ESPN: Maier’s Glove Is Up For Auction

Unique memorabilia opportunity:

The glove Jeffrey Maier used to catch Derek Jeter’s tying home run against Baltimore in the eighth inning of the 1996 American League Championship Series opener at the original Yankee Stadium will be auctioned. Heritage Auctions said Monday the glove will be put up for bids on Saturday in New York. The company did not identify the current owner, who it said had purchased the glove from Maier.

Derek Jeter reached on-deck circle while examining Bills purchase, sources say

“The Buffalo Bills????”
“I think owning the Buffalo Bills is pretty good.”
“Yeah yeah.”
“Well explain to me why it isn’t.”
“You just don’t understand football, Marge.”

Two sources have informed me that Jeter, while playing his farewell season with the Yankees, explored purchasing the Bills when they were for sale last year.

Uncertain is whether Jeter wanted to lead a group or be a minority partner. But given the Bills eventual, record-breaking sale price of $1.4 billion, he likely would have needed to settle for shareholder status.

The Pegulas were not aware of Jeter’s prior interest, have not been approached by Jeter and have not considered selling a portion of their team to him, a highly placed Bills source said.

SF Craigslist:  Derek Jeter Sex Parting Gift basket - $1950 (mission district)

Sherman: Yankees’ cold-blooded A-Rod approach was missing with Jeter

Pasta diving Lupica:

The organization that talks more about winning-or-bust than any other — maybe more than all the others combined — last year prioritized Derek Jeter’s farewell tour over victories.

Let us count the ways:

Hal Steinbrenner ordered his re-signing — and at decent money — though Jeter was coming back from a horrific ankle injury, there was infinitesimal history of a shortstop succeeding at Jeter’s age and despite there being pretty much zero chance Jeter was going to soil his legacy by trying to get paid more to play somewhere else.

Brian Cashman never put a shortstop on the roster better than Brendan Ryan or Stephen Drew who would have offered a no-brainer alternative to Jeter. And Joe Girardi persisted with the absurdist statement that playing Jeter day after day at shortstop and batting him second gave the Yankees their best chance to win.

There was not a scout or stat that backed up that contention on either side of the ball. For example, just 89 players accumulated 200 plate appearances from Aug. 1 until the end of the season. Only one member of that group finished in the bottom six in batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage. And Girardi let that obviously tiring player be the only Yankee to hit that plate-appearance benchmark while desperate to find the wins to get into the playoffs. That player was, yes, Jeter.

If you did not see this decaying performance, you were watching with your heart, not your eyes, and/or you get all of your baseball information from The Players’ Tribune.

I understood the charade. Steinbrenner did not want to be the owner who let Jeter go and Girardi did not want to be the manager who benched him. Not in Jeter’s victory-lap season when an entire sport wrapped him in loving embrace.

But the contrast to how the Yankees are handling Alex Rodriguez is stark.

ESPN: ‘Sir’ Did Gregorius Set To Follow Jeter

For the past 20 years, the New York Yankees have had a true member of baseball royalty at shortstop. But Derek Jeter has nothing over his replacement, who revealed Friday in his first interview with reporters who cover the Yankees that the proper way to address him is “Sir Didi Gregorius.”

The subject came up when a reporter noted that Gregorius—who was acquired by the Yankees from the Arizona Diamondbacks in a three-way trade that cost them Shane Greene—uses “Sir Didi Gregorius” as his Twitter handle. Asked if that was a facetiously self-bestowed title or an actual knighthood, Gregorius said: “No, it’s not a nickname. I actually got knighted a couple of years ago.”

Gregorius said the knighthood was bestowed in lieu of payment for him and other members of a national baseball team that won a championship in Curacao. “Instead of giving us money, they decided to just knight us, all the guys that had a clean record,” he said.

Titles in lieu of payment? MLB will probably jump on that.

NY Post: Is Jeter Gearing Up To Buy The Marlins?

Jeter has declared repeatedly for quite a while now he intends to own a baseball team someday .  .  . He even told reporters in June he intended to reach out to team owners upon the season’s (and his playing career’s) conclusion. And if you want to bet which team he’ll eventually own? You won’t find a safer wager than the Marlins.

The Marlins said Jeter simply stopped by because he happened to be in town, and maybe that’s all it was — for now. Jeter figures to approach his goal smoothly and deliberately, and there’s only upside by spending some time with Marlins owner (and huge Yankees fan and George Steinbrenner admirer) Jeffrey Loria.

The 74-year-old Loria made the industry’s biggest splash of this offseason when he committed $325 million over 13 years to his stud outfielder Giancarlo Stanton. .  .  . Yet the Stanton contract’s dramatically backloaded structure, with modest payments of $6.5 million, $9 million and $14.5 million coming from 2015 through 2017, just raises more questions about the franchise’s future. Will Loria try to cash out now that he has stabilized the situation in the wake of the 2012 trades of Mark Buehrle, Hanley Ramirez and Jose Reyes? The Manhattan resident has long denied the notion he’ll be selling anytime soon. Yet industry speculation persists because the multiple times Loria has shot himself in the foot with rebuilds, manager changes and strikingly low payrolls — and most of all the public funding he secured for his new ballpark.
.  .  .
Enter Jeter, whose representative Casey Close didn’t respond to a request for comment. He lives in Tampa, a short flight (or approximately four-hour drive) away, and he sure seems to enjoy Miami, based on repeated Page Six sightings there. Purchasing the Marlins, unlike the Rays right in his backyard, would keep him out of direct competition with the Yankees.
.  .  .
He needs to put together a consortium that would in turn appoint him as the control person. He surely knows this already, and it isn’t outrageous to think that Jeter, based on his income not only from the Yankees but also from his endorsement deals, could chip in a sizeable portion himself. Maybe $100 million?

Major League Baseball folks naturally would be thrilled to welcome Jeter into the ownership fold, and all the more so into a sad-sack market like Miami.
Now, the simplest solution doesn’t always become reality. Maybe Loria and his controversial team president David Samson will hang on for the long haul. Maybe Jeter will be wooed by another ownership shift. How about he takes over the A’s and finally moves them out of the O.co Coliseum, even though that’s where he made his Flip Play?

Probably better than putting your money into video games.

The Players’ Tribune: Jeter: The Clean Up

Now that we’ve got that World Series thing out of the way, we can turn our attention to important baseball developments, like Derek Jeter cleaning out his locker:

There were a few special items I knew I wanted to take home: The two bats I used for my last hits in Yankee Stadium and last hit at Fenway Park, the bases the Red Sox gave me from my final game. There were other items, too. But more than any one thing, I know what I’ll miss most of all is the people. So after spending way too long trying to figure out what to take, I just decided to box it all up and ship it to my house in Tampa. I wanted to spend my last afternoon hanging out with the clubhouse guys.

Photos at link.

News Report: Derek Jeter’s Hush-Hush Bash Could Be A Wedding

Feels like forever since we had a Jeter thread…

There’s a “buzz” that baseball’s most famous bachelor will be off the market for good by Monday, TMZ reported. But the site acknowledged not all of its sources believed the bash — with “several high-end party vendors” at the ready — was wedding-related.

The 40-year-old Jeter, who played the final game of his Hall of Fame-worthy career on Sunday, has said he’d like to start a family in retirement.

“I look forward to doing some other things in my life,” he said in February.

LinkedIn: 10 Sales Lessons From “The Captain”

LinkedIn??? Yeah, it was only a matter of time.

2. Be modest in success. The word “I” struggled to find its way into the Derek Jeter Vocabulary Book. Every action and every word has been for the greater good of the team or his audience. When fans serenaded him at Yankee Stadium during his final game with chants of “Thank You Derek,” the reaction wasn’t “you’re welcome,” but rather, “no, thank you.” Jeter’s success has always been attributed to someone else’s contributions, and success was never about “him.” It’s important to remember those who have helped pave success in your career—the managers who gave you an opportunity, the colleagues who shared their secrets, the teammates who supported your roles. Everyone plays a part, and no one can do it alone.

3. Have and maintain grit. In Jeter’s post-game press conference after his final home game, he acknowledged that there were better players, but that “no one works harder” than him. Jeter ran out every ball. He made every dive—even if it meant knowing that was the only way to stop. He played hurt, and never complained. If you attack your job with the grit that he did every day, there’s nothing that should stop you from succeeding. And conversely, if that grit seems to fade, it may be time to do what Jeter did—walk away, or take a break. When asked if he thought he could keep playing, his response was, “I think I can, I just don’t want to.” If you can’t look forward to going to the office, the only thing you’ll look forward to is being home.

5. Be on the top step of the dugout. Jeter’s head was always in the game—always. He was focused on the task at hand, even when it wasn’t his turn at the plate—can you picture him leaning over the rail and the screen guarding the steps to the dugout clapping right now? He was always the first to congratulate success or serve as a “pick-me-up” after a rough outing. He led by example. Even on days where he was 0-4 with a few strikeouts, another teammate’s success was top of mind. You may not always be the top performer on your team every month, but it’s important to recognize the value in others’ achievements. Equally important is supporting colleagues in times of need or demanding excellence for satisfactory efforts.

MLB’s Biggest Star Is 40 (And He Just Retired). That Could Be A Problem.

“If Mike Trout walked into your neighborhood bar, would you recognize him?” The New Yorker’s Ben McGrath raised that question in a provocative essay last month.

I’m reasonably certain that I would recognize the MLB outfielder if he walked into One Star. But McGrath’s point is well-taken. Despite being (as McGrath aptly calls him) a “once-in-a-generation talent,” Trout is relatively anonymous. Based on Google search traffic so far in 2014, Trout is only about as famous as Henrik Lundqvist, the New York Rangers goaltender. He’s one-fifth as famous as Peyton Manning — and one-twentieth as famous as LeBron James or Lionel Messi.

Trout’s also much less famous than Derek Jeter, a shortstop who hit .256, with four home runs, this year.

The Captain’s Log: Derek Jeter’s Lady-Killing Past, From ‘Yeah, Jeets!’ to Gift Baskets

Yes, the New York Yankees legend will go down as one of the greatest players in baseball history, but he’s also hit it out of the park when it comes to women.

Derek Jeter’s last professional at-bat is sure to elicit love, admiration, and decades of treasured memories for baseball fans across the country. The 40-year-old Yankee living legend has compiled 3,463 hits (and counting)—ranking sixth all-time—and has contributed too many iconic moments to mention. “The Flip.” “The Catch.” That amazing Seinfeld cameo.

For some of us, however, these nostalgic feelings will be more carnally driven. Baseball is losing not only one of its most revered players, but arguably its biggest heartthrob.

Joe Girardi criticized New York Yankees in pregame tirade before Derek Jeter’s Yankee Stadium finale - ESPN New York

OK, Joe Girardi said it was all Jeter’s fault and he’s glad Derek will be gone next year.

“I’m not going to go into what I talked about,” Girardi said. “Write whatever you want.”

Cameron: Derek Jeter: Not Just a Good Hitter for a Shortstop

Number 2ix?

As his career comes to a close, nearly everyone who covers baseball has weighed in on Jeter’s legacy, and unfortunately, part of that legacy is his status as a poster boy for disagreements between the traditional media and the statistically inclined crowd, especially regarding his defensive value. Jeter’s poor ratings at shortstop have made him the subject of numerous articles on defensive performance, and that has created the perception that Jeter has been a poor defender; a notion which Jeff did a nice job of debunking earlier this year.

But that’s not the only misconception I heard fairly regularly about Jeter. Perhaps because his career spanned the era where nearly ever team had a shortstop who could hit 30 home runs, even Jeter’s offensive value has been called into question, and more than once, I’ve had people ask me if Jeter was even really a great hitter; would we hold him in the same high esteem if he had (perhaps rightfully) been moved to an easier defensive position earlier in his career?

The answer should be yes, absolutely. Jeter doesn’t need to be compared to shortstops to be recognized as one of the best offensive performers of all time. ...

Of course, the primary driver of their respective rankings is playing time, as Jeter has nearly 4,000 more plate appearances than Ortiz. On a per plate appearance basis, Jeter isn’t Big Papi, but even if we even out playing time, Jeter still ranks ahead of some of the more notable sluggers of our time. For instance:

Player OFF/600
Sammy Sosa 18.4
Derek Jeter 16.7
Adam Dunn 15.5
Ryan Howard 15.3

Sosa hit 600 homers in his career, Dunn might get to 500, and while Howard has declined fairly rapidly, he was a legitimate force as a cleanup hitter for the better part of a decade. And Jeter has been their offensive equivalent, only he’s done it for 50 to 100 percent more plate appearances. Adam Dunn isn’t an all-time great player, of course, but if he had a 20 year career while performing at his career averages, would anyone question whether he was really a productive hitter? ...

JE (Jason) Posted: September 27, 2014 at 09:09 AM | 50 comment(s)
  Beats: derek jeter, hitting, shortstop, yankees

Memory, Reality, and Derek Jeter

This article isn’t really about Jeter, it’s more about the things that we think we remember:

It’s Opening Day and I’m 10 years old.

I’m stuffed in the third-row seat of a brand new ‘96 Dodge Grand Caravan on the way to my grandparents’ house. The Yankees are on the radio. It’s the top of the fifth and I want to get where we’re going so I can watch the rest of the game on TV. This season, of course, is like no other — at least for me, anyway. We actually made the playoffs last year, the first time that had happened during my lifetime. I can sense it now, though. This sport, the sport I’ve been in love with since the first time I got a whiff of the inside of a pack of Topps, is about to present me with something new. Something beyond all of the things — the aesthetics and the statistics and the sound at the Stadium when the Yankees take the field — that already have their hooks in me.

And that something is about to have a name and a face pinned onto it that no amount of grumbling or tabloid fodder or cool-headed statistical analysis will ever be able to fully disaggregate from it.

Up steps a shortstop whose name and face I know from his call-up the previous September and from the four 1992 #1 Draft Pick cards at the front of my baseball card binder. “Take care of these,” Dad had said. He lines the ball to deep left and Sterling gives it the “high….far…gone!” treatment. It’s his first career homer. He’s not much older than me, really, and that’s a problem, because he plays my position and some quick math tells me that by the time I’m ready to break into the Bigs, he’ll still be in his early 30s. Granted, I’m not even the best kid on my Little League team, but I’m getting better and as long as Spike Owen and Alvaro Espinoza and Mike Gallego are the level of my competition, it’s doable, right? Crazier things have happened.

But THIS guy? No.2? This is going to be a major problem.

Here’s the thing: I remember this scenario vivdly. I remember it just as I wrote it. That precise sequence of images and thoughts centered around that first Derek Jeter home run is the origin story of my own private adulthood — the moment I realized I had to put aside childish things —at least according to what my internal monologue has been telling me for going on two decades.

The problem? It’s wrong. Completely, utterly, provably wrong.

Good-bye, Mr. November: Taking Stock of Derek Jeter’s Divisive Legacy

Jeter ranks in the top five. He’s fourth among all shortstops according to FanGraphs’s Offensive Runs stat, and third per Baseball-Reference… Put on the spot, I’d probably rate Jeter somewhere in the middle, as the fifth-best overall shortstop of all time, behind Wagner, A-Rod, Ripken, and Vaughan.

If we’re ranking the greatest Yankees, there’s just no way we can justifiably put Jeter above the big four: Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle, and Joe DiMaggio, in that order… The no. 5 spot comes down to either Jeter or Yogi Berra, with Berra getting a major boost for tough-to-quantify catching contributions.

Finally, there’s the question of where Jeter ranks all time, among all players, from all teams… he’s somewhere around 50th all time, in line with greats like Chipper Jones and Ferguson Jenkins and a bit short of guys like Steve Carlton, Bob Gibson, and George Brett. And honestly, that feels about right.

HBT: Talking head says Jeter is “a fraud” and “you are all suckers”

More Carlin: “He’s paying tribute ... to himself!!!”

Bryan Cranston’s One-Man Baseball Play Inspired By ‘Looney Tunes’ Is Incredible

This is friggin’ brilliant.

As a pitiful Mets fan, I’ve long since stopped caring about baseball. Sammy Sosa could have returned from the dead and started manning right field for the…wait, he’s not? I don’t believe you. Anyway, I do know the MLB regular season is wrapping up soon, but only because Bryan Cranston told me in a fantastic commercial for the playoffs. It’s more inspiring than a million Derek Jeter speeches.

Calcaterra: Derek Jeter got a bucket of crabs and a captain’s hat from the Orioles

Crabs, huh? Got to be more careful with the gift baskets, Derek.

We haven’t checked in on Derek Jeter gifts for a while. But this past weekend marked his last visit to Camden Yards as a player, and here was his haul:

   A U.S. Navy Captain’s hat;
   A bucket of crabs, presented by Boog Powell; and
   a $10,000 check in his name for the Miracle League of Manasota, which is a charity that helps kids with special needs play baseball.

NYP: Andy Pettitte skipped Jeter Day … to go elk hunting

For committing the unpardonable sins of hunting deer and spurning St. Jeter—obviously, the only thing worse would be to hunt The Captain while he’s on his 10-day holiday in Tuscany—we have a new History’s Greatest Monster:

Andy Pettitte was the one notable absence Sunday at Yankee Stadium for Derek Jeter Day. Jeter’s former teammate was busy elk hunting in Colorado with family, his son Josh tweeted.

Josh Pettitte tweeted a photo of him and his father, each in a hunting outfit.

“He had a trip planned long ago with his family,” agent Jim Murray told The Post. “He was upset that he could not make it today, but he will be [at Yankee Stadium] before the end of the season.”

NY Post: Stars and fans embrace Jeter in Yankee Stadium ceremony

Jeter received numerous gifts from the Yankees, including a massage machine — since he’s old and retiring, get it? — a commemorative crystal, a trip to Italy and a donation of $222,222.22 to his Turn 2 Foundation.

First 20,000 Women (18 and over) received a gift basket including an autographed ball. :)