Posnanski; Life Without Jeter

There was the public humiliation of Alex Rodriguez… There was the definition of insanity* decision to just keep pitching Jose Valverde… There was the latest surreal heroics from baseball’s latest surreal hero, Raul Ibanez, who, if I’m getting this right, is five-foot nothing, 100 and nothing, hardly a speck of athletic ability, he had come out of a field of corn with things to settle, he had studied the way the Italians raced bicycles so he could find his own identity, he had just lost to the Soviets 10-3, he had trained hard running on the beach, trained hard pounding meat in a meat locker, trained hard by washing and waxing cars, he understood non-linear thinking, he considered himself the luckiest man on the face of the earth, he took pride in never going down, and he walked into the poolroom with his leather satchel and just wanted to win for all the small schools that never got a chance to be there, just wanted to abide by what is written, just wanted to score four touchdowns for his little brother, just wanted to say he loved Brian Piccolo, just wanted to bring his racially split community together, just wanted to escape from the camp, and so he never went down, would not accept the intentional walk, he swung away, and he hit the home run against the lights, he hit the shot over the water, he pulled away in the match race, he bent the shot around the goalkeeper, he did not lay off the high one, he ...

“So what’s the story of the night?” the question went.

“Delmon Young,” panelist and former pitcher David Wells said.

Exactly, see the … I’m sorry, wait a minute, what? Delmon Young? Because he hit a home run? Because he hit the ball that Nick Swisher misplayed? Delmon Young? That’s like saying Johnny Two-Times was the star of “Goodfellas.” ...

Back here on Mother Earth, the talk was [Derek] Jeter … and the talk was a eulogy.

I’m gonna go get the obituaries, get the obituaries.