I hate Jeter:
"October 14, 2001
The sense of Jeter's play
By Dave Buscema
The Times Herald-Record
The ball was bouncing way too early, way too short. The Oakland fans were way too loud.
The game was going to be tied. The A's were going to take it from the Yankees. They wanted it too much. So much that Jeremy Giambi was racing all the way from first as the ball banged around the right-field corner with two outs in the seventh.
Giambi approached the bag at third and saw third-base coach Ron Washington waving feverishly. Maybe he heard the 55,861 fans, the largest to see a baseball game at the Coliseum, screaming as they waved their brooms.
Shane Spencer was out in right because Paul O'Neill's bat was too slow. Now Spencer hurriedly retrieved the ball and threw it in on a line toward home.
It was going to be close.
And, at this point, no one even noticed the kid running over from short.
The ball bounced way too early. Way too short, about 40 feet from the plate. Giambi was going to score. The game was going to be tied. The A's were going to take it from the Yankees.
That's when Derek Jeter seemingly came out of nowhere. The first thought was Mike Mussina. Maybe, Tino Martinez. The brain couldn't register the sight of Jeter because it made no sense.
What would he be doing there?
The answer wouldn't be found out until the replays were showed, showed the scene that could save a dynasty's run.
Jeter had scrambled over from short, racing, on a line, toward the ball. He intercepted it on a hop, turned slightly to his right and shoveled it home to Jorge Posada.
Giambi's left leg hopped over Posada's glove. Then the catcher nipped the back of Giambi's right leg, a millisecond before he crossed the plate. Home-plate umpire Kerwin Daley pumped his right fist.
The third out. The Yankees were out of the inning. The Yankees were not out of the series.
Not yet. Not yet because Jeter played it like a kid on a playground, hustling on a play that made no sense.
The Yankees jogged out of the dugout, the stoic professionalism of a three-time defending champion giving way to the giddy awe reserved for a jaw-dropping play.
Something big was expected from Jeter last night, something big from all the Yankees because that's all they've given the past three Octobers. For four out of five.
But especially something big was expected from Jeter because he becomes a kid who cares about nothing but winning this time of year.
So when he came up in the first, you waited for a home run like the one he hit at Shea last year. Then you expected Bernie Williams to smack one in the sixth, when Jeter was on first, because that sight has become just as familiar.
But – except for that homer he gave up to Jorge Posada – babyfaced Barry Zito matched the stonefaced Mussina inning for inning.
So there wouldn't be any big moments at the plate late in the game. There wouldn't be any jolting wake-up calls.
There would just be Jeter scrambling out of nowhere in the bottom of the seventh inning, two outs and the game-tying run coming home.
The replays didn't make any more sense than the original. Over and over, you watched Jeter racing over as the ball went over Martinez's head. You watched him scoop the ball, turn and shovel a perfect throw to Posada in one motion.
That run would have been enough to knock off the Yankees. It would have tied the score, but there would have been no stopping the A's then.
The run should have scored. But Jeter doesn't think in should-haves.
He showed that when he snapped the other day. Someone asked about the difficulty of beating the A's in Oakland. They had won 17 of their last 18 there.
"Who cares?" Jeter said.
He was annoyed and not too polite. He sharply pointed out the Yankees weren't supposed to lose at Yankee Stadium, but they had. You heard about his reaction and wondered if Jeter would learn to handle losing after winning it all in four of his first five seasons.
Then, last night, you watched him come running out of nowhere to make a play that made no sense, no matter how many replays you saw.
And you realized Jeter just isn't ready to handle losing yet."
_________________________
"My people (the real Americans- descended from the original Angle-Saxon pioneers)"-Coke S.
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