Ken Davidoff
Baseball
Jeter needs to change his tune
October 26, 2006
from newsday.com
ST. LOUIS
Derek Jeter at a World Series? Honestly, the sight yesterday did seem a bit
incongruous. As the Yankees captain would concede, we are a "What have you
done for me lately?" society.
No, this was just a cameo appearance for Jeter, a stop at Busch Stadium to
collect the American League Hank Aaron Award. Which normally goes to a
slugger - it's for most outstanding offensive performer - but which, more
important, gets decided by fans. Jeter still has his mojo, the six
parade-less seasons notwithstanding.
Eighteen days after the Yankees' shocking elimination from this postseason,
Jeter sounded no different concerning the team's elephant in the corner,
about an hour before World Series Game 4 (eventually postponed) was supposed
to start.
"What would you like me to do?" Jeter asked a group of reporters from New
York, when the question of supporting Alex Rodriguez arose. "I'm trying to
think.
"You're there. You support him. Everyone supports all your teammates at all
times. I don't really know if there's anything else I can do. Maybe I'm not
that smart. Maybe you can help me out."
Granted, it's easier said than done, when it comes to how to make A-Rod more
comfortable.
Yet here's some help: If the Yankees enter the 2007 season status quo - with
A-Rod, without any significant dialogue among him, Jeter, Joe Torre and Brian
Cashman - then a seventh straight "disappointing" campaign becomes more
likely.
We all saw how the Yankees season concluded not just with poor play, but also
with a sour taste. With Torre dropping A-Rod to eighth in the final game
against the Tigers, after drawing attention to the third baseman at the
postseason's outset by hitting him sixth.
And with Torre and Jason Giambi, of all people, unloading on A-Rod in the
Sports Illustrated story just a few weeks prior.
Jeter, nevertheless, treated this line of questioning as though he had been
asked about the upcoming Missouri Senate election. "I don't have anything to
do with that," he said, when the subject of A-Rod hitting eighth came up.
"I haven't heard that there's any air that needs to be cleared between them,"
he continued, talking of Rodriguez and Torre. "I'm not speaking on his
behalf, or Mr. T.'s behalf. That's not anything that I've heard."
Asked, finally, whether he thought A-Rod would be back with the team next
year, Jeter - who said he has spoken "briefly" with Rodriguez since the
playoffs - responded, "Do I expect him to be back? Yeah. Why wouldn't I
expect him to be back?
"Like you say, you never sit around and try to figure out what's going to
happen with our organization. But Alex has, what? A few more years on his
deal. So yeah, I'd expect him to be back."
That seems to be the current conventional wisdom. With Gary Sheffield
virtually certain to be picked up (for one year and $13 million) and dealt
away, where is your righthanded power coming from if you trade A-Rod, too?
Who's playing third base? What are you getting back for Rodriguez? And which
teams will he agree to join, since his complete no-trade clause gives him the
upper hand?
So if he's staying, and Torre is staying, then something else has to change.
Doesn't it?
"There's no tension in the clubhouse," said Jeter, who, by the way, neither
confirmed nor denied that he spoke with George Steinbrenner while Torre's
fate hung in the balance. "... There's always assumptions of what's going on,
what people think they know, what they think people are doing. They have no
idea."
It was fun watching Jeter perform in a national setting. He is so smooth -
shaking Bud Selig's hand and calling him "Sir," speaking affectionately of
the legendary Aaron himself, hugging the NL Aaron winner Ryan Howard.
On the flip side, though, Jeter never seems to want to get his hands dirty
when it comes to messy relationships.
Maybe the Yankees will sign Daisuke Matsuzaka, and Philip Hughes will become
next year's Justin Verlander, and the Torre-Jeter-Rodriguez dynamic will turn
irrelevant. Yet there will be far fewer headaches with a happy, productive
A-Rod.
If Jeter wants to be more than a World Series diversion, he should work on
being part of that cure.
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