He clings to the notion that everything is business as usual, same as it was in 1996 and ’99, same as 2004 and ’07 and ’11. It’s understandable. You can’t play baseball in dusty rooms, with the emotions of moments overwhelming you, not if you want this to be more than a cheesy thanks-for-the-memories victory lap.
“It’s hard,” Derek Jeter said, “to be reflective this early.”
But Jeter has brought something different to the party this year, and in some ways it wouldn’t have been as surprising if he’d decided to play the whole season left-handed. He doesn’t even have to remind us day-to-day (as civic law demands) how much fun he’s having; it’s obvious how much fun he’s having.
Just look at him.
But even more: Just listen to him.
For years, teammates have tried to explain Jeter, and normally what you get are the usual bouquets and sobriquets: He’s the captain, he’s the forerunner, he’s the clubhouse leader for intangibles, he works harder, smarter, longer than anyone, he’s a great teammate. During spring training, briefly, Andy Pettitte added something else.
“Jete,” he said, “is a very funny guy.”
That was something you figured you’d have to file away under the heading of “Things That Might Be True, But We’ll Never Know For Sure.” It’s possible Al Pacino is really good at telling knock-knock jokes. It’s possible Springsteen has the 10 best lines from “The Sting” memorized, and he recites them at parties.
Might be true.
We’ll never know for sure.
Yet as spring training ground on, and as the season began, if you spent enough time around Jeter, you started to hear something different. He has always been accommodating. He has always been accountable. He has always made a habit of standing in front of his locker, even after torturous losses, even last year, when he had to keep finding different ways to say how much his foot hurt.
This year has been different, though. There are more pauses, so he can come up with better responses. There are more smiles, more self-deprecation. And, yes: more laughter. Son of a gun. Jeter really is a funny guy.
There were a few persistent questions after this 4-2 home-opening win for the Yankees, for instance, regarding the scorching line drive he hit leading off the fifth, a ball he thought was a homer at first, then a foul ball, and then, as it smacked off the “318” sign in left, ricocheted toward left fielder David Lough, a ball that caused a priceless look to hijack his face: I’d better scoot.
“I picked up the speed when I needed it, to show that my legs were good,” he said, chuckling, instantly muting all follow-up questions that might have included the words “Robinson” and “Cano.” “It was like an audition.”
Someone asked if he was a little embarrassed, a guy known for hustling out routine 4-3 grounders needing a little giddyap to reach second.
“Well, I was safe,” he said. “It would’ve been more embarrassing if I was out.”
More smiles. More laughter. More questions. Did he find it odd — even a little awkward — that when he grounded into a run-scoring double-play in the third, he was still given a sizable ovation from fans who have been known to boo the Cotton Eye Joe guy?
“Maybe they cheered for me hustling,” he said, deadest deadpan ever.
And what of the Moment, capital M, of which there will be so many this year? It was his final home opener, after all. Was there anything — bat, ball, lineup card, sanitary hose, any souvenir at all — he planned to take with him, to commemorate the last time he’d ever line up along the first-base line in Yankee Stadium in April?
Another halt. In the past, these pauses would allow him to calculate the most vanilla, most diplomatic, least edgy response to any given question. Now, we get something else. Now we get this:
“Nah,” he said. “Steiner takes everything.”
So nobody is free from Jeter’s Rickles-ian rapier, not the fans, not his teammates, not Brandon Steiner, memorabilia hoarder. If he keeps this up, it won’t only be his devotees who’ll clamor in October like political acolytes shouting “One more year!” Nope. The folks in the press box with notebooks needing to be filled will be yelling even louder for Shecky Jeter.