As I stood alongside Joe Torre, both of us watching Jeter begin taking the final rips of his last batting practice, my mind’s haze drifted back to that first day of his rookie 1996 season.
BY BILL MADDEN
September 29, 2014
New York Yankees designated hitter Derek Jeter tips his cap to the crowd at Fenway Park after coming out of the baseball game for a pinch-runner in the third inning against the Boston Red Sox in a baseball game Sunday, Sept. 28, 2014, in Boston. It is the last baseball game of his career. At left are teammates Brett Gardner (11) and Mark Teixeira (25). Photo: Elise Amendola, AP
BOSTON – At precisely 10:50 Sunday morning, Derek Jeter, wearing a dark blue suit, light blue shirt and a purple tie, entered the compact visitors’ clubhouse at Fenway Park for what was to be the final day of his baseball life. After the storybook, game-winning-hit- ending to his Yankee Stadium career Thursday night, no one dared to imagine what Jeter might do for an encore in this, the real end to his career, although Joe Girardi, who had just gotten done penciling him into the lineup for the 903rd and final time, at least envisioned a scenario in which the retiring Yankee captain would reach base and then be able to leave for a pinch-runner and a rousing ovation from normally hostile Fenway crowd.
“I could do that,” Girardi said. “I don’t know if he’ll want me to do that. As the day unfolds, I’ll just continue to talk to him.”
A half hour later, now in his road gray No. 2 Yankee uniform (and it’s anyone’s guess how many millions that’ll fetch in the Steiner Sports Jeter-thon auction madness), Jeter emerged from the clubhouse tunnel and out onto the field where a gaggle of photographers, media and fans, all clutching baseballs, pressed up against the security ropes were waiting.
“Gotta hit now, guys,” he said to the fans, shouting “De-rek!” in conflicting New York and Boston accents.
As I stood alongside Joe Torre, both of us watching Jeter begin taking the final rips of his last batting practice, my mind’s haze drifted back to that first day of his rookie 1996 season, a frigid April 2 afternoon in Cleveland, when the 21-year old shortstop, batting ninth, hit a home run off Dennis Martinez in his second at-bat and then, in the seventh inning, made an inning-ending catch on a wind-blown pop-up by Omar Vizquel into shallow left field, stranding a runner on second in what then was a 2-0 game.
“He was always cool,” Torre was saying. “That whole spring (when there were reports of George Steinbrenner and the Yankee high command being worried about his defense, to the point they even considered trading Mariano Rivera for Mariners shortstop Felix Fermin) he kept an even keel; his demeanor never changed. If he heard the rumors, he never showed it.”
“Where did all the years go?” I asked Torre.
“Tell me about it,” he said. “Where did they go?”
But gone they were, like a blur. Now, countless Yankees-Red Sox wars later, Jeter found himself preparing to play one last game in this storied ballpark, the same ballpark Mickey Mantle ended his career in 1968, but instead of hurling invectives down upon him, the Red Sox and their fans were saluting him, first in a most touching and classy ceremony in which Boston sports legends Bobby Orr, the reclusive Carl Yastrzemski (who never comes back for anything, even the Hall of Fame inductions), Jim Rice, Luis Tiant and retired Patriots captain Troy Brown among others all gathered around him at shortstop, and noted classical guitarist Bernie Williams showed up to strum “Take Me Out To The Ball Game” during the seventh-inning stretch, and later as the chant “De-rek Je-ter” reverberated through the stands for each of his last two at-bats.
“It’s been a blessing managing a guy who was what you’d want in every player,” said Girardi, fighting back tears afterward. “He left them united. For one day, everyone came together as one team.”
Privately, Girardi had hoped Jeter would be able to get two more hits in the game, which would’ve have tied him with Ty Cobb for the record of 19 seasons with a 150 or more hits, but when he approached him about it before the game, Jeter merely shrugged. They would play it at-bat by at-bat, he said. But when, on the second pitch he saw from Red Sox starter Clay Buccholz, Jeter hit a screeching line drive, Girardi and the Fenway crowd leaped to their feet, only to let out a collective sigh when shortstop Jemile Weeks made a leaping stab of it.
Next time up, Jeter was faced with a situation — and a mandate — he’d faced a thousand times in his career: Runner on third with less than two outs, after Ichiro Suzuki led off the third with a triple. Nobody had to tell him the drill. Make contact. Put the ball in play. Get the runner home. And after falling behind 1-2, Jeter put the bat on the ball and hit a towering Baltimore chop that came down to earth a few feet away from Sox third baseman Garin Cecchini as Ichiro scampered home and the Captain legged it safely down to first.
So let the record show, in the final at-bat of his career, Derek Jeter got the runner home from third base with less than two out – the 1,311th RBI and 3,465th hit of his career, and the Yankees would go on to beat the Red Sox, 9-5, for the 1,628th win of his career. There would be no going after Ty Cobb. Girardi had the scenario he really wanted – the opportunity to take Jeter out of the game with a pinch runner (ironically Brian McCann, one of the slowest runners on the team) – so he could bask in one last rousing standing ovation
“I had success the day before hitting the ball off the plate and I thought I would try it again,” he joked.
But what if he hadn’t gotten a hit right there, I asked him. Would he have given it another shot?
“I never planned on not getting a hit,” Derek Jeter said with a wide smile.
Even-keeled, calm under pressure and self-assured right to the very end. Girardi was right. It was a blessing for all of us to have witnessed this remarkable career by a player who gave us a sufficient hint he was going to be special that very first day in Cleveland all those years ago.
No comments:
Post a Comment