By Bill Madden
http://www.nydailynews.com/
February 27, 2014
Derek Jeter bats during his spring debut on Thursday, against the Pirates in Tampa, Fla. / AP
TAMPA — Maybe if his physical disabilities hadn’t been so stunningly sudden, as if out of nowhere in a career where, until that fateful night of Oct . 13, 2012 against the Detroit Tigers at Yankee Stadium, he’d shown himself to be mostly impervious to pain and injury, there wouldn’t have been the kind of intense scrutiny on Derek Jeter’s every at-bat, every jaunt on the basepaths, every play in the field as there was Thursday in the retiring Yankee captain’s spring training debut.
As it was, Jeter did not have any balls hit to him at shortstop, which, for a while anyway, can be expected to evoke a collective holding of breath on the part of his fans and teammates, if only because the sight of him diving to his left to stop Jhonny Peralta’s grounder in the 12th inning of that first game of the American League Championship Series two years ago, then lying on the ground writhing in pain, remains so vivid in everyone’s mind. As unfathomable as it was that the previously unsinkable Jeter could suffer a broken ankle on what appeared to be a fairly routine play, even more so was the lost spring and then the lost season that followed when the injury still lingered and others further debilitated him.
For that reason, his equally sudden, out-of-the-blue announcement two days before pitchers and catchers reported to Tampa that he would be retiring after this season left us wondering: Does Jeter know something that we don’t? And it is why Thursday seemed like an autopsy, as will every succeeding game.
Thursday, it was his running that drew the most dissecting, in particular the ground ball he hit to third base in the fourth inning and appeared to beat out. It didn’t matter that first base umpire Tom Hallion ruled otherwise. It had been vintage Jeter, running full tilt, just making the play as close as it was.
“Was I safe?” he asked afterward. When told it appeared he was, he quipped: “Why didn't Joe throw the flag?”
Joe Girardi noted that it wasn’t an instant replay game, but confessed he did go back to check the replay anyway. More to the point, Girardi said, Jeter looked good.
“He moved free and easy today,” the manager said. “It was good to see him run so well because that was what was most noticeable to me last year.”
For Jeter, it was just being back on the ballfield in real game action. In the past, he had always downplayed spring training, but this is clearly different — a last spring in which he is not taking anything for granted. Though Jeter could joke about not getting the call from Hallion at first base, just being able to play again with his old abandon was a really big deal.
“Everybody says spring training is too long,” Jeter said, “but if you miss a whole spring training, you realize why it is so long.
“I feel like I haven’t played a game in a couple of years.”
So he understands the scrutiny, and it is not just because he’s coming back from a season in which he played just 17 games. Not only is it important to him to prove his ankle is sound and his range afield and speed afoot not diminished, it is important to merely be important.
“If I thought I wasn’t an important player on this team, I would have left a long time ago,” Jeter said. “My mind-set has always remained the same.”
And in that respect, he does not talk about any milestones he can still achieve in this last season. He is already the only player besides Willie Mays to have at least 3,000 hits, 250 homers, 300 stolen bases and 1,200 RBI in his career, already the Yankees’ all-time leader in hits, stolen bases and games played. With 120 more hits, he will surpass Hall of Famers Paul Molitor, Carl Yastrzemski, Honus Wagner and Cap Anson into sixth place on the all-time list, and with 74 more runs scored he will surpass Tris Speaker, Lou Gehrig, Alex Rodriguez* and Stan Musial to take ninth on that list.
All of those achievements would make for a nice topping on a first-ballot Hall of Fame career. But Jeter has gotten used to rubbing elbows with the game’s immortals, and while it’s been cool, it’s never been what he’s all about. I suspect if he would ever divulge the one number he would want to attain in this, his last year as a player, it would be six — as in a sixth world championship.
Because that would mean he was still an important player — right to the end.
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