TAMPA — The Yankees pretended a game was going to be played Saturday, despite a steady rain as the scheduled first pitch arrived and a further forecast that looked like a publicity stunt for “Noah.”
It sure looked as if they were trying to keep those that braved these elements around for the first pregame ceremony of Derek Jeter’s last year, especially since less than a minute after he was given a key to Tampa, the game was postponed.
Let’s hope this is not an omen of Jeter’s final campaign — that there is going to be rain on this parade.
For Mariano Rivera in 2013 gave a blueprint on how beloved/revered — and not just in New York — Yankees do a farewell tour. It was not just that he handled the endless tributes with grace, dignity, good spirits. Most important, Rivera overcame missing almost all of the previous season with a serious leg injury and an advanced baseball age to pitch like a carbon copy from his prime.
Imagine how uncomfortable and intolerable all of this would have been had Rivera limped through the season, literally and metaphorically; perhaps losing his closer job, falling to mop-up man. When he blew three straight saves for the first time in his career during an August stretch, it felt like, oh no, he wasn’t going to get out of Dodge in time. Everyone would have to smile and act like same-as-he-ever was while watching the latest version of
Mays flopping in center field or Namath in a Rams uniform.
But Rivera steadied himself, pitched very well in the final six weeks and went out as an elite player — 44 saves (tied for the fourth-most he had in any season) and a 2.11 ERA (lower than his career mark of 2.21). He was a genius to the end, Sinatra hitting the high notes at his final concert.
It would be the best story if Jeter could do the same, channel 2012 when he led the majors in hits, finished seventh in the MVP voting. It would be best if the man who turned timeliness into an art form the past two decades — his best seemingly coming at the most opportune, highly visible occasions — can rise again.
Look, whatever happens, happens. I cover what is in front of me and usually don’t care all that much. The job demands dispassion for a variety of reasons, including the knowledge that a) you can’t control outcomes so why waste energy hoping for one, and b) none of the people I have covered seemed to be wasting too much energy hoping I would win a Pulitzer, so exactly why should I care what happens to them?
Jeter would fall into that latter category, by the way. Our relationship — as it should be — has mostly been one way. For the hundreds of hours we have spoken, I don’t think Jeter could tell you much about me (again, as it should be). Yet, I still would like this to go right for him. It is the better story.
Also, because the testimonials from his peers are universal — like the vote total in a North Korean presidential election. He has influenced a generation of players how to behave like a professional, offered encouragement not just to teammates, but opponents; played the game in a fashion we hope we all would — with a smile, fairness, fearlessness, diligence and excellence. Off the field, he was reserved, but polite, a survivor with reputation in full in a TMZ world.
He has been what central casting would send if we asked for how we want our players to behave and, therefore, it feels as if the baseball cosmos owes him a going-away present of health and excellence. There will be no joy — regardless of how saleable the story is — if manager Joe Girardi has to drop Jeter to the lower third of the lineup, defend for him late, bench him regularly.
There were worrisome signs during the spring. A .137 average, 4.53 running times to first, scouts talking about movements on eggshells. Jeter, though, insists he feels great, he needed the whole six weeks to get his timing right, he has felt that in the past four or five days, and he is totally healthy as his final spring training ends.
“You know what stands out for me,” Jeter said. “Every player here, every reporter in spring, they want to get out of here. For me, for the first time, I never said that once. Ironically, I wanted it to go slow and it went faster than any other spring of my career.”
In 1992, after being the sixth pick in the draft, he played in Tampa in the Gulf Coast League and returned to what was George Steinbrenner’s Radisson Bay Harbor every day, a homesick 18-year-old. In 1994, he moved here permanently. In 1996, his rookie year, the Yankees moved spring training from Fort Lauderdale to Tampa, and the following season Jeter bought his first home here. Yesterday, a 39-year-old man came out in steady rain for the key to the city, joked by wondering how long it would open all doors in Tampa.
But a door closed yesterday — final spring training ever for Derek Jeter. Ahead, after those two fractured ankles, is the long last year. Here’s to his health and success.