A Moment Made For Jeter and by Jeter

A Mets fan has it rough these days, all of which seem to be Yankee days. First, there was the 3000th hit by the most famous Yankee of them all, oh what is his name? Then tonight I got to watch as Robinson Cano won the Home Run Derby in Arizona with some really prodigious shots.

Oh well, at least I did get to see Jose Reyes interviewing Carlos Beltran before the festivities began on the MLB Network, one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a while.

But, truth to tell, I was really happy for Jeter on Saturday. If he had just dribbled a seeing-eye grounder for that long-awaited milestone, it wouldn’t have meant anything. But Jeter always had a flair for the dramatic and Saturday was certainly no exception.

It kills me to say so but the whole day validated all the ballyhoo and the high esteem he’s held in by every fan of Major League Baseball. I mean, really!

He needed two hits and he started his day off by getting the first one he needed right off the bat, so to speak. Then, with the whole world watching, and a great pitcher, David Price, on the mound, he had one of the best at-bats I’ve ever seen, fouling off pitch after pitch, taking the close balls, and then just driving that ball, no doubt about it, into the left-center field seats.

It was one of those moments you remember. I was in my garage workin’ out, one eye on the screen and the other on the mat. But I was watching every pitch. If he had struck out, it would have been a great at-bat. I jumped in the air as I heard the crack of the bat and watched that drive and heard that call.

It was a moment made for Jeter and by Jeter. Of course, there have been other Jeter moments, but everybody remembers two especially, his flip to the plate to nail the incredibly stupid Jeremy Giambi at the plate in a playoff game against Oakland and that flying leap into the seats in short left-center field to complete a catch that couldn’t have been made any other way.

But those other moments had been surprises, moments made by Jeter but not especially for him, as was his quest for that elusive 3000th hit. There had been the injury, then the rainout and the interminable questions about his feelings about the whole thing. When he stepped into that batter’s box for that second at-bat, he had to know the whole baseball world was watching.

And that’s why Jeter is a great player. When the pressure is on, he turns up his game. He feels he can make the play, no, not just can but will make the play. Other players don’t make that flying leap, other players don’t have the presence of mind to stay with that play in Oakland, one he admits to this day had only been made because the runner didn’t slide, and, even then, it had been a close thing.

I love watching Jose Reyes play but he wouldn’t have made either of those Jeter plays. He doesn’t have that presence of mind and he doesn’t have the kind of drive that would mean possibly sacrificing his body. Now don’t get me wrong. Jose will make a lot of plays that Jeter couldn’t ever make but Jeter will make every play he can possibly make. Jeter is in the game.

There’s a little hot dog in all the greats and Jeter is no exception to that either. But, to me, only hot dogs make those impossible plays.

Not that that 3000th hit was an impossible play. If anything, it was inevitable. But hitting the homer was something else again, and it was a moment that really cried out for something special. Jeter heard the call and made the most of it. He knew he could hit one in that spot so he did.

With every player on both sides hanging over the dugout, with many thousands watching live and millions taking it in on television, Jeter made the moment one worth everybody’s time. He knocked one over the wall. It was great, even the probably scripted Posada dash to the front of the congratulatory line and Mariano there too at the forefront, three old soldiers of baseball just really happy in the moment. The captain had done it again.

And, of course, he didn’t stop there. Jeter was on fire. He was 3 for 3 and 4 for 4 and 5 for 5 and the game-winner. What else? It was a glorious Jeter day, a great day to be a Yankee fan.

A total of 27 other players have reached 3000 hits, most of them notable names too, and all but two made it to the Hall of Fame. And one of those two, Pete Rose, should be in there too. The other is Rafael Palmeiro, not a Hall of Fame player to me, even discounting the juice.

The 3000 hit plateau is one that speaks of greatness and longevity. You have to be a pretty damned good player to be in the game that long, but other marks of longevity such as most consecutive games played

If Jeter hadn’t been assured of always having a place in New York’s hearts before Saturday, he has it now, no matter what follows, much as was and is the case for Eli Manning and Broadway Joe and Walt Frazier.

He may not finish his career as the leadoff man for the Yankees but will hardly matter now. Those other icons won titles but Jeter already had more titles than any of them. What he may not have had before Saturday was that one big day.

Well, he sure had one Saturday. Five for five, the 3000th hit a homer, and the game-winning hit to top it all off.

The 3000th after all had to come on a winning day.



(Christian Lopez made the day even more special by returning the ball he caught, passing up many thousands of dollars in the bargain).

Trying Their Brains Out

The kindest thing to say is that it just wasn’t meant to be. The Mets only had a puncher’s chance anyway. To take 2 of 3 from the Yankees would have been highly unlikely under the best of circumstances. And as just about every circumstance went against the Mets in Game 3, the result somehow became more palatable.

Taking the first game of the Series from the Yanks took all the pressure off the Mets, immediately ensuring that they wouldn’t be swept. So when Game 2 was lost, it wasn’t really very painful. It wasn’t that hard to figure that Chris Capuano, always vulnerable to the long ball, would be victimized somewhat while AJ Burnett would roll.

I’d say Game 3 was a typical Mike Pelfrey loss if it weren’t for the fact that he did so well for so long, pitching lights out for 6 innings. Usually he falls apart much sooner than the 7th inning. All he really did wrong in that 7th was give up a single and a walk. And, oh yeah, he hit Cervelli with a pitch to load the bases. By then, every Mets fan knew it was curtains for Mikey. The more cogent ones though knew he was done after he walked Dickerson.

Unfortunately, manager Terry Collins isn’t as smart as most Mets fans. He let Pelfrey pitch to Jeter, who promptly singled in two runs. Only then did Collins call for a reliever, after Jeter’s single tied the score at 3-3. Collins likes to give his players an opportunity to show their character. Pelfrey showed his when he nailed Cervelli. He’s really not that good with adversity.

It was interesting for a very short while thereafter. When Girardi sent the Yanks leader in home runs up to bunt the runners over to second and third, I figured the Yanks wasted an out and, if the Mets could walk Teixeira and get a ground ball from Arod, all would be right with the world. Reliever Beato had always been tough with runners in scoring position.

The ironic thing was that Beato did get his ground ball from Arod. But it was too soft, unplayably soft, and the winning run came trotting home. Even then, things might have been salvageable if Beato could have eked out a ground ball from Cano. But he couldn’t. Cano rifled a single to center and two more runs came scurrying home. Only then was it time to switch to the French Open.

What happened after all the above isn’t really important. Things got worse. Willie Harris booted a chance at third base but by then everybody had lost interest. Mets fans were left to wonder what could have been if Collins hadn’t been such an optimist with respect to Pelfrey.

But sometimes things just catch up to you. How long could the Mets keep going as if losing David Wright and Ike Davis didn’t really mean that much? How long could Justin Turner, the Mets RBI machine for the past week, keep practicing his magic? How long could the relief staff keep throwing up zeroes?

Our local heroes have a day off before traveling out to Chicago for three against the Cubbies before hosting the Phillies and then Pittsburgh. One hopes they just forget all about yesterday’s foibles. Instead, they could think about all the good things they have, because they can still win a lot of games with Justin Turner and Pridie and yes, even Willie Harris.

They just have to keep pitching well. There does seem to be enough talent there. By some miracle, R.A. Dickey’s knuckler has returned and the other starters, Gee and Niese and Capuano have been good enough so far to keep them in games. And the hitting isn’t really as bad as all the local media would have you believe, even without Davis and Wright.

You shouldn’t judge the Mets hitting off a series with the Yankees. Those relievers in the Bronx were and are pretty darned good. While the Cubbies have a couple of good ones in Marmol and Marshall, if the Mets can take and hold a lead against their starters, they may not have to face the really tough ones.

If this all sounds a little too optimistic, it shouldn’t. While these upstarts from Buffalo don’t have any reputations, they do seem to play defense and do all the other things needed to win. They’re not the Yankees but then even the Yankees aren’t really knockin’ ‘em dead.

The Yankees lineup just doesn’t seem that intimidating anymore. Arod seems to be coming on and Granderson hits the more than occasional dinger but otherwise they’ve been pretty mundane. Besides, the lineup is crazy. Having Granderson in the two spot is ridiculous. Although he did lay down a nice bunt yesterday and he does have speed, he’s really not making enough contact to be a two.

Teixeira’ not a three, Jeter’s not a one, and just about no Yankees seem to really fit in the lineup spot they find themselves in. Gardner should be the leadoff hitter with his speed and ability to take pitches. If anybody’s a three, it’s Arod and well, it’s not really my business but they are looking old to me, especially Posada but Jeter’s looking a little too creaky to me at shortstop. His error in taking a beautiful throw from Cervelli yesterday looked suspiciously to me like an old guy trying to do things only a younger guy could pull off.

And Cano looks as if his mind’s on something else more often than not. He’s not so far the wunderkind he was last year, especially in the field. Even at the plate more often than not, it looks as if he’s just not that into it.

The Mets never look complacent. The Mets are all trying their brains out. And as Beltran and Reyes are in their contract years, they’re playing for their very livelihoods. It’s a peculiar mix that just might work.

Tuesday in New York

It’s another Tuesday, it’s raining, there’s nothing particularly that needs doing so I’ll just vedge(sp) and take the hour or so it will take me to whine.

First of all, the Monday Night Football game was horrid…totally unwatchable. Why can’t anybody figure out in advance that Arizona is just barely a professional team at all? To match them up with any team is risky. What team wouldn’t have beaten the Cardinals last night? Detroit plays harder. Buffalo definitely plays harder, and smarter too. The Rams, now that they have a real live quarterback, would dance rings around that sorry bunch from Arizona.

Of course, the Giants won. That makes me happy since I thought it would take their best effort to knock off even the likes of Jacksonville. It’s really a tribute to them from the coaches to all the remaining healthy players that they were able to come from behind to take the lead and then hold it against a Jaguar team that was still trying to show some fight. The Jets won too on Thanksgiving but they were once again nothing to write home about.

The Knicks have been doing better than expected and the Nets started really slow but are showing signs of life. All of the above is promising better times for New York fans this winter, and maybe even into the March Madness of college basketball. And by that time, spring training will have started. Life is good if you’re into sports and not so much into shopping and Cyber Monday crapola, the teetering economy or global warming.

Another melodrama that will keep the NY area humming until the wee hours of February is the Derek Jeter negotiation. I’m enjoying it immensely so far. The one question, it seems to me, that no one is asking is how the Players Union and the MLB Commissioner’s office feel about rewarding a player for his marketing value. There is the power of precedent to be considered. Why shouldn’t every player want to add value to their contracts? Wouldn’t the Commissioner want the Yanks to take a hard line on this icon talk?

All this is great stuff for a Mets fan. There couldn’t be a wider division between the parties. And, while it’s hard to envision Jeter playing for any other team, the Yankees have essentially told Jeter to get other offers. But other teams will be skittish about being a pawn in that game. So any offers will come late, only after they are convinced Jeter may really consider a uniform without stripes. How great would it be for some team that would be willing to pay Jeter a premium for his market value? A Detroit or a Boston (just to drive the Yanks crazy) might enjoy getting some attention and more fannies in their seats for just a few million dollars premium per year. Then the question will really be how much the Yankees want Jeter and how much Jeter wants the Yankees.

The team is clearly in the driver’s seat. The Yankees can function quite nicely without Jeter. While they’d take a lot of heat in the first Jeter-less year, especially when he’d get his 3000th hit for say, Kansas City. Heh-heh,. They’d look better and better as Jeter would get older and older. It’d be virtually impossible for Jeter to score his hundred runs per year for any other team but the Yankees, who have continually surrounded him with hitters in their own right.

Juan Uribe, about five years younger than Jeter and the San Francisco Giants postseason wunderkind, just signed a 3-year contract with the Dodgers for 21 million. Based on that figure, I’d say Jeter’s worth about 10 to 11 million per year. The Yankees offered him 15 mill for 3 years, a figure already that included market value. I’d understand totally if the Yankees felt that Jeter was holding them up. They would be entitled to be thinking Jeter should accept a pay cut from his last contract, his 10-year 189 million deal. The Yankees should stick to their guns, and if they do, things should get really interesting. And what if they withdraw their 15 million offer? Then what?

Meanwhile, the Mets have done almost nothing. Today I heard that their pretty fine left-handed specialist in the bullpen, Pedro Feliciano, turned down arbitration, which would seem to indicate that the market is good. It would also seem the Mets want to keep their better players, definitely a good sign for us Mets fans. The Mets need pitching though and I’m not crazy about the free agent starters. I wouldn’t mind seeing them shop Jason Bay and/or Carlos Beltran for a couple of pitchers. And I’d rather see them get young guns with limitless potential than see them go for broke with a veteran commanding a high salary.

A second baseman wouldn’t hurt either. But there are plenty of second basemen. It’s just not that critical a position. I was happy to see Florida’s slugging Dan Uggla go elsewhere. His fielding has always been atrocious and the Mets fans wouldn’t be tolerant of that. Uggla will be fine in Atlanta though, and Atlanta may be ready next year to challenge the Phillies seriously for the Division Championship. Whatever the Mets do next year, it’s difficult to think they’ll overtake either of the top two contenders.

The Knicks play the Nets tonight and it should be a barn-burner. Although the Knicks are the better team, they’ll be without their starting center Ronnie Turiaf, a factor that should hurt them a lot being that the Nets Lopez will be firing from all directions. But the Knicks have found an unlikely answer to their 2 guard spot in Landry Fields, who doesn’t really score so often as he does all the other things. He shoots well though when he does shoot, he rebounds and assists, goes for loose balls and, well, you get the idea.

The Nets need two more players to compete. Newark anyone?

On Good and Bad Baseball

Wowww…I hate to say it, being a long-time Yankee hater, but the Yanks looked great last night. And it was a great game to watch on TV, even with Michael Kaye just saying obvious stuff all night long.

The new guys came through for the Yanks, i.e. Burnett and Swisher, even Gardner, and the old Yanks, especially Jeter, seemed to reach back to their past to do what they always had done. Jeter and those inside-outers, that swing that dumps even inside pitches into right field for either a single or double. He went 3 for 5 last night, and his last hit was the Rays-killer, a long drive that kept goin’ and goin’……..

I was rooting for the Rays all the way too, especially as Garza (Rays SP) is one of my fantasy pitchers. And, after that 15-5 drubbing of the night before, I had been looking forward to a repeat – bad pitching, especially early, that just knocks the life out of a team, any team of competitors.

But it wasn’t to be. The Yanks took a quick early lead as another old-timer, Posada, hit a sac-fly to score Gardner who had earlier singled. Then Swisher killed a ball that landed waay out in right field for a second run.

Burnett held the lead through six tough innings, with A.J. providing the kind of no-hit pitching and showing the kind of stuff I hadn’t seen since David Cone. Longoria, Upton, Pena, it didn’t matter, they came, they saw, they sat down. It was awesome really, even if a little depressing for a Mets fan.

Ah, but you can’t keep a good team down forever and even the greats suffer a lapse sometimes. Burnett’s lapse came in the bottom of the seventh as a string of base hits by Crawford, Longoria and Pena plated one and a sac-fly tied the score at two.

But Burnett woke up and the Rays went to sleep. The Rays’ Navarro struck out looking, and just for good measure, just to make sure the Rays were shut down, catcher Molina threw out Pena at first for the third out. Just like that, the fire was put out.

And, just as a good football team scores on its next possession, the Yanks fired back in the 8th. Gardner and Jeter again were the culprits to set the table for Teixeira, who managed a sac-fly off the usually tough J.P. Howell, and the Yanks had the lead once again.

But it was a tenuous lead, and the Rays didn’t win the AL East last year for nothin’. I thought for sure the Yanks would replace Burnett, they’re so nutsy about pitch counts. But Burnett hadn’t thrown too many, they kept him in, and the bottom of the order for the Rays went very quietly.

Then, just to make absolutely sure the Rays were dead, the Yanks unleashed guys like Cano and even Melky Cabrera. They hit straight singles off Wheeler, one of the Rays closers, to set up Gardner, who hit a hard liner out to centerfielder Upton, who misjudged the ball coming straight at him and then over his head for the ground-rule double and that always so important insurance run.

But that wasn’t enough for Jeter. He clubbed a Wheeler offering for a big, big 3-run homer and it was all over. We didn’t even get to see Mariano, now that the Yanks had a big 5-run lead. And they didn’t need him, Bruney was just fine, thank you, as he mowed down the heart of the Rays order in the ninth, striking out the side, Upton, Longoria and Pena, boom, boom, boom.

The game was over but the impression remained. It was the Rays who made the big mistakes, it was the Yankees who maintained their focus throughout, and got contributions from everybody. They played not only like a team, but like a winning team, the kind of team that could put away the likes of the Rays and the Red Sox.

Mets fans can appreciate good baseball, not that we’ve seen much of it from our empty-headed local heroes lately. Reyes’s over-slide of second base the other day pretty much killed the Mets in that one. Before that, we had watched as our good ol’ Murphy just flat-out dropped an easy fly ball.

Aah, maybe it was an isolated incident, the Yanks playing like that, just the right place and the right time. After all, their ace was on the mound and they had just been drubbed and embarrassed. But still, the contrast between their heady play and that of the Mets is just too hard to ignore.

To make things worse, I read that Reyes is looking to steal home, just to show off his Jackie Robinson-ness. Give me a break, Jose! Learn how to take second. That would be a good start. As Jose goes, so go the Mets, and, if he sets the wrong tune, a totally bone-headed tune, the Mets will readily follow suit.

There are some likenesses between the two clubs though. The Yanks have their Wang getting banged around and we have our Oliver Perez. But with Yang, it’s a relatively new thing while with crazy Ollie, it’s just same thing, different season. You get the feeling Wang will come around; is there any real hope for Perez?

But there the likeness ends, at least as far as starters go. Sabathia and Burnett are the Yanks two aces, we have a legitimate Santana, but then a very questionable Mike Pelfrey, who’s been hittable to the max, especially early in the game, when a lot of games are decided. At number 3, they’ve got Pettite, we’ve got Maine….and pray for rain.

Even with all our nifty relief pitchers, Green and Putz and Frankie, these early deficits provided by all the Mets pitchers but Santana, drain the life out of a team. It’s just exhausting to have to keep coming back.

We need to see a change……soon.

A Call for Instant Replay

Is there anything more frustrating in baseball than the terrible calls on balls and strikes? There’s no reason for it either. In this age of rampaging technology, there is no reason we should have to watch a terribly blind or paid-off home plate umpire call a third strike on a pitch that was at least a foot outside.

David Wright couldn’t save last night’s WBC game against Japan. He couldn’t overcome the bad call for strike three. He had to walk meekly to the dugout; he had to be content with whatever few words he managed to squeeze off to the fool or thief behind the plate.

The bad call decided the game. Japan’s pitcher Dice K was on the ropes. There was a man on first and second with just one out. Wright was the U.S.’s best hitter at the plate. Wright hung tough, fouling off pitch after pitch on the outside corner of the plate before taking the pitch that was obviously well outside.

But it was only obvious to everyone at home watching on TV and to everyone in the stands. The thief behind the mask thought it nipped the outside corner. As it was a breaking ball, he saw his opportunity to steal the game and he took it. He knew the next batter, Adam Dunn, wouldn’t have a chance. And he didn’t.

It didn’t really matter that Derek Jeter made it all moot by bungling a routine throw to first base in the next inning, keeping the inning alive so that the Japanese could put the game out of reach. All his error did was to hopefully keep him off the next version of the WBC USA baseball team. The game had already been decided. The umpire killed off the USA’s best chance.

I had been a big proponent of the WBC until last night. Now I’ll join the plethora of print and TV journalists trying to downplay the excitement we’ve been witnessing night after night. Speaking of payoffs, Major League Baseball has been exerting all its muscle apparently to coax the very worst out of these media hypocrites.

I’ve seen articles to the effect that the fans don’t care, that the players don’t care; this despite the evidence of our own eyes. I’ve seen ridiculous statistics pulled right out of their anuses to prove that U.S. baseball participants do worse with their major league club after playing in the Classic. We’ve seen the Yankees complain bitterly about a dogging-it second baseman whining about a sore shoulder.

But now I don’t care. If the games can’t be played fairly, I’m not interested. It’s too easy for the umpires to cheat, too easy for them to be influenced.

Much as the NBA tries to convince us that their referees are clean and fair, MLB and WBC officials will try to convince us that instant replay would never work for balls and strikes.

But a very similar type of situation exists in tennis. A ball or strike call is basically a line call. Tennis players are given three challenges. TV already has the box it throws on the screen. I’d be much more comfortable with that. You can still keep the idiots and thieves behind the plate.

I’ve had it with officials. Given any opportunity to fail, they take it. They would have us believe, in the NBA, that the stars really didn’t take five or six steps on their way to that driving dunk; they would have us believe that rookies commit all the fouls.

And MLB would have us believe that they didn’t know players had been shooting crap into their butts for years and years. They’d have us believe that they had no interest in increasing home run totals after the big strike. And they’d have us believe that it would be impossible to challenge horrible calls on balls and strikes. The same of course goes for the WBC.

Maybe the stakes in this event are too high to expect an honest umpire. After all, it’s not just the U.S. watching. The world is watching. They anxiously wait to see which team is the best in the world.

Japan takes on S. Korea now for the crown. But I won’t be watching. I’ll just spend my time wondering what Wright would have done with the next pitch, a pitch that might have been in the strike zone.