MEMPHIS, Tenn. — This was a few years ago, in front of Derek Jeter’s locker at the old Yankee Stadium. The captain had gotten off to a rough start on the season, had hit into a couple of ill-timed double plays, saw his average dip below the Mendoza Line and then beneath the Pitcher’s line.
“What happens when you fall off the interstate?” he deadpanned, meaning when the first number of your batting average is no longer a “1” but a zero.
Jeter was willing to joke about this because he knows that just as bad players and bad teams get hot then fall back to the mean, good players and good teams do exactly the same thing: go cold then crawl back up to the mean. He wasn’t worried. But he also wasn’t oblivious.
“I’m going to go into a 1-for-12 a few more times between now and the end of the season,” Jeter said. “But you aren’t going to notice as much when it’s hidden in June or August and my average dips a few points instead of sitting at .083.”
He laughed.
“Not that I know exactly where my average is at,” he said, even though he knew exactly where his average was at.
The Knicks and the Nets are in that same quagmire now, having gotten off to dueling Starts From Hell that have their winning percentages presently looking like a good-field, no-hit utility infielder’s batting average. Every game they play, and every game they lose, they say essentially the same thing: It’s early. We have time.
There are 75 (or 72) (or 70) (or 68) games to go.
Long season.
And it’s true: Every team has an example they can cite that early-season struggles were an aberration, a lie, nothing but a soft stretch of season that happened to come at the start. Sometimes, it actually turns out that way.
And sometimes it’s something else.
The Yankees got off to an 11-19 start one season not long ago, and a 21-29 start a few years later, and though there was slight concern surrounding the team, it was assumed those numbers would adjust themselves properly. And they did, with the Yankees making the postseason both of those years.
If the Mets start 11-19 or 21-29? There are different feelings because of a different history. Yes, the Mets were in last place on Aug. 31, 1973, and came within a game of winning the World Series. Yes, they were 14 games under .500 on Aug. 17, 2001, and nearly pulled off a remarkable comeback late in that year. That’s two examples in 51 years. These things aren’t easy to do.
The Jets started 0-3 in 1981, looked like the worst team in the NFL, then finished 10-2-1 and earned the franchise’s first playoff berth in 12 years. They were 1-4 in ’02, then rallied to finish 9-7 and win only the second AFC East title in team history. Nice stories. And again: twice in 53 years. Not easy.
The Giants, of course, are our current working example of how a hole can become a hole, and no manner of trying or wishing can make it go away. In some ways they are the New York gold standard in proving that how you start isn’t even remotely as important as how you finish, starting 2007 at 0-2 (and halfway to 0-3) before rallying and making the playoffs, making the Super Bowl, and pulling a magnificent upset of the 18-0 Patriots.
Thrilling stuff. And the kind of thing that nourished the most furious of the faithful when they started 0-2 (and then 0-4) (and then 0-6) and then started to pivot ever so slightly … before the Cowboys poked a finger in their eyes last week.
So yes, what we are talking about now with the Knicks and the Nets? We could be having a very different conversation in a few months time. Could be. But it’s not going to be easy. No matter what the Atlantic Division standings say.
Whack Back at Vac
Alan Hirschberg: I was in the Garden Wednesday. Would you trade the entire current Knick roster for the rights to Jabari Parker?
Vac: He couldn’t play defense 1-on-5 any worse than the current group, right?
Bob Buscavage: Doesn’t Jason Kidd know that you can’t cry over spilled milk? Or soda?
Vac: Maybe he merely was getting a head start on how he’d feel once he started watching the game film.
@MJKleinman: If only J-Kidd’s team was as resourceful as he is, perhaps they’d be on to something. #cupgate
@MikeVacc: I suspect both Kidd and Mike Tomlin might help themselves to a little more than $200 when they pass “Go,” when nobody’s looking.
Joe Principe: I’ve been a football fan for more than 50 years. But I’m finding it difficult to enjoy the games. The rules designed to protect the players are being exploited by the players and coaching to the detriment of the game and the apparent delight of the officials. Just put a red shirt on the QBs and receivers, kickers and punt returners, consider them down when touched, and let the rest of the men play football. I don’t think it will be a better brand of football, but the outcome will be determined by the players not the interpretation of contact.
Vac: And isn’t it a bit hypocritical that at the end of the Steelers-Ravens game the Ravens actually were rewarded for knocking a helmet off Le’Veon Bell?
Vac’s Whacks
The troubling thing isn’t that the Mets gave Chris Young $7 million. It’s that Chris Young actually had to be talked into taking $7 million from the Mets.
Yep, that Knicks-Nets game at Barclays Thursday night sure is shaping up exactly as we figured it would.
Is there even a remote chance that “Grudge Match” won’t be unwatchable?
I have to admit that I agree with Ed Reed. I miss Fireman Ed (above) a little bit, too.