Not RE2PECT... Just RESPECT!

It was the summer side show of the 2014 baseball season I chose to ignore… until a beautiful, sunny September 28^th. This, of course, would be the final game in the illustrious career of Derek Jeter, and I knew it would be something I wouldn’t want to miss. Obviously, the game being played in Fenway Park was factored in my curiosity as I watched our boys of summer mercifully play out the string. Auditions for 2015 edition of the Red Sox remained in full swing for the month of September, and most times, it depended on who was in the starting lineup to whether I would tune in or not. 

Not this past Sunday though. I made sure I was going to get a feed of the opening ceremonies for Derek as the game on my cable channel wouldn’t be providing this. So, I got out my laptop and navigated to the NESN website for the broadcast. Words can’t describe what I witnessed this afternoon as the city of Boston brought the baseball world to its knees will a stirring, emotional exclamation point, punctuating a fabulous career of longevity and consistent achievement. That was Derek Jeter’s legacy. His was a blue collar brand of efficiency that never wavered. Jeter’s leadership of a team often riddled with multi-millionaire superstars in the media capital of the world was a feat that was deserving of much respect. 

Jeter became captain of the Yankees on June 3^rd of 2003. The appointment was made by the late George Steinbrenner, but don’t let the date fool you. Derek had been the go- to- guy for much of his 20 year tenure in pinstripes. He was the 11^th captain in Yankee history and the first since Don Mattingly, who retired in 1995. When he’d been approached for comment on the captaincy back in 2003 Jeter simply said, ''He (Steinbrenner) just says he wants me to be a leader, like I have been. The impression I got is just continue to do the things I've been doing.'' Enough said.

All this we knew. Jeter had natural leadership skills which made up for other parts of his baseball repertoire that maybe didn’t come so naturally. Derek was lambasted by ESPN’s Keith Olberman in a 7 + minute tirade that contained many painful truths. It really shouldn’t have happened. There was no need of Olberman’s diatribe. However, it seemed to many observers, to be a necessary evil because the “Derek Jeter RE2PECT Farewell Tour” was becoming a runaway freight train. The initial self - indulgent Gatorade commercial was way over the top. Their second attempt was somewhat touching but still a bit too plastic. The shoes listing his career achievements and the pre-retirement patches on the uniform sleeves and hats just seemed to reach out and slap you in the face. This was a far cry from the way Jeter went about his business as a player for the past 20 years. It was the subtlety of his presence, the contributions that didn’t show in the boxscore, the unassuming manner of his inside out swing, his all out hustle and his work ethic. That was the Jeter way.

Getting back to Olberman, the biggest thing that stuck out for me was Jeter wasn’t really ever the best statistical player in the league in any of his twenty seasons in New York. He was never an MVP, never won a batting title or led a major statistical category. He led the league in hits once and runs scored twice. Period. Yeah, he won 5 Golden Gloves, but I don’t even want to get started on that. I’ll give Olberman his due on this point – Jeter was a very marginal defensive shortstop to be kind. Some might say below average. It’s kind of sad when people try to prop up his defensive skills by pushing these 2 videos over and over: 1) “The Flip” and 2) “The Diving Catch” when he went crashing into the stands for a pop fly in 2004.

With Jeter’s career winding down, Olberman’s video could have been that one sticking point that could stain an otherwise brilliant career all due the overhyped RE2PECT marketing device of Nike. That is until Jeter took the field in Boston for that Sunday afternoon matinee that marked game #162 on the schedule but game #2 747 for “The Captain”. Jeter was fresh off a storybook ending in front of the Yankee faithful with an RBI walk-off single in his final game at Yankee Stadium >  http://m.mlb.com/video/v36599553 . It was becoming Derek Jeter’s world once again, and we were all simply allowed to be part of it. Fans for the weekend series in Boston then feared their tickets would be worthless as Jeter would have had ever right to say, “Ya know what? I’m done.” And what a better way to call it a career! However, the reason why the theme of Derek’s farewell season was labeled “Respect” was two-fold. Not only were the fans and players able to give Derek a sendoff by showing their respect for a fabulous career, but it also stood for the way Derek conducted his business with others both on and off the field… with mutual respect and genuine intentions. He said out of respect to the fans in Boston, he would play as a DH, but not at the shortstop position. That lasting memory was left to his fans in New York.

The ceremony in Boston, of all places, placed a brilliant bow on a career of hard work, dedication, and sacrifice > http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2014_09_28_nyamlb_bosmlb_1&mode=video&content_id=36692279&tcid=vpp_copy_36692279. Boston trotted out some of their most admired sports icons. Not only were former Red Sox superstars made available such as Carl Yastrezmski, Jim Rice, Fred Lynn, and Luis Tiant but Boston basketball, football and hockey were represented by two captains and a Bruin legend, my all time sports hero, the great Bobby Orr.

The gifts bestowed on Jeter were meaningful yet understated much like the man himself. His one time coach and Red Sox third base coach Brian Butterfield gave him boots specially made by L.L Bean from his home state of Maine, a piece of the Green Monster scoreboard with the word RE2PECT was signed by the 2014 Red Sox and presented by Xander Bogaerts and David Ortiz, the Boston Red Sox organization made a generous contribution to Derek’s fundraising endeavors, the Turn 2 Foundation, which supports healthy activities to motivate children to turn away from drug and alcohol abuse, and Dustin Pedroia presented Derek with a second base bag with his #2 emblazoned on it. Also joining Derek in this ceremony was the inspiring courage displayed by Pete Frates, who played Division I baseball with Boston College, and is now stricken with ALS. He was the founder and driving force behind the Ice Bucket Challenge for ALS which has now raised north of 100 million dollars. Frates appearance spoke volumes with regards to the aura of Jeter that reaches far beyond baseball. It was now Olberman and his hyberbole that was in the rear view mirror as the city of Boston took center stage with a celebration that included the proper amount of reverence along with grounding a tour de force marketing campaign by highlighting the simplicity of the slogan RE2PECT in its truest form.

Diverting from my usual courses of action, (when faced with a televised Yankees – Red Sox game I always switch to the NESN feed) I stayed with YES and the trio of Michael Kay, David Cone, and Al Leiter. I figured they would focus more on Jeter, and this was really what this game was all about. Now I was paying my respect. I didn’t know what to expect as no one knew how long he would play. 

 In his first at bat in from his familiar #2 hole, he lined a shot to short, but it was nabbed by Jemile Weeks. Then, in the third inning with the Yankees counting 2-0 on the scoreboard and a runner on third, Jeter hit a chopper to rookie third baseman Gerin Cecchini that seem to hang in the air in a timeless fashion > http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2014_09_28_nyamlb_bosmlb_1&mode=video&content_id=36683353&tcid=vpp_copy_36683353.  By the time it came down behind Cecchini, Jeter was safely at first and the Yankees took a 3-0 lead. That would be the last baseball act by Jeter as he elected to end his Hall of Fame playing career on a positive note. True to the script that was a lifetime of “playing the game the right way”, as Jeter trotted off the field, he stopped off to shake hands with Red Sox starting pitcher Clay Buchholz. Buchholz had hoped he would stay in the game long enough to be the last pitcher to pitch to Jeter and, knowing the magnitude of the situation, Derek graciously obliged.

So the story has been told. There would be no homer in his last at bat, no ringing double off the Green Monster, or a gapper to the triangle that he’d stretch into a triple. It would be a play that smacked of determination and hustle on a ball that never left the infield. That, coupled with his patented opposite field walk-off in his last game at Yankee Stadium was the Derek Jeter I came to appreciate and will now miss. 

Derek Jeter was not blessed with five tool superstardom, he‘s not a unanimous Hall of Famer or the greatest Yankee to ever play. He is, however, a lasting icon of durability with 2746 games played, consistency, as is shown by his career .309 batting average and 3464 hits, and unquestioned leadership of a team that won five world championships on his watch. For me, these accomplishments don’t spell RE2PECT . I like to keep things simple, just as Derek did… R-E-S-P-E-C-T!