Strawberry, the voice of reason.

You have truly reached a bizarro reality when Darryl Strawberry is a voice of reason. Essentially the linked article talks about how Derek Jeter needs to embrace Alex Rodriguez and make him feel welcome after his rough year last year. You can make a valid argument that A-Rod is making 25 million dollars and he should stop his girly crying and play up to his abilities. However, I tend to believe that we are all human beings and even those seemingly above it all can be affected by significant negativity in their surroundings.

I also heard an insider story that A-Rod showed up at Jeter's house and basically begged forgiveness for the 2001 article in Esquire that caused friction between them to begin with and was turned away.

A-Rod was quoted as saying: "Jeter's been blessed with great talent around him. He's never had to lead. He can just go and play and have fun. And he hits second -- that's totally different than third and fourth in a lineup. You go into New York, you wanna stop Bernie [Williams] and [Paul] O'Neill. You never say, 'Don't let Derek beat you.' He's never your concern."

Competitors like Derek Jeter have egos the size of small planets. They aren't going to take something like that lightly. Especially when the guy doing the talking has never won jack squat in a team environment. Rodriguez has been a significant individual achiever in his career, but his teams have done nothing in the playoffs. Hang on, I feel myself meandering off point here.

My point is this, Strawberry is correct, Jeter needs to let it go. He needs to publicly step to the microphone and say something to the effect of, "Alex Rodridguez is one of the greatest individual performers in baseball history. He has shown himself to be a great team mate and contributor to the New York Yankees. His selflessness in switching to 3rd base when he arrived in NY is evidence of his commitment to the continuing greatness of the Yankees franchise and to our incredible fans. I am proud to call him my teammate and proud to run out on to that field next to him every day. What's past is past, the only future that matters is bringing the 2007 World Series championship to New York and paying back our loyal fans for their tremendous support."

Then, he needs to act like he meant it. No one will boo A-Rod again. A-Rod will hit about 75 home runs and drive in 150 and the Yankees will win the World Series, which is all that matters. Leadership by work ethic and example are all well and good. Sometimes you need to lead with your words. This is definitely one of those times.

Jeter for MVP

I recently had this discussion and thought I would migrate it here to the blog because I have zero time to write at the moment and I didn't want the blog to die. For you Yankee haters out there, this ones for you.

Should Jeter win the MVP, I don't know. I think there is a strong argument that there is an east coast bias in the voting and that is why he will probably win. If the Red Sox hadn't complete imploded as the Yankees ass raped them for 5 consecutive games the argument would be moot because the loveable David Ortiz would win hands down.
I will make a couple of arguments on Jeter's behalf because hey, he's da captain and all, plus I have had him on my fantasy baseball keeper league team for ten years.

First thing, he hits in the two slot, while Morneau and Dye (other legitimate candidates for the MVP) hit in RBI slots and Jeter is probably going to drive in over 100 runs. The last player to drive in 100 runs from the 2 slot is Derek Jeter, but the last guy to do it before that was Mike Devereaux in 1992. I think that should get him some bonus points.

2nd, in an era of musclebound guys jack the ball over the wall he consistently hits for a high average and is incredibly productive. If you look at the runs created stat which is (runs+rbi)- home runs you find that Derek Jeter is actually a more productive player than both Morneau and Dye. Morneau has 175 runs created, Dye has 167, and Jeter leads them both with 183.
Jeter is batting .396 with runners in scoring position. Morneau is hitting .333 w/risp. Dye is hitting .356.

Jeter leads in almost every key production staistic. Then you get to the intangibles. They are truly hard to quantify but I will give you an anecdotal example of leadership on the field.

A couple of weeks ago the Yankees were playing a double header against the Tigers and were down by two runs late. They scratched out a couple of hits and with one out they had runners on second and third and Jeter came up to the plate. He scorched the first pitch down the line and drove in both runs to tie the game. Jeter ended up on second.

A-Rod came up and this was right in the middle of him forgetting he was A-Rod and having a period of time where he thought he was Alex Karras. Every time he came up to the plate he would be looking for Webster and totally forgot how to hit for about 6 weeks.

Jeter stole third on the first pitch of A-Rod's at bat, giving his struggling lover & team mate the opportunity to drive in the go ahead run while still being completely incompetent at the plate. Pudge Rodriguez was the catcher at the time, only the most dangerous defensive catcher in my lifetime. (By the way, Jeter has 30+ stolen bases and neither Morneau or Dye are a factor on the basepaths) The inevitable dribbler to short followed the stolen base and Jeter scored on the out.

I can't define intangibles or leadership if you ask me to, but I know them when I see them. I am not saying Morneau and Dye don't have those same qualities, but I am saying that Jeter deserves to be in the discussion whether he wins the MVP or not.

No 1 of Consequence

JFK teaches us, every day.

If this nation is to be wise as well as strong, if we are to achieve our destiny, then we need more new ideas for more wise men reading more good books in more public libraries. These libraries should be open to all-except the censor. We must know all the facts and hear all the alternatives and listen to all the criticisms. Let us welcome controversial books and controversial authors. For the Bill of Rights is the guardian of our security as well as our liberty.

- John Fitzgerald Kennedy

I just watched a compelling documentary called Unconstitutional: The War on our Civil Liberties.

I highly recommend it, whatever your political viewpoint.

No 1 of Consequence