FOURTEEN years into the existence of the Turn 2 Foundation, Derek Jeter finally received the Roberto Clemente Award for community service on Oct. 29.
Two days later, he was handed the Hank Aaron Award as the American League’s top hitter.
Why now for the Clemente Award or why not, say, Barry Zito, who initiated Strikeout for Troops and recruited more than 60 players to help wounded vets being treated at military hospitals?
Why now for the Aaron Award? Jeter was not even the Yankees’ best offensive player, much less better than Minnesota’s Joe Mauer.
And now Jeter was named Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year. Why should he even win the Yankee version of that award over, say, Mariano Rivera and Alex Rodriguez, or be a better candidate across the sports spectrum vs. Tim Tebow or Roger Federer or Kobe Bryant?
What’s next for Jeter? An Oscar? An Emmy? The Nobel Peace Prize?
This is not to dump on Jeter, again a great champion while — as always — representing the Yankees and himself with dignity. But that is familiar for him. So, once more, why now? This feels like lifetime achievement.
But, if so, why Jeter over, say, Rivera or majors king Federer or Tebow, perhaps the best college player ever?
Maybe SI has turned its lonely eyes to Jeter for skirting controversy and illegalities when so many athletes have not. But enough about the plummeting stock that is Tiger Woods.
However, this is sports in 2009, and Sports Illustrated should not run from an atmosphere it helped create. After all, SI is the entity that outed A-Rod as a steroid cheat.
And Rodriguez should win this award. He embodies where sports are now. He is the intersection of illegal performance enhancers, advancements in sports medicine, celebrity and on-field genius.
Rodriguez could end up in People or US Weekly because of Madonna, Kate Hudson or his inner Centaur. Or he could end up in the New England Journal of Medicine for his rapid, successful return from major hip surgery. He could be in a game of shadows over “boli” or playing his game, baseball, brilliantly.
And his 2009 story also included redemption. He became a better teammate — less obsessed with himself — and as the hitting star of the postseason, he freed himself from the choking shackles.
Rodriguez personally devastated three closers in a playoff campaign when every closer not named Mo Rivera crumbled. Like Jeter going by Lou Gehrig’s all-time Yankee hit record, Rivera steamed by 500 career saves while remaining prime-time stellar in what should be his twilight. And he remained the game plan by which the Yanks won a championship: counting outs until the ball was in his hands.
Still, Rodriguez as both champion and low life was the magnetic sports figure of 2009. He went from surgery on his hip to a facelift on his reputation. He navigated from the pain of an awkward spring-training press conference to the champagne of being, at last, a champion. He was illegal and unstoppable.
SI can claim it doesn’t want such a soiled winner, except Pete Rose and Mark McGwire already have won. Woods has won twice, a reminder that basing this award on perceived virtues is probably foolhardy.
Which returns us to Jeter, who somehow has dated starlets and is building a vanity mansion in Tampa, yet has remained as pristine as a New York star could ever be. Kudos to him for being such a wonderful caretaker of his reputation. That deserves admiration.
It doesn’t make him the 2009 Sportsman of the Year.