5 Evan Longoria Tampa Bay Rays
6 Ichiro Suzuki Seattle Mariners
7 Chipper Jones Atlanta Braves
8 Joe Mauer Minnesota Twins
9 Alex Rodriguez New York Yankees
10 Roy Halladay Philadelphia Phillies

It's funny, though, that Mo, other than his restaurant and that Taco Bell commercial with Joe Girardi, hasn't exactly done much with his marketing rank! And while I haven't seen A-Rod in a commerical in a while, he's still No. 9 on this list. (And no Mets made it on!) Nielsen said the Yanks had as many representatives on the list as the entire National League!

One other tidbit from The Nielsen Company:

For all of baseball, including current and former players, commentators and owners, a few all-time greats lead the pack. Yogi Berra holds the top spot, with an N-Score of 257, followed by Willie Mays (236) and Cal Ripken, Jr. (228). One noteworthy surprise? Joe Torre beat out his former players—Jeter and Rodriguez—with a score of 207, making him baseball’s fourth most marketable personality.

Well, that's just great news on Torre. If it means more commercials, my remote control will be getting more of a workout!
What do you think? Tell us about it!

Shocker! Joel Sherman Says Criticism of A-Rod Is "Unfair"

Will wonders never cease? I almost spilled my morning coffee on myself when I read that the New York Post's Joel Sherman wrote a column today entitled, "Continual digs at Alex unfair."  Joel Sherman, who has taken as many cheap shots at A-Rod as any sports columnist in this town, has had enough? I can't believe it.

Sherman writes that while Rodriguez has often been his own worst enemy, he notes:

...at some point legitimate critique of Rodriguez has been usurped by something close to piling on. He is the fish in the barrel and shooting at him has become a hard-to-break habit. It feels like the fun, easy game that anyone can play.

It's 2011, and Sherman just realized this? (I thought the criticism went over the top in 2006, when his paper blamed A-Rod sunbathing in Central Park for the Yankees losing a game to the Red Sox.) But better late than never, I guess. Of course, Sherman doesn't admit the obvious truth when it comes to the media -- that writing about A-Rod sells papers and generates page views. There's a reason sportswriters are addicted to yakking about him!
 
Sherman also criticizes Hank Aaron for taking potshots at A-Rod in the Post a few weeks ago (I wrote about the unfair criticism at the time.) Aaron said, among other things, that "Rodriguez has got too many irons in the fire, right now. I think his head's not level enough to the point where he can have the kind of year that it takes in order to go by all of the records in the book."

Joel responds:

Again, Rodriguez is an easy target on many things, but focus on baseball is not one of them. His harshest detractors would concede Rodriguez obsesses on preparation; that he has the mentality of a baseball gym rat. If you think Cameron Diaz, for example, is keeping him from being ready for the 2011 season, you are wrong.

I agree with Sherman, but I wonder why it took three weeks for somebody else in the media to acknowledge that Aaron's criticism was unfair.

Sherman also criticizes "Player X "in the upcoming ESPN the Magazine for disparaging Rodriguez when saying that Albert Pujols deserved to make more than him. Of course Pujols does -- he's been the most underpaid guy in baseball for years now. (An aside --Sherman has another piece on Player X firing at Scott Boras -- and Boras firing back.)

I think Sherman's column today is a good and fair one. But I wish he, and some of his brethren in the media, would take their share of responsibility for making Rodriguez a baseball punching bag. Sure, A-Rod did bring some of it on himself by saying and doing dopey things (there's an article in the Wall Street Journal about the Yankees' media training for players, where he wryly acknowledges that he "wouldn't be the ideal guy to ask" about how to handle the media.)

But the press also has a lot to do with it. There are a lot of fans who form their opinions on players based on what they read in the papers. And players know that they can pretty much say whatever they want on A-Rod, and get lauded for it in the press, no matter how unfair. Dallas Braden, I'm looking at you! The media should be more responsible with the power they hold, because the perceptions they make on players are hard to change.

Another example of the power of the press -- after the way the media has lionized Derek Jeter in this town, why should anybody be surprised that he topped a poll as New York's all-time greatest athlete and beat out Babe Ruth? The press has written about Jeter for years as if he deserved that spot. Heck, Mike Lupica didn't bat an eye when Jeter's agent Casey Close compared Jeter to Babe Ruth in an interview! Sure, blame the fans for being short-sighted in that poll. But the press deserves their share of blame for miseducating them, too.


What do you think? Tell us about it!

Some Surprising Things About the Top Baseball Jerseys List

There was a whole to-do in the news today about which teams' had the most popular player jerseys. There were some unsurprising results -- Derek Jeter was No. 1, of course -- and some surprising findings. Adam Rubin of ESPN New York ran the full list of players, and Darren Rovell also had a list of top teams. First up is Rubin's list:

1. Derek Jeter, New York Yankees
2. Joe Mauer, Minnesota Twins
3. Roy Halladay, Philadelphia Phillies
4. Chase Utley, Philadelphia Phillies
5. Cliff Lee, Philadelphia Phillies
6. Albert Pujols, St. Louis Cardinals
7. Josh Hamilton, Texas Rangers
8. Dustin Pedroia, Boston Red Sox
9. Alex Rodriguez, New York Yankees
10. Tim Lincecum, San Francisco Giants
11. Mark Teixeira, New York Yankees
12. Jason Heyward, Atlanta Braves
13. Stephen Strasburg, Washington Nationals
14. Ryan Braun, Milwaukee Brewers
15. Justin Morneau, Minnesota Twins
16. Jacoby Ellsbury, Boston Red Sox
17. Ian Kinsler, Texas Rangers
18. Ryan Howard, Philadelphia Phillies
19. Buster Posey, San Francisco Giants
20. Evan Longoria, Tampa Bay Rays

The best-selling teams for baseball-related attire are:

New York Yankees
Boston Red Sox
Los Angeles Dodgers
Philadelphia Phillies
Chicago Cubs
St. Louis Cardinals
Chicago White Sox
Atlanta Braves
Minnesota Twins
Detroit Tigers

A few thoughts:

There are no Mets on either list. That's yet another blow to the team. Tough times, Squawker Jon.I told you not to buy that Oliver Perez jersey!

For all the grief and bad press that A-Rod gets, he's still No. 9. It just goes to show that, as I always say, he is more popular than the media gives him credit for.

How does Ellsbury rank in the top 20, when he didn't play for most of the year?

I'm surprised the San Francisco Giants didn't make the top 10. And what about the Cubs being No. 5. Exactly whose jersey would you buy? This is a team who had to put Jeter on a billboard to sell tickets!


What do you think? Tell us about it!

Red Sox Fan Writer Seth Mnookin Sings Derek Jeter's Praises in GQ

Derek Jeter is the cover guy for April's GQ magazine. And even though the article about him is written by Seth Mnookin, a writer known as a rabid Red Sox fan and author, the article is fairly gushing in the Jeter praise. I have to say that it does make me chuckle how the very same fan base who used to yell out "Nomar's better" (and wear all sorts of offensive t-shirts about Jeter) now have decided that Jeter is the only acceptable Yankee. 

But I digress. What I find interesting in the article is that Mnookin discovers several tidbits that, if they were about anybody else, would lead to a negative impression of the person. But in this article, they just add up to showing how awesome Jeter is.

Mnookin writes that "part of the reason that he's so lionized is that in the cloistered world of professional sports, an athlete whose image matches his actual day-to-day life is almost unthinkable." But then the writer goes into great detail about what a control freak Jeter is on making sure that this image stays pristine. Which is certainly understandable, but doesn't really fit with the way we've been told by the media for the past 15 years about how Derek doesn't care what anybody says about him. You know, the same way we've been told about how the Core Four was so close, when the article reveals that Jeter worked out instead of watching Andy Pettitte's farewell press conference on TV.

Anyhow, here are some examples:

* A freelance writer writing an article for the New York Times had his tape recorder with him when Jeter was "joking around" with some other players in the locker room, and Jeter apparently noticed the tape recorder's presence. Mnookin writes that "later that night, the reporter was buttonholed by a Yankees PR staffer and one of the team's security guards. When the reporter tried to apologize to Jeter for any misunderstanding, he says, Jeter refused to acknowledge that anything had happened in the first place."

* Ian O'Connor's new book on the captain says that when Jeter threw a party, he had everybody hand in their cameras and cell phones for the night so he wouldn't get photographed.

* When Jeter would go to the club with a woman, he'd have them enter and leave separately. Mnookin describes this as happening "earlier in his career," but it's really pre-Minka Kelly. TMZ caught him doing this in 2008.


Look, I get that Jeter wants to protect his privacy. It makes sense in this gossipy media world. But we all know that these anecdotes would have much more negative taint to them if, oh, I don't know, they were about Alex Rodriguez or Roger Clemens or something. Can you imagine the headlines if A-Rod got a security guard to "buttonhole" a reporter? Just saying.

What do you think? Tell us about it!

Poll Finds That Derek Jeter, Not Babe Ruth, Is New York's Greatest Athlete Ever

Babe Ruth was the greatest baseball player of all time. Some might say he was the greatest athlete of all time. But in a poll of New Yorkers, The Babe lost out to Derek Jeter (!) as New York's Greatest Athlete ever. Who voted in the poll -- Casey Close?

Here's the breakdown of the Top Ten Greatest New York Athletes ever, according to a Siena College Research Institute poll of 801 New York State residents:

Derek Jeter: 14%
Babe Ruth: 11%
Joe DiMaggio 4%
Mickey Mantle 4%
Joe Namath 4%
Patrick Ewing 3%
Carmelo Anthony 3%
Lou Gehrig 2%
Jakie (sic) Robinson (yes, that's the way the report spelled his name!): 2%
Jim Kelly 2%


What is wrong with these people? Did they find people who never watched a moment of sports in their lives? Actually, that's not that far off -- 41% of the people in the poll described themselves as not being sports fans! Why those 41% percent were asked a single question after that admission is beyond me.


Aside from the ridiculousness of Jeter winning this honor (by the way, he won the women's vote with 17%), how about Carmelo Anthony, who has been on the Knicks for less than a month, being No. 7? Outrageous, even if you add in 'Melo's Syracuse heroics. These are the most short-sighted and embarrassing poll results I've seen since Britons picked Princess Diana over Winston Churchill for that country's Person of the Century.

It gets worse on this New York poll. According to Siena's press release, "Among Yankee fans, Derek Jeter holds a commanding lead, 21 percent to Babe Ruth's 13 percent for New York's greatest athlete. Tied for third are DiMaggio and Mantle with Namath continuing in fifth."

I don't want to be the fan police here. But if you call yourself a Yankee fan, and you really think Jeter is a better player than Babe Flipping Ruth, I don't even know what to say to that. Sheesh. Our fan base prides themselves as being loyal and knowledgeable, but Jeter winning that poll is just plain sad.

What do you think? Tell us about it!

Brian Cashman sez he's "proud" that Derek Jeter got another Gold Glove

I saw Brian Cashman said this Thursday night, regarding Derek Jeter winning that undeserved Gold Glove this week:

Cashman was asked what he thought about Derek Jeter winning another Gold Glove earlier this week, along with Robinson Cano and Mark Teixeira. "We're proud," Cashman said. "I wish that Alex [Rodriguez] won it too, so we could have the whole infield do it. But that's an awesome accomplishment, to have [Jeter], Cano and Tex [win]. I'm proud of all those guys. Derek's been steady for us at that position, and we're really proud that he added another one to the fold."

Why be proud? Was Jethro Tull and their management proud when they won the Best Heavy Metal Band Grammy over Metallica? If they were, they shouldn't have been; they didn't deserve it.

Speaking of awards ceremonies, the Oscars have seen their share of great actors winning for not-so-great roles, like Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman, and Paul Newman in The Color of Money. But people didn't begrudge them for winning, because they never won the Academy Awards the times they really deserved to. In Jeter's case, he had already won four Gold Gloves. Did he really need a fifth?

And yes, I think Cashman is also incorrect in saying he wished A-Rod should have won a Gold Glove this year. Alex didn't deserve it, either. What's next? Is Cash going to suggest that Jorge Posada should have won a Gold Glove this season, too? Good grief.

In "Saturday Night Fever," one of my all-time favorite movies, John Travolta's Tony Manero character and his partner, played by Karen Lynn Gorney, win first price in the dance contest at the disco. But Manero has such a strong sense of fair play, he gives the prize money and the trophy to the couple he thinks really should have won the dance contest. Guess that type of thing will never happen in real life!

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How much will Derek Jeter's Gold Glove help in his contract negotiations?

The fact that Robinson Cano and Mark Teixeira won Gold Gloves for the Yankees yesterday has been lost in the whole to-do over Derek Jeter also getting the award, even though advanced fielding metrics rank him as mediocre at best at shortstop these days. So why did Jeter win it? Is it his name, or something else at work?

Squawker Jon and I were talking about this last night. He joked that the MLB managers and coaches voted for Jeter to stick it to the Yankees in contract negotiations. Jon also noted that it's going to be harder for the Yanks to talk to the captain about eventually moving off shortstop in such negotiations, now that Jeter's agent Casey Close can point to Jeter winning his fifth Gold Glove.

While people like the New York Times' Richard Sandomir are still doing the Jeter gushing, suggesting in an article entitled "Without Lifers Like Jeter, Yankees Lose Their Aura" that Jeter not only is responsible for the five rings, but for the new stadium, I've noticed that when it comes to Jeter getting the Gold Glove, even some Yankee fans think it's a bit ridiculous.


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Jorge Posada wants to be catcher forever -- and for Derek Jeter to stay at shortstop

Jorge Posada did a great thing for charity yesterday, with his foundation's bowling tournament to help victims of craniosynostosis. Nice job at raising awareness -- and money -- to help people.

However, I wasn't all that crazy about his comments about the Yankees' future, and where he sees himself and Derek Jeter.

When asked about reports that Jesus Montero would get to start behind the dish next year, Posada said:

"I'm going to prepare for (the starting catching job). I love catching, love being behind the plate. I take a lot of pride - that's my position," Posada said at the charity bowling tournament at Chelsea Piers to benefit his foundation. "If (the Yankees) want me to be DH or catch, just be honest and let me know what's up."

Given that the Yankees only had him catch half the team's games last year, and he was terrible on defense, you'd think Posada would see that perhaps it's time to gracefully step aside, train the new catcher and take the DH role next year. But Jorge isn't exactly known for his grace. Remember how, when the Red Sox double-stole on him twice in one game and also stole four bases off him in one inning? And how he blamed the pitchers? Classy!

What's funny is that Posada, as a rookie, was reportedly annoyed that it took him so long to supercede Joe Girardi as the team's No. 1 catcher. It wasn't until 1998 that Jorge got to catch over 80 games, and it wasn't until 2000, when Girardi was no longer on the team, that Posada got to catch more than 100 games a year. Now would be the time for him to devote himself to being a mentor for Montero, but it doesn't sound like he's going to offer that up. What about doing what is best for the team?

I was against giving Posada a four-year contract extension in the first place, pointing out that he would be 40 by the end of the contract, and that most catchers have hung up their spikes long before then. But I remember readers saying that Posada would stay fresh until the end, because he didn't get started as a catcher until late in his minor league career. How's that working for him now?

The second part of Posada's conversation to reporters that I thought was interesting was this (emphasis added): 

Job competition aside, Posada said that while it would be nice to snag free-agent pitcher Cliff Lee, the "No. 1 priority" for the Yankees was finalizing pacts with Core Four players Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera. Jeter, the face of the franchise, shouldn't be a player with whom the Yankees carry on a protracted negotiation, either, said Posada. "I just hope the whole negotiation goes a little smoother than people are talking about," said Posada. "I hope he's treated the way he's treated the Yankees. He's our No. 1 priority - him and Mo. Then get the rest of the team together." Asked if Jeter should finish his career at shortstop if the Yankees reach a new deal, Posada said, "No question."

Given that Posada is Jeter's best friend, this isn't good news to hear. I'm not somebody who thinks Jeter ought to be moved off shortstop in 2011, but he shouldn't get any guarantee to stay in the spot for the rest of his career, either. And with Posada's comments, I wonder now if this is going to be a sticking point in a new deal. 

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Joel Sherman proposes a $75 million (!) post-career Yankee contract for Derek Jeter

I'm still digesting today's Joel Sherman column in the New York Post, because it's partly reasonable, partly outrageous. In the article, Sherman suggests that the Yankees offer Jeter a three-year, $45 million deal, even though Sherman writes that Jeter "probably is not one of their 10 most important players anymore" (harsh!)
But when it comes down to it, I don't have a problem with Sherman's contract suggestion, although I think he's a little too tough on how important a player Jeter still is on the team.

What I do take issue is his idea for a post-career contract with the Yankees for the captain. Sherman proposes "a $75 million, 25-year post-career deal" for Jeter from the team, and compares it to the way George Brett and Cal Ripken Jr. got deals from their own teams after retiring. There are several problems with this idea:

* Exactly what are the Yankees going to get for three million a year for somebody who won't be playing? To put Sherman's figure in perspective, Joe Girardi makes $3 million a year in his new contract. Hitting coach Kevin Long just got a new deal, which makes him the second-highest paid hitting coach in baseball at a little over $600K a year. Most of the team's coaches make in the low hundreds for a full-time job. And Sherman wants the Yankees to pay Jeter $3 million a year, for 25 years, for what exactly? To be a mascot? He never really explains what Jeter will be doing for the money.

*For tthe Royals and Orioles, they have very few icons, so keeping Brett and Ripken in the fold made sense, because they were really the the big names of their generation. (Notably, Sherman didn't mention the 10-yea rpersonal services contract the Astros signed Roger Clemens to, for $200K a year, and now how Houston has essentially told Clemens to stay away from the team!) But the Yankees have a whole slew of superstars. If Jeter gets this sort of deal, then what about Mariano Rivera? Or Paul O'Neill? Or Bernie Williams? Or Jorge Posada? Or David Cone? Or Andy Pettitte? Where does it end? Is there going to be a $200 million payroll for ex-players, too?

* And how would the older Yankee roster of living legends handle this? For example, Yogi Berra and Whitey Ford each made less than $500K in their entire careers with the Yankees. They still do events with the team, and have attended spring training, which they're apparently compensated for to some extent. But how will they, or other retired Yankees, handle if Jeter gets such a huge deal, even though he's already made $205+ million as a Bomber? Reggie Jackson draws a salary from the Yankees as a special assistant, but it's not even near  the money in Sherman's offer.

* And it's not like this would guarantee Jeter's undying loyalty to the pinstripes. Sherman writes that in his deal idea, "Jeter would receive an opt-out provision any time if he truly wants to pursue an ownership stake with another team." Sherman wants the Yankees to spend $75 million on somebody who won't be playing, then let him go and have to watch him compete against him elsewhere one day? How does that even make any sense?

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Sweeny Murti tells a charming, but telling, anecdote about Derek Jeter

We always hear from the media about what a master Derek Jeter is at handling the press. Regarding that subject, WFAN's Sweeny Murti's wrote an article called "A Decade With Derek", a piece I saw linked on Baseball Think Factory today. In the piece, Murti, who covers the Yankees for the radio station, talked about moments both on and off the field with the Yankee captain in his 10 years covering the team.

There is one really telling anecdote that BTF highlilghted, and that I couldn't help but notice as well. In 2002, Murti mentioned to Jeter that he hadn't struck out in his first 34 plate appearances that year. Murti said:

I thought it was quite a feat for a player who usually strikes out at least 100 times a year (only 99 each of the last two years he quickly reminded me).

Top of the first inning (against Roy Halladay mind you) Jeter struck out for the first time that season. I muttered a few four-letter words to myself. I mean, how stupid was I? Top of the third inning, Jeter struck out again. When the game was over, I noticed Jeter glaring at me from across the clubhouse and dragged myself over to his locker. I actually apologized for him striking out. I said something like, “Man, that’s a rookie mistake from a second year guy. I’m never doing that again, trust me.” Jeter shot back, “Don’t think I wasn’t thinking about you either.” It was somewhat playful since the Yankees won the game, and as I’d find out many more times over the decade, Jeter really doesn’t care how he performs as long as the team wins.

The next night, Jeter struck out three more times in a 9-7 loss to the Blue Jays. That was five strikeouts in two games after my little attempt at conversation. Jeter walked by me this time and said, “I’m not talking to you for a month as punishment.”

For years now, every time somebody tries to feed Jeter a statistical nugget about a hitting streak or errorless streak or whatever, he glares at them and begs them to stop. And I laugh.

Cute story, right? But change the name in the anecdote of the player from Derek Jeter to Alex Rodriguez, and the story wouldn't seem quite so charming, would it?

You know, I get Jeter's superstition -- I feel the same way whenever Michael Kay reveals some stat, like scoreless innings by a pitcher, only to see it end in that very inning!

I'm just saying that if it were A-Rod or some other less-revered player who glared at a reporter like that after a team win, then threatened him the next night with the whole "I’m not talking to you for a month as punishment" thing, reporters would have a much more negative reaction. And they sure as heck wouldn't be falling over themselves to apologize, the way Murti did with Jeter!

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Will Jeter play until age 42? And what will the Yankees be getting for their money?

A day after Hal Steinbrenner warned that "there's always the possibility that things could get messy" with negotiating with Derek Jeter, Sports Illustrated's Jon Heyman wrote that New York Yankees shortstop could be asking for an additional six years so he could play until age 42. That just happens to be the same age that teammate Alex Rodriguez is signed through. Here's what Heyman said:

jeter could take awhile. #yanks may be thinking 2-3 yrs. but industry sources suggest he could ask to stay 'til hes 42 (6 yrs), a la arod.

What Heyman wrote that the captain would be asking for would not surprise me. ESPN's Ian O'Connor, who Jeter is cooperating with on a book, wrote this summer that Jeter wants to play into his forties.
But what will the Yankees be getting for paying Jeter for so long? Even Jeter's agent Casey Close didn't promise that Jeter in the future would be anything more than a Yankee icon for that time or salary. Here's what he told AOL Fanhouse:

"While it is not our intent to negotiate the terms of Derek's free-agent contract in a public forum," Casey Close told FanHouse, "we do agree with Hal's and Brian (Cashman, the GM)'s recent comments that this contract is about business and winning championships.

"Clearly, baseball is a business, and Derek's impact on the sport's most valuable franchise cannot be overstated. Moreover, no athlete embodies the spirit of a champion more than Derek Jeter."

Really. No other athlete "embodies the spirit of a champion more than Derek Jeter"?  You have to be kidding me. Just on a Yankee basis, is Jeter more of a winner than Yogi Berra with his ten rings, or Babe Ruth, or Joe DiMaggio. or Lou Gehrig, or Mickey Mantle? Why does Jeter, who has won exactly one ring in the last decade, (incidentally, the same number as A-Rod, the player who suffers in comparison to him), who was captain of the team that had the worst postseason collapse in baseball history, and whose team got outplayed this year by a team with 1/4 the payroll, "embodies the spirit of a champion" more than these Yankee legends do? C'mon now.

And in other sports, forget about Michael Jordan, or Bill Russell, or Kobe Bryant, or Magic Johnson, or Larry Bird, or Tiger Woods, or Martina Navratilova, or Roger Federer, or Joe Montana, or Terry Bradshaw. No, Jeter's more of a champion than any of them, according to Close. Puh-lease.

Unlike Mike Francesa, I'm not saying Jeter should be moved off shortstop for 2011 -- even with his down year, he still is one of the better offensive shortstops in baseball. And I don't even have a problem with the Yankees paying him big bucks for, say, three years, although he already has already been rewarded quite handsomely ($189 million in his last contract) for his impact on the team.

But there has to be a limit on how much the Yankees keep on paying him for past performance. Even Jeter's own agent seems to be suggesting that Jeter should be paid on his value as the face of the franchise over the last fifteen years, not on his current playing abilities.

And a new six-year deal is a long time to pay for the past. Unless you're ageless like Nolan Ryan or Jamie Moyer, or chemically enhanced like Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds were, what you're going to get at age 42 in even a superstar ballplayer isn't going to be very good. Remember the sadness of a 42-year-old Willie Mays stumbling around the field in the 1973 World Series?

And before you ask, yes, I expect A-Rod to look just as terrible at 42. But just because the Yankees made one dumb move with him, doesn't mean they have to do it again with Jeter. Three years is enough.

What do you think? Tell us about it!

Media, ESPN start to go after Derek Jeter this year

A few weeks ago, my high school classmate Steve asked me what I thought of Derek Jeter's season, and wondered if it meant anything that he was selling his NYC apartment. I don't think Jeter is retiring, or planning on leaving town, or anything like that. But I have noticed something different this year. For maybe the first time ever, he is getting a little criticism from the media. It started with the Bob Sheppard funeral debacle, continued when Jeter slumped for the second half of the season, and built up steam when he pretended to get hit by a pitch versus Tampa Bay.

Granted, there is still stuff like when Michael Kay practically had a coronary when Derek Jeter got a hit in the ninth inning of the season finale. Kay pointed out that the hit would put him at a season average of .270, as opposed to .269.Whoopee. Do you think Jeter's wiping his brow with relief over that? Come on now.

Anyhow, I noticed that in preparation for the playoffs, ESPN New York had a whole slew of articles this week about the captain, with varying degrees of criticism. ESPN is known for its Yankee-bashing, but they generally treat Derek with kid gloves. Not this time.

ESPN Insider columnist Matt Meyers posited the provocative theory that A-Rod is a better clutch player than Jeter. Wally Matthews slammed Jeter for not working with hitting coach Kevin Long until September 11, months into his slump. Andrew Marchand found a former GM who said Jeter was only really worth "twelve million dollars over two years."

But "Derek Jeter needs to put his ego aside," Johnette Howard's article on him, was the most harsh, even from the perspective of a Squawker who frequently notes that the shortstop's name is Jeter, not Jesus. She writes:

Jeter has done a terrific job of hiding his ego throughout his career with his aw-shucks, team-first mantra. But the disassembling of the 36-year-old Jeter's ability and sacred-cow status already has started. And we're about to get a peek behind the curtain and see just how big his ego really is.

Wait a minute here. For fifteen years, the media has lionized Jeter as nothing short of a baseball saint. Now, they tell us that he's an image-conscious phony with a big ego? Which one is it?

I'm not exactly shocked to hear of an athlete having a big ego. That pretty much comes with the territory, and it really doesn't bother me. You have to have an ego to complete at that level. But it was the media who told us for all these years that Jeter was somehow above such things.They built up the very pedestal that they're now starting to chip away at.

Howard continues:

As Jeter reminded people during one of his longer hitting slumps this season, "I've never really had a problem with confidence." But Jeter has shown a growing sensitivity to criticism in the past year.


If you ask Jeter a question about moving to a position other than shortstop someday -- something even iron man Cal Ripken Jr. had to do -- you're likely to get a long pause and perhaps a slightly annoyed look.


People who are around the Yankees every day say Jeter was even unhappy about the outside rebukes he caught for failing to represent the players at the recent funeral of the team's iconic public address announcer, Bob Sheppard.

Uh-oh. Wonder if he got ticked off over my Squawker column about the issue!

Howard then unfavorably compares Jeter to Julius Erving and Tom Brady. But after that, she appears to lose her nerve, and goes on a mini-rant suggesting that Jeter should stay at shortstop forever, even though she argued just a few paragraphs earlier that even Cal Ripken Jr. had to switch positions:

Compared to agreeing on the money or length of his next contract, Jeter's stated desire to keep playing shortstop until 40 and beyond is the easiest problem to solve. He's not moving anywhere. Why should he?


Jeter's subpar defensive range drives the stats junkies nuts. But really, how is Jeter's presence at shortstop hurting the Yankees?....


Jeter doesn't have terrific defensive range, but he still caught 98.9 percent of 100 balls he got to his season and had only six errors -- both career bests...

There's even a Jeter-friendly sabermetric argument to be made for why moving Jeter to the outfield would be worse.

You can't start your column criticizing Jeter for him acting peeved when anybody suggests he move from shortstop, and end it saying that he should stay in that spot for the rest of his career. That doesn't even make any sense. What a mess.


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Remember when the media said Jose Reyes and David Wright were better than Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez?

Today's Joel Sherman column in the New York Post reminds me of two of the dopiest ideas pushed by the New York sportswriters over the past few years - that David Wright is better than Alex Rodriguez, and Jose Reyes is better than Derek Jeter.

And this wasn't pushed by one writer or two - this idea was pretty common in the New York papers from about 2006 on. You would have thought that Jeter and A-Rod were as worn out as Emmitt Smith in the Just For Men commerical, the way certain writers in this town insisted that the Mets stars were on the rise. As Doctor Phil would say, how's that working out for you?

Sherman writes:

Wright was going to be the Mets’ Jeter; the homegrown kid who mixed skill, intangibles and charisma to become prince of the city. Instead, he has finally passed Rodriguez in the worst of all categories: Wright is now the most dissected athlete in New York. We break down his swing and psychoanalyze his mind. What is up with the wild arm, the lack of clutch play and, yes, all of those strikeouts?

You see, this is why you don't make somebody an "untouchable" before they've really proven themselves. Jeter got that type of treatment after four rings. Wright got it before the Mets even won a playoff series. Now that Wright is finally getting scrutinized, and it's got to hurt, after the years of the media telling him how great he is.

On the other hand, A-Rod has a much thicker skin after all these years of criticism than you would think. (If you want to see the flip side of that, look at how poorly David Ortiz has handled getting criticism this season. But I digress.)

As for Wright, I don't know whether he is afraid of getting plunked again, or he doesn't feel comfortable in Citi Field, or something, but he's not quite the third baseman he was projected to be. And he's certainly not better than A-Rod. I remember one A-Rod hating Yankee beat writer suggesting a trade of Wright for A-Rod straight up to "get rid of the headache" of Rodriguez, only for the writer to then say that the Mets would never want to do such a trade. Another writer wrote earlier this year that he would prefer Wright to Rodriguez. Please.

And I do think the Mets rushed Jose Reyes back before he was healthy enough to play. I still contend they're not taking his thyroid issue seriously enough.

Sherman continues:

Reyes and Wright have dwindled from cornerstones to puzzles. The Mets went all in during the 2006 season, signing both to multi-year contracts, believing they had erected a long-term foundation. Now the Mets will have to decide on Reyes’ $11 million option for 2011 and whether a champion really can be built around the left side of their infield.

As a new Subway Series begins, the question now is not whether Reyes and Wright have passed Jeter and Rodriguez, but if the best days for Reyes and Wright already have passed and, if so, how do the Mets survive that?

I see Sherman's point, but I think he is going a bit too far in the other direction for my tastes. I don't think Reyes and Wright are washed up. But I do think that the Yankee-haters in the media pumped them up to be bigger than they were. Somewhere in between are the real players. It would be nice if the press had kept some perspective on them in the first place.


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